cloning vs imaging?

Clone - you need a dedicated disk that is 'like' the original to be able to swap. And you need the complete partition space.

Image - you can put on any internal or external disk (even DVD - although not recommended) and you can make many images. They are compressed to about 60% of the original data size - not partition size.

My prediciment may help as I need a clone not a system image and I also need some advice:

What is the best method to clone a data drive on my computer which has music,media and photos onto an external drive to playback on a media player (Med8er1000) on my TV please?

Should I use Windows backup and select the exact folders from the original drive to clone to the external drive, purchase software ie; acronis backup or another option.

I couold just copy and past but we are talking 1tb plus and I understand this option may not meet the desired results or is that incorrect?

Many thanks and not trying to hijack OP so apologies as this thread landed on my search result and felt relevant.

eburnettscd said:

Depends what you care about, and what backup solution you use. I've had headaches over Acronis, Ghost, and Paragon from corrupted image, disk error, new hardware, bad media, etc where nothing beats a good old cloned disk.

I disagree.

You must have something strange going with your imaging process. I have restored a very large number of images using Windows inbuilt and Macrium Reflect to existing and brand new HDDs. I have never had a single problem and this has been on 3 totally different PCs.
I don't have direct experience with the 3 imaging programs you refer to but I would be surprised if Acronis gave problems.

mfx said:

Should I use Windows backup and select the exact folders from the original drive to clone to the external drive, purchase software ie; acronis backup or another option.

This is not cloning. If you are talking data only then have a look at this and see if it helps:
ROBOCOPY - Create Backup Script
It describes the Robocopy command well.

mjf said:

mfx said:

Should I use Windows backup and select the exact folders from the original drive to clone to the external drive, purchase software ie; acronis backup or another option.

This is not cloning. If you are talking data only then have a look at this and see if it helps:
ROBOCOPY - Create Backup Script
It describes the Robocopy command well.

Thank you checking this out now.

It may also be worth checking out FreeFileSync. The link is in my sig and I did a tut here. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube

Looks good and safer...thank you :•) and free bonus.. respect paid and deserved :•)

ps The music on the tut vid is very relaxing, nice.

Thanks. Truth to tell I chose the music because it was the right length and doesn't clash with the video, but it is relaxing.

That was several releases ago and it has changed slightly since especially the versions part, but the principle is the same.