BleepingComputer.com: What to do before cloning hard drive

After years I finally have an extrenal hard drive and "Acronis True Image Home 2011" Ready to back up my complete system. I want to make sure the system is clean and in tip top shape (every thing seems all right). Should I defrag/along with cleaning up temp. files? Run scans with system restore off and or safe mode? What else?

Thank you very much and have a good one!

Sure - whatever you like. All you're doing is creating a backup to which you can return if needed. You should create images frequently and ALWAYS verify the image during creation (you can make that a default setting in options). Save the 2 or 3 most recent images and delete the older ones. This insures that you always have a fallback position in the unlikely event one of the images is corrupt (it happens, but VERY rarely if you verify).

Hello!
Congratulations. I wish everyone would do what your doing and back up their OS on a external drive. I have mine backed up on two external USB's.
I keep about 5 images on each USB. I'm paranoid..I have the space so why not. Acronis is a good program. I used the trail version and then switched to Macrium Reflect which is freeware.I think Acronis has more bells and whistles, but Macrium does all I need. Their will come a day when you will be glad you were backed up. I lost a drive. I was back up and running with all up dates, every thing just like the day I made the image;all in less than an hour. You have made the right decision friend.

I am about to do this very thing but I have a question. What if??
What if the computer will not boot at all? The app I am going to use requires using the same program to
restore the backup. If you can't get to it are you up the proverbial "s**t creek without a paddle"?

This post has been edited by bicycle bill: 22 March 2011 - 06:58 AM

bicycle bill, on 21 March 2011 - 06:07 PM, said:

All of these disc imaging apps allow you to create a boot disc. In the event you cannot get back into the OS you boot to the disc you created and you will be able to restore from there. In fact, if and when you need to restore the system partition, it ALWAYS needs to be done at boot (as opposed to within the OS). You can start the process within the OS, but in order to complete the actual restoration the system will need to reboot and enter a preboot version of the app (usually in a version of Linux, I believe).

This post has been edited by Allan: 22 March 2011 - 07:08 AM

Make a bootable CD and make sure it can boot, and make a new one when Acronis version changes.

Name your drives. All of them. Internal. External. All. Do not assume that what windows calls C will be C in linux when you have to use the Acronis boot CD, so name all partitions or volumes, something like "sysDriveC", "dataDriveW" ..."musicZ", "external<make>"

Validating occasional images in the boot mode is something I sometimes do as well

I do full image on each of the external drives, and then for the next few times I just do differentials which are very fast, sometimes 2-3 minutes, while a full image might run 1/2hr or so per volume. Doing differentials is easier on the hardware - no need to copy the same old stuff again and again. (I never wrapped my brain on incremental, don't like the concept, differential has served me well to restore to a specific state or date).

You need to run Acronis imaging with admin priviledges. RunAS works fine if you're using a Limited account.
You may need to turn off antivirus protection during imaging (disconned from the internet while doing a backup). This, of course, assumes the antivirus is always on and the computer is clean all the time.

@ garybear, Oh, yes, any drive can fail with no warning whatsoever. External and internal. An hour later you're back in business (CD/Linux mode recovery is slower than making an image).

@ will this work, No need to clone. Do an image. You can recover from an image on external drive, don't worry. Cloning is more for replacement of a drive, but even then an image does the job.

This post has been edited by tos226: 22 March 2011 - 09:31 PM

I don't understnd all I know about this cloning of a HD. I did a clone with Easus and then I went to
tools and selected make a boot disk. THe procedure finished and said nothing. So I created something.
Now I see this about burning,ISO and such. Don't even know what an ISO is or does. Could Google I suppose but
haven't yet. Why would the program let me create something that is useless?

bicycle bill, on 23 March 2011 - 04:49 PM, said:

If you want help, perhaps you should start a new thread.

OK Thanks.