cloning hdd to an image and vise versa
Is it possible to clone the HDD to an image and only when needed to use that image to replicate the original disk? As I cannot remove the original HDD from the hardware configuration, I have a CD-ROM unit and a USB port to do this. In the tutorials cloning to a USB external hard drive is not recommended as the disk will be unbootable. I need the result to be as close to the original disk as possible, i.e. disk serials, etc, as software copyright protection might be an issue. I am trying to backup my ultrasound machine HDD and physivally removing it prior to this will be quite difficult.
Thank you for your prompt answer, Enchantech.
The OS is Windows XP embedded, which I think is supported. From my previous experiences however, restoring from backups messed with MBR, I had software licenses isuues, etc. That is why I want to clone isnstead of backup, but the easiest way whicj is connecting the source and the destination via SATA cable is not practical in my case.
Samo,
Please see KB document: 8603: Acronis Products Do Not Support Windows Embedded
To do what you are asking with cloning, you should use the Acronis bootable Rescue Media (on DVD or USB stick) and not try to do this from within Windows which will cause the MBR to be modified to boot into a modified Linux OS environment.
As Enchantech has already advised, you can create a full disk backup of your internal HDD drive and use this to restore to a replacement disk and achieve the same as doing a clone, but with the advantage of being able to update the backup image as needed. You can try to do this from within the Acronis application installed on your Windows XP embedded OS, assuming that this will work to allow you to do this, but you would need to perform any recovery / restore from the bootable Rescue Media. The backup image would need to be stored on an external USB hard disk drive.
Steve, thank you for your answer!
Unfortunately, or luckily, depending on the point of view, the Windows XP embedded system is preconfigured in a way which does not allow me to install anything. Apart from the Windows start screen, it does not look like a Windows OS at all. So I use an Acronis True Image 2014 Premium Bootable CD to do the backup.
From my experiences with "conventional" Windows backups, I had issues with MBR (I don't know well that terminology, basically the boot information was written on different partitions) and some of the backed up software got unlicensed after restoration.
That's why I feel that Acronis disk backup and cloning give different results.
What I need to achieve is:
Try to backup my ultrasound machine in case of future HDD failure. I don't neeed to update the backup as any patient information entered and configuration settings made by myself are not that important. What is truly important, is to manage to preserve all unlocked software options on the machine, as bying new license will be rather expensive. So I need a backup or a clone or whatever, that will replicate the information as close to the original disk as possible. As removing the hard drive is very difficult (placed in a hard to get location), I cannot test whether my disk backup will give me a functioning system. I plan to restore it only in a case of a disk failure, so I thought if I had something like a cloned HDD image on an external USB backup drive would be the best I could do, but I could not find a similar scenario in the operation instructions and the available tutorials.
Given your reply I think that a backup of the system in the manner you are currently doing so is going to be your best case scenario. Windows backup and True Image are very different from each other. The caveat is of course Windows Embedded. I am not sure why or how True Image may not be compatible. I am going to guess a bit here and say that the No Guarantee to Work statement is more directed at an installation or attempted installation of the TI product to such Windows systems.
The Recovery Media your using being Linux based, takes Windows totally out of the picture. Creating a backup in this manner creates a copy of a source hard drive data including the supporting filesystem, formatting, and partitioning. It saves this in a compressed file format and is output as a .tib file which you probably already know. The Recovery Media is capable in restoring this compressed image file to another disk in an identical fashion as that of the original. Given that you should be fine in your approach here.
You should at a minimum run a validation of the created backup images using the Recovery Media to check for integrity of each backup file produced by the Recovery Media. Additionally if possible, if you have a second Windows machine on which you can or do have TI 2014 installed, you can use that to Explore a created image and view and retrieve files from within such an image. being able to perform these functions with a backup file is a great test of whether or not the file can be restored.
Enchantech, thank you once again for your comprehensive answer!
Yes, there was no problem backing up Windows Embedded as compared to doing so on an ext4 formatted Linux partition, so I think it is not a problem.
I also mounted and explored the tib files and everything seems to be fine.
My concerns are with software licensing as some programs use the HDD serial number, data written on hidden partitions, etc. I don't know whether that information is also included in the backup, probably not. Anyway I'll follow your advice and will stick to the whole disk backup.
That information is included in what is known as the Disk Signature. You can select the option Disk Signature be restored during the restore process.
You could also do this. Get your hands on a spare drive. Perform a restore of an created image file to that drive using the Recovery media. Disconnect the drive and reboot the machine normally. Shutdown machine and reattach this spare drive and reboot normally. Can you now Explore the spare drive and its contents? Can you copy/paste files from it? If yes then your in good shape I would say. This is also an excellent way to get familiar with the process so that if and when the day comes you'll be ready to do the deed.
If it is possible to have access to another machine that is identical in hardware to the one you are working with you could even take the spare drive and attempt to boot it. It might fail to boot in that scenario however becasue of driver imcompatiblity or some other issue but, if you do not get any errors about disk not found or boot errror messages this would be an indiaction that the drive would work in the intented target machine.