Resolved Cloning a system

Just wondering if it is possible to clone an installed system (eg C: drive) so that in the event of the loss of your system (eg a major virus/malware attack) you could boot the PC using a boot CD and then format the C: drive and restore your system (including windows and its registry) from a backup say stored on another physical or logical drive.
I thought that this was possible using GHOST but from the docs I read I am not sure.
I also thought that this would be possible using (free) CLONEZILLA but after installing and running it I became lost attempting to understand it and how to use it. It seemed to me that you could only clone a disk to a phttp://www.windowsbbs.com/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=559207artition and all data in that partition would be erased. Is this correct (that the location to store the data can only ever contact data for that clone)?

 

Never heard of Clonezilla, so I can't help you there. I use Acronis True Image. Every Saturday night at 0230 my main box backs itself up in it's entirety to a second machine over my home network. I used to back it up to itself, but on a separate drive so I could remove it if I had to. GHOST will do the same. There are a number of utilities out there that will back up your entire system to anywhere you want to, Give them a try til you find one you are comfortable with.

 

Ghost can do it but is NOT free.

Clonezilla & Macrium Reflect Free edition can do it for free, but make sure that the drives are of the same size as otherwise you won't be able to backup/restore.

PeteC has the correct solution to your problem in post #2. However, if you want to clone the drive/partitions, the above still stands.

 

Check this program (link)…it works

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

File Size:1.78 MB
Price: Private Edition Free - Commercial Edition - Buy Now
System Requirements: Pentium Processor - 256 MB RAM
Windows XP, 2003, Vista, or Windows 7

 

I use Acronis True Image and back up (image) to a separate drive (D) in the same computer. If necessary I can boot from the Acronis Install CD, access the backup drive and restore the image to the "C" drive. Have done this successfully at least once.

The trick is to create a backup image frequently so if and when you have to restore you have a recent image and don't lose too much info/data.

 

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions.
It seems though that Acronis is the way to go.
I don't have a HD HDD so I suspect that it will still work but maybe need to purchase (that's ok) if it won't work on ST drives I will try the other suggestions.

I am assuming that all the suggestions will allow the PC to be booted from a boot CD which runs the program to allow all the files originally cloned to another drive or partition to the C drive boot sectors and all.
Is this correct?

 

jparnold, you are confusing cloning & image backup.

Cloning is making a 1 to 1 copy of your hard disk on another hard disk. When you clone the hard disk, you have the exact replica of the hard disk & you can just shove in the new hard disk & boot straight off it. No other action required.

Image backup creates an image of your hard disk on either a hard disk, a network drive or on other media. Generally, you require to boot from a supplied CD to access the files on the backup media and/or for backup/restore. An image would be compressed by the software & would occupy less space.

 

Thanks for the further information and YES indeed I think that I am confused between cloning and image backup.

What I want to do is make an EXACT copy of my C: drive (operating system, data and boot blocks if required) and store on another drive or partition so that in the event of C: drive developing a bad virus/malware that I could boot the system using say a CD then format the C: drive and restore all the files (and boot sectors) which were previously cloned to another drive/partition which would then result in C:drive being as it was when I took the clone and that I can then reboot my system from the rebuilt C: drive.

Seagate (brand of my HDD) have a utility named DiskWizard and in the docs it states -

Using powerful imaging technology, Seagate DiscWizard lets you create image backups of all
the data on your computer, entire discs or individual partitions. The unique technology
developed by Acronis and implemented in Seagate DiscWizard allows you to create exact,
sector-by-sector disc image backups, including all operating systems, applications and
configuration files, software updates, personal settings and all of your data.

This seems to be what I want - what do you think? Sorry for not knowing what I should be using but I want to get it correct first time - I don't want to do something which I THINK will allow me to do what I want and then later find out it won't allow me to rebuild the C: drive. With all the protection built into Windows to prevent pirating I just want to make sure that what I do will work.

 

You need image backup & NOT disk cloning. Image backup contains ALL your data including files,boot sector but does NOT typically include deleted files or empty space unless it can do sector by sector imaging, in which case you have an exact identical image of your hard disk.

You can use Seagate Discwizard. But make a dry run & make yourself familiar with options & how to recover/restore your data, before you actually need it.

 

Thanks

 

You are Welcome.