Bounce Back for making 2nd Boot drive

I wish to make my USB Seagate HD a 2nd boot drive just in case my internal drive crashes. Has anyone ever used Bounce Back for this? What was your experience. what about getting 2nd internal drive. my friend tried this with Casper backup, it did not work.
thanks

 

Product provides a 30 day trial period ... try it out. This would allow you to test compatibility of your BIOS and hardware. The option to boot directing into a cloned drive via a USB attached drive is nice .. but requires your BIOS / MOBO / USB attached drive are up to the task / compatible.
The advantage of product ...
Creates backup (clone of system drive) to USB attached drive, then immediately boot/run your computer from attached drive to check backup integrity.
If you test via trial period, be aware your USB attached drive will be formatted. Be sure to move off any valuable information BEFORE testing this product. At end of test if you choose not to purchase, just reformat your USB drive.

 

AHA a problem now, I have loads of extra audio on my USB which I have no room for on my 1rst HD (USB Is a much bigger drive) - does this Bounce Back have to reformat just the 1rst use, note that when I first got the Seagate it came with a shorter version of Bounce Back, so it already had the OS copied, but I want the full version so would it be therefore better to get a 2nd internal SATA that is the same size

 

I use Xxclone to do that. It's free and cloning to create a bootable drive is its forte.

It will even edit your boot.ini and allow you to dual boot the clone. I do that and use the clone for a test dummy system.

 

I've only worked with Acronis. Cloning has two disadvantages. You commit the drive to achieve one backup copy ... unless you commit another drive for a 2nd backup copy. The other approach is creating a "Image File ". With Acronis (and possible BounceBack Software) you can create and store as many Image backup files you feel comfortable with on your USB drive (over time) ... AND ... continue to use the USB drive to store the "loads of extra audio" that does not fit on your internal HDD ... BUT ... now it can not be used as a target for a "clone" backup, when using Acronis. Maybe Bounceback can?? Won't know unless you try it out. If it could, it would require the USB drive to be partitioned AND program would need option to target a "partition" on the drive. This would be a more involved process ... possible something the program is trying to avoid.

 

on the same track if I got a second internal HD will that be easier to boot from than the USB , also is it better to use something like XXclone to make an Image file and since Microsoft is very fussy about copying its OS or any of its programs will this whole effort be a waste of time, in other words can I have two HDs on one computer and have all the MS apps and OS work? thanks much

 

I've been doing that for years. I use Xxclone to create the clone. It is designed to make the clone bootable.

It also will set the clone up for dual booting if you so choose. It does that by modifying the clone drive's Registry so that it becomes the C: drive when booted. That makes all the shortcuts work properly. The previous C: drive takes the letter the clone formerly had. Works very slick.

There is no problem with registration since the original copy is registered and the hardware doesn't change.

I boot the clone when I want to do testing of new software that might not be sociable or easily removed from my main system.

Xxclone even has a tool that will allow you to duplicate the drive id, if necessary.

 

I should have added that I've never had any MS program fail to run on the clone system the same way it does on the source system.

FWIW, I have also deployed Acronis True Image backups to a second drive and dual booted it. That requires some very minor Registry editing on the clone to change the drive identities when booting the clone. I always did it this way until Xxclone came along and made it much simpler.

 

I found that XXclone doesn't work in Vista to do what surferdude2 said (had problems booting to it [system partition clone]) but Acronis and Easus works great.
If you have the budget get another internal drive (I have 5 in my box, still room for 1 more), a system partition clone is the best back-up as it is ready to go whenever you need it, just by changing the boot order. I also keep periodic images as a time line (before and after major changes).

 

This EULA you talk of is too long for me to read the whole thing and it's written in some foreign language that looks like English... As far as I'm concerned, 1 box, 1 OS, 1 License. How many back-up of that licensed OS I have made is irrelevant.
Even if I have the system on 4 partitions/ drives and 10+ compressed images for back-up, I can only use 1 at a time. Gray area? I supposed.
Black & white would mean that everyone in the world with more than one back-up of their system partition (an extra copy) would be in infraction. I don't have an "Installation" disc and I agree with you that duplicating of that, would be in violation.

 

JCinvan, Thanks for the heads up on Xxclone not working with Vista. Good to know although I don't have Vista but may run into the problem. I think I'll leap-frog Vista for something later.

Having a test dummy system has been a real bacon saver for me since I like to allow beginners to learn the ropes on my computer without restricting them unduly.

The clone works well for that, without much risk of doing any harm to my basic system. Anyone with grandkids will appreciate how that would be nice. So long as they don't mistreat the hardware, I've got them covered.

I always hate having to forbid kids from touching something since I remember how much that held me back when I was a kid. Believe you me, that takes some long term memory!

All the best, Dude

ps. I consider my clone as a parallel install for testing and recovery purposes, which is fully approved by MS. I still sleep well.

 

[XXclone] something to do with the way boot loader files have changed with Vista. The partition cloning part works fine.

Couldn't agree with you more about the kids, I let my baby play with the computer freely, and she's not even 3 yet and she can login to her own account and point and click icons and choose Utube videos she wants to watch.
Same policy with my 8 year old, I gave her the laptop, pointed a few things out, and off she went. They are free to explore and do and try anything in confidence, cause I got everything backed up; they learn so fast this way.

 

JCinvan, I almost wish I had Vista so I could troubleshoot that issue. I have an idea that backing up the first sector of a Vista drive onto a floppy, then deploying it onto a XXcloned drive might work around that issue. That should get around any MBR and following code that would be Vista unique. I would use something like MBRWORK for that task.

I said ALMOST wish I had Vista. I'm very happy with XP for now. I may get a chance to test that some day when I service one of my friends Vista systems.

If you try it out, I'd appreciate knowing how it turned out.

 

I don't have a floppy drive to use to test your theory, I was testing XXclone for someone using Xp at the time I found the issue. I use Acronis True Image Home and Easeus Partition Master; these work well for me.
At this point you might as well wait out for Win 7 or even the next generation, it just keeps getting better.