Question about 1:1 copy...
Okay so I am a newb.. I looked around but could not find anything definitive with Acronis that answered my questions.
I have a brand new laptop in which I am almost finished setting up with my photoshop, office, etc... i now want to create a 100% copy of this for 2 purposes. a.) when or if this drive crashes I can just purchase a new drive and image the new one with this exact lay out, all software installed, etc... b.) to have as a backup if something crashes.
I did see the clone option but it wanted to format my backup drive I use to back up everything so that didnt work. What option do I need to do this? Or do I need to be using another tool such as ghost?
Thanks for any assistance, and telling me how in detail would be appreciated... vague answers just don't work. =)
The question wasn't really answered. Is this exactly what I am looking for as far as a "clone" per-se? You say to just select this one option but it doesnt answer my question directly.
TrueImage 2012 provides two ways to replicate a disk. There is the clone method which you discovered. This enables the user to clone or replicate one disk onto another disk. This is done at disk level. The entire contents of the source disk is copied onto the target disk. Any data on the target disk is lost as the target disk becomes a duplicate of the source disk. During the clone, the source disk is at risk of a user or hardware malfunction which could cause the loss of all data on the source disk.
The second method of replication is the backup and restore method. The backup method creates a backup file which contains all the settings and all the files of the source disk. This backup file (usually stored on an alternate disk such as an external or network drive) can be restored onto the same or a new disk and the target disk will assume the same characteristics of the source disk. As the contents of the disk is stored within a *.tib backup file, its contents can be used to replicate the disk.
Which brings us to my referred posting. The user has a choice as to what is to be included within the backup. The type backup that offers the most options and complete coverage is the backup which includes all partitions--which is shown under the "Disk Mode" option. So, if you create a backup of all your partitions (as in disk mode), then the resulting *.tib backup file can be used to replicate your old disk (restore .tib file) onto a new disk or onto your old disk should you have later issues and need to return your old disk back to the time of the backup creation.
The backup and restore feature requires the creation of a backup task where by backups can be manual or automated. As part of the task creation, you will also need to decide how frequent your backups and whether each backup is a full backup; or a full backup with later backups only getting the changes, etc.
The primary method of restores (even clones) is to boot from the TI bootable recovery media (CD). If you have not created such a booyable CD, you should do so without delay. I do recommend that you follow along the other posting reference and review the help files along the left margin of this web page.
Mark,
To expand on Grover's input, the clone function and the disk and partition backup function use the same process and technology at the disk sector level. The only difference is that the clone function lays out the information directly on another disk, while the disk and partition function stores "temporarily" the information in a compressed file (.TIB). When the user restores, the information is decompressed and laid out on the target disk.
The benefit of using a TIB file is that you can store several TIB file on the same backup disk, and therefore create several full, incremental or differential backups. You can even boot into a TIB file if you have an enterprise or Ultimate version of Windows. With a clone, you would need different disks to have different "backups", but you would just need to swap the disks to "restore" instead of having to go through the restore process (about as long as the backup).