True Image Drive Cloning

If these are just video files and data files that you have stored, why not just copy and paste them?

OldMX said:

Install the second disk and partition / format it.

Then load a command prompt with admin rights:

robocopy x:\*.* y:\ /E /R:1 /W:1

that shoud copy all the files from one disk to another

About the last thing that you said, that I understand, is about partitioning and formatting. I'm really bad about understanding command lines. What does each of those switches mean? At first, I thought that they represented drive letters, just using arbitrary designations, but since that line includes four of them, it throws me. In my case, I'm going to be transferring from drive M:, which shall become M: also, but I suppose that I will need to use a different label, until after the switching is complete.

EDIT: I've been going over the help section for robocopy and I think that I have figured it out. x:\ = source, *.* = anything and everything, y:\ = destination, /E = copy all subfolders, including empty ones, R:1 = number of retries, W:1 = delay between retries (since the default is 30 seconds, what does 1 =?). Other than the space after robocopy, is there any other, or is it all continuous? Lastly, just how reliable is this if properly entered?

robocopy

or

robocopy

x:\ = source drive letter
*.* = all files
y:\ = destination drive letter
/E = Copies subdirectories. Note that this option includes empty directories
/R:1 = number of retries, default (if not specified) = 1 million retires before failing (per file)
/W:1 = Specifies the wait time between retries, in seconds. The default value of N is 30 (wait time 30 seconds).


As for reliability, well, that depends on your system and drives.

You could also try Teracopy or even Toucan

Reliability of a command line tool should be 100%...unless your computer or hard drive fails. I do tons of admin work with command lines. And robocopy is the primary tool that I use for my backups which really matter.

pparks1 said:

Reliability of a command line tool should be 100%...unless your computer or hard drive fails. I do tons of admin work with command lines. And robocopy is the primary tool that I use for my backups which really matter.

I think they are referring to the reliability of the data integrity transfer itself.
akin to CRC checking, etc.

The command line will execute the command just fine, what it does after that,,,

The main reason for using the Acronis True Image or Disk Director products to Clone a disk is because they give you more options than a straight copy.

You can Clone a disk so that the destination partitions are exactly the same size as originals (including empty space), expand them proportionally as per the destination drive size (i.e. all twice as big), or lastly configured size wise any way you want (i.e. C: same size D: twice as big, E: half size).

I have used their products to Clone a number of drives under XP and never had any problems but have not used their newer versions under Win 7.............