Resolved Backup vs Cloning - which is better and why?

Seems everyone uses backup software because of the ability to do incrementals, but why not just clone the drive (in my case every few wks)?
My data files very rarely change. Most changes are to photo and music files.

 

I believe it's subjective. Chacun a Son Gout.

As I have posted in several threads, my choice is internal backup in my desktops and using XXclone. The free version of that requires a full new clone for updating. But the paid version which I have, permits incremental updates. Those are brilliant if you get how dauhnting their software is.... and, in my case, take under two minutes each time.

XXclone also affords a dual boot option when you power on. For me, it's about convenience and being time efficient. So, that is, I can indulge my new pathetic addiction to this site.

Arie, the Administrator here, posted he chooses to do a new image of his drive at regular intervals, and he keeps that imaged drive in a safe with his gold bullion.

 

All right, I have no idea what that means, or even what language it is.
Did you just cuss me out?

Looks like a good choice of words. 211 posts in less than a month. Not bad girl.

This raises another question. What's the difference between an image and a clone? (As I stated in another thread backups are not my forte.)

 

lol In French, it means each to his own taste. But, given it's French, I totally cussed you out. lol

Right? Sigh. But at least I am not in denial or in need of an Intervention. I really love computers, really love learning, really love helping/contributing... or trying to. And not one person I know personally.....all of whom use puters 24/7....knows diddly or cares to know or cares to learn. They kinda manage to get done what they do, and it is what it is. When they get me to fix stuff, i always happily try to show them stuff and show them how exciting all this is......but they don wanna know, they just want it put right.

http://www.williamaford.com/CloningaHDD.php

 

The drawback to that method is that you may inadvertantly clone a system that has some defect that you are not yet aware of - that would render the clone backup useless for repairing the main system.

Cloning to any target partition will wipe all previous data from that partition so you have no in-depth backups. I never like to bet with those odds.

As for a straight user data backup program, not many of those can rescue you when your drive fails to boot into any windows session. That can leave you hanging even though you thought you had good backups.

I use Acronis True Image (ver. 11) since it makes incremental backup. I allow it to automatically do that at first boot daily and I keep several months of those stored on a separate physical drive. Occasionally (yearly +-)I burn a pristine image to CD's just for added safety.

TI allows for rescuing a non-bootable system by using a previously made boot disk for that purpose, although I don't use that method - instead I opt to use a BartPE boot CD with the Acronis plug-in on it. I recommend that method since the BartPE disk has many other uses as well.

With that in-depth image backup system, I can quickly restore my system to any date within the last six months or so and still have access to the current files by virtue of the file browsing feature of TI.

I have tested TI from all angles on several system and find it to be excellent. Down through the years it has worked decently on almost any system I used it on. There have been rare exceptions where the system BIOS would not allow for some features to work but TI was still able to perform by some alternate method on those occasions.

I'm also a great fan of XXCLONE and use it to create a test dummy system on a spare drive which I set up for dual booting. That provides a nice safety net for testing new software as well as doing potentially destructive things to a healthy system to simulate problem that others have so I can attempt to instruct them in how to recover their systems. XXCLONE has several nice features beyond just cloning so take a good look at all the features.

 

I hear what you're saying about cloning.
I have an external HD that I only hook up every month +/- to do a backup on. It's a clone so if anything happens I'm instantly up and running again.
Comments?

 

Thx for the link Jilly.
It looks good - I'll read in it more depth when I get back from the gym.
It's nice to know I've been cussed out in French. I know some Spanish, though I wouldn't go into to it here.

 

lol. Nothing can cuss a human out like a mysteriously imperfect, yet perfectly functioning... Flashplayer installation. So, consider me cussed.

 

That'll do until you get TI or equal.

Remember that some virus payloads don't dump on you until months after you get them. Other defects can also occur that do not cause immediate problems so that you may have the same defect in your clone backup, rendering it useless. Cloning is fine as far as it goes but remember, it doesn't go as far as incremental drive imaging.

 

But I made a commitment. To XXclone. Have you any idea what Pixellabs puts you thru just to get a license? talk about convoluted. Plus, they make you take yr shoes of and they WAND YOU. I was wearing Vera Wang. Doves were released at the end.

 

XXclone is fine but the licensed version is too expensive. You can get TI for less and it will do more since it allows for browsing the old image files and retrieving long since deleted files if that be needed.

I also like and use XXcopy but I use the freebie version there as well. The same man (Kan Yabumoto) developed both of them and they are super products. I must warn that they are also super powerful and in the wrong hands can produce some untoward results.

 

I am very frugal and resourceful, so for me, it wasn't expensive given what it affords. I really cherish not only the incremental update option, but also the dual boot option when I power on. I can boot into either Hamster, my usual go to drive, 160GBs, or Piggy, my not go to drive, 250GBs.

I really do think these things are, in part, subjective.

 

True. We all have different requirements for risk management since one person's data may not not be as important as the next person's. If you are fully aware of the possible weaknesses in a particular method and it doesn't bother you, then all is well. Don't forget about Murphy though.

 

Right now, Surferdude, my take is what can go wrong will go wrong, mainly applies to things Adobe.

Tho I seriously doubt any individual's data is any less important to that individual than any other individual. You need not try to prove the superiority of the choice you have made, babe, by implying catastrophic events are only a mouseclick away if someone makes other choices.

Given, with XX both drives are bootable, hard to believe any apocalyptic issue will manifest should the go to drive fail and one replaces it with the backup drive.....given the full OS is there....or, if one does, it can't be repaired.

I also sometimes boot into Piggy and check the health of things. And, if one is paranoid and so very careful to preclude infections, that becomes less of an issue tho not, perhaps moot. As you pointed out.

I also sometimes wake up Piggy to afford scans on both drives when I scan. I put Piggy to sleep with Revosleep.

 

I don't have any cloning or backup programs, so I don't [have] any axes to grind one way or another, but I got a new Dell desktop with Windows 7 recently and have considered getting something. I'd heard of the Acronis program before and the latest version is compatible with Win 7, so after seeing the comments here I thought I'd check with amazon.com to see what their price is of the latest version, TI Home 2010, and what customer reviews of the program looked like. Sobering. The reviews went to the extremes. From 41 reviewers, there were 12 reviews giving it the maximum 5 stars, but 24 reviews gave it just 1 star, and 5 reviews were thinly scattered in between those extremes. As I said, sobering.

Amazon's price is $35.49, by the way, although there's a free trial version available on-line.

 

I am busy tryng to get myssel out of Flashplayer Poo Poo, but were I you, I would research my options including XXclone which has a free version.

I will always choose to install a second HDD in any desktop, one of the4 real advantages they have over our lappys--- and, until I have evidence that my allegiance to this software is ill conceived, use XXClone.

 

I don't want to hijack this thread, but what I'd be interested in is something that allows easy incremental backing up. Like chas berlin, most of my changes would be with images. I had always been under the impression that Acronis TI is supposed to be good at that, and the Home 2010 version is compatible with Windows 7. But...

 

Having returned to find the direction the thread took, I thought I'd sit this one out and see if it came back around. Since the same question is now being asked again, I'll just wait and see.