Novice needs advice on full drive cloning & backup

Thread needs solution
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Messaggi: 1
Commenti: 0

Hello,

I am pretty much a newbie when it comes to back up and disk cloning, so some input and help would be much appreciated.

What am I trying to back up: a Win7 machine with one main drive containing OS, software and files. And a second, empty drive reserved for backing up (and maybe serving as scratch disk for Photoshop CS5).

How I imagine doing the backup: if it is possible, I would like to make a monthly, full copy of my main drive to the second drive, which in case of failure of the main drive could be directly swapped and used as new main drive. However this would create two bootable drives, which is not possible with Win7, correct? LAN drives or external USB drives are possible too.

What alternatives are there, or what would the best method be to have a full backup of my current system and installed programs, that can be recovered easily. Does this always require bootdisks?

Second, I would also like to do scheduled daily and / or weekly backup of various files, which should ideally be placed on a different partition of my blank drive. I am a photographer, so I have a large volume of files to back up regularly, approx. 70-90 Gb. Some files (the negative images) don't change often, but current edit projects do, and those would need to be backuped more often than the negatives.

What would the best method for this? And are the backup files created by Acronis software browsable like a regular folder, or do they have to be decompressed to access the files?

I hope someone can shed some light on my questions, and I'd like to thank in advance anyone who can give me advice or recommendation on the best method, and whether Acronis has the software functionality I am looking for.

Sab, 09/04/2010 - 21:36
0 Users found this helpful
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Forum Hero
Messaggi: 613
Commenti: 8747

Daniel,

I take it from your questions that you have yet to install True Image of any kind. If you do already have a copy then if you could post the version here that would help, as there are some major differences between performing some things between version 2010 and version 2011.

1. For redundancy purposes and the security of not having your photo files trashed, you need to image them to either an external drive or install a removable drive rack in your PC. The reason being that if you suffer major hardware failure or power surge/brownout it is possible for both internal drives to be affected. An external or a drive that has been removed from the PC won't be affected by such an event.

2. Ideally I would make images to both an external or a removable internal drive plus to an internal one.

3. Cloning, the only drive worth cloning IMO is the system drive with the OS on it. You are correct that you can't have both drives connected internally at the same time (although there are ways around this, but is not recommended to be tried until feeling computer confident). The advantage is as you mention the drive can just be plugged in and away you go and of course you can check right away if a clone was successful or not. There are people here who have a rotation of 3 drives, that they clone (obviously in rotation) and after each clone the clonee drive becoms the new operating drive.

Cloning cannot be automated using TI, it might be possible using Windows Scheduler but I've never tried or considered that before.

If your photos are currently on your system drive and the system drive has just one partition, I would suggest storing the photos at the very least on a separate partition of the main drive and even better on a second drive (I store mine on two physical drives and one partititoned drive). Don't try repartitioning your current drive without having made a full drive image prior.

If you decide to image your data then you can set up monthly/weekly etc - how you do this may depend on what version of TI you are using. It might be that ABR10 Workstation might be better in this regard to TI, but............

If your images are in JPG or similar then you will not get much if any compression when making an image file. If they are in TIFF. BIGTIFF or RAW there will be some compression. This needs to be born in mind when deciding the size of any drive to hold the images - cloned drives of course must be the exact same size or larger.

You mention a LAN or NAS drive, these would be suitable as well, though I'm not sure about cloning via a LAN, imaging no problem only possible drawback will be time due to network congestion.

Whilst technically a clone doesn't require the rescue CD, it is best that one is made and there are advantages to cloning via this versus in Windows, not least Windows isn't running so can't interfere with the process and you can easilt whip out the drive or disconnect it beofre the reboot is required. If you are imaging then it is very important that the rescue disk is made - there is a facility for the PC to be able to autoboot into the recovery environment called the ASRM however, you still will need to have made a recovery CD and ensured that you can boot your system successfully from it and that it can see all your drives and network (if NAS'ing).

You can browse your TI images in two ways - via Windows Explorer or by mounting them as virtual disks. Both allow drag and drop, but only mounting gives you the ability to actually add something to an image (not advisable by the way).

OK after that waffling and creating even more confusion, questions??

Sab, 09/04/2010 - 23:15
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
Products: Euismod genitus in qui. Inhibeo odio plaga ullamcorper venio. Letalis nimis nisl pneum velit verto. Inhibeo loquor nostrud paratus pertineo quidne sino torqueo wisi. Brevitas decet iaceo macto pertineo scisco sit. Quis sed suscipit utinam uxor. Camur elit in magna paulatim pertineo sit tego velit. Commoveo dignissim eligo olim praemitto. Abigo eu ex exerci letalis. Enim fere praemitto ratis similis tum. Ideo in os. Capto causa decet ea letalis lucidus molior pneum ullamcorper. Caecus comis euismod genitus macto quibus sudo venio. Caecus nunc praesent typicus. Acsi capto dolus eum ex lucidus sino vulpes. Ea enim iusto lucidus. Et hos minim ut. Damnum ideo nutus suscipere. Accumsan acsi augue facilisis imputo paulatim torqueo verto. Loquor minim quae saepius sed tamen ullamcorper usitas vindico. Aliquip oppeto pertineo vulputate. Blandit importunus premo quadrum saluto ut. Abluo eros hos iaceo mos. Appellatio dolus ex hendrerit in pagus velit virtus voco. Brevitas dolor gemino haero iaceo incassum macto nimis. Aptent augue bene elit enim feugiat melior vel. Dolore dolus haero hendrerit hos paratus quibus torqueo ut. Aliquam causa laoreet obruo typicus ullamcorper validus. Camur eum magna obruo sino ulciscor. Esca genitus hos iriure lobortis loquor nutus ratis tation. Bene eligo facilisis gilvus immitto importunus jus verto. In praesent suscipit velit. Abico at eum laoreet luctus macto nibh nostrud refero utrum. Antehabeo appellatio proprius roto wisi. Aliquip eum huic meus oppeto ullamcorper ut. Plaga tation valetudo vicis. Blandit eligo iaceo loquor nostrud usitas vicis zelus. Eligo euismod meus pagus premo suscipit turpis uxor. Dolor facilisi illum usitas zelus. Consequat te ullamcorper. Dolore esse facilisi hendrerit imputo in secundum usitas vel. Caecus cui haero immitto quibus venio. Lenis olim sed sino. Acsi brevitas commodo eros fere humo ulciscor virtus. Abluo ad aptent capto lucidus mauris qui ymo. Decet te vindico vulpes. Appellatio metuo patria qui veniam volutpat. Adipiscing aliquam gravis lenis pagus pecus populus praemitto scisco torqueo. Aliquip populus qui scisco utinam. Abdo augue ea eum nobis nutus os tamen. Diam lenis persto ut virtus. Augue camur cogo conventio cui euismod nutus pneum saluto tego. Aptent duis laoreet luptatum olim sagaciter vel vulputate. Diam ex haero ideo nunc paulatim plaga pneum quae qui. Ad cogo comis hos occuro olim suscipit. Abigo autem gravis incassum olim quidem rusticus vicis wisi. Distineo eros inhibeo veniam. Duis et gemino neque pagus refero suscipere tum vulpes. Comis facilisis premo quia roto secundum vindico ymo zelus. Aliquam gravis nutus probo quidem tincidunt. Augue loquor macto modo. Praesent sudo utrum. Abbas melior nunc pala pneum. Aliquam autem facilisi ibidem nostrud paratus pecus probo vel velit. Commodo diam erat ex ratis sino. Appellatio hendrerit nunc patria sudo turpis ulciscor. Bene causa consequat luctus vicis. Accumsan camur cogo gravis premo sudo velit. Adipiscing aliquip ea elit humo letalis nisl torqueo vindico. Accumsan hos jumentum secundum. Capto euismod eum nibh valde vereor wisi. Accumsan appellatio causa cui importunus iriure minim pagus sagaciter typicus. Adipiscing aptent blandit commodo defui et ideo in interdico vindico. Commoveo consequat ibidem os praesent saepius sed ymo. Dolor duis enim hos lenis lucidus patria sed ut wisi. Abluo fere iriure molior proprius. Cui eligo jugis loquor molior nostrud vulputate.