Coneing for backup in Laptop with 2 HD's?

I am getting a 6520 Dell Notebook and one of the options I got was the Media Bay HD of the same size (320gb) for the purpose of bootable cloneing my existing drive to it once a week in case of master HD failure. I have done this for years on my Dell I have now with Migrate Easy by Acronis. Which they don't make for win7 now.
I have been reading lost of posts on backup/restore but there is too much info for me out there to obsorb and is confusing. All I want to do is what I've done with my old notebook with 2 internal HD's is to clone one to another every weekend. If one failed I could just switch and be up running or look into the clone for a file I have deleted on the master.
What program will clone my HD completly and with ease? and be bootable? like when I used Migrate Easy?

Active@ Disk Image: Active@ Disk Image. Windows & Servers Backup Software. Win XP, 7, 2003, 2008, Vista.

I will be getting a works laptop this week and one application I will install is Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free to backup the complete Operating System/Applications to a out of system drive, I use Paragon free on my desktop and would not be without it.

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery (Advanced) Free Edition - Overview

truckinguy said:

I have been reading lost of posts on backup/restore but there is too much info for me out there to obsorb and is confusing. All I want to do is what I've done with my old notebook with 2 internal HD's is to clone one to another every weekend.

Imaging is more efficient, faster and flexible than cloning. You can try
1) Windows inbuilt imaging
2) Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Macrium is one of the most popular third party programs used by forum members.
Both 1) & 2) have never let me down. I personally use 1) extensively and have reimaged two new HDDs using it alone.

So imageing will be just as good as a clone in that everything will be captured? Then If I have a hard metal failure and need to replace with a new HD I can restore everything to just as before it crashed ? (at least to the image date)
I have Xp mode on the HD as well. Maybe this is simpler then I'm thinking. I've read so many posts about it that too much info can be confusing.
So many choices and personal choices everyone has. Thanks for the links I'll keep reading them. I should have the notebook by weekend. The first thing I'll do is make a clone or an image then start loading programs,etc. into it just in case I mess up.

The short answer to your question is (probably) yes you can restore everything to the existing laptop. These comments do not relate to migrating to a different PC.
Acronis still offer a migration tool.

You will only feel confident when you reimage your HDD for the first time. I have reimaged my existing HDD many times without any problem. You could have a problem because of some specific configuration issue.

In terms of restoring to a brand new HDD this is what I have done twice:
1) Made a Windows sytem image which included my 100MB system reserved partition and C: (my OS partition).
2) Removed the existing 1TB HDD. Replaced with a different brand new, out of the bag, 1 TB HDD.
3) Booted from a system repair disk and restored the image.

The new HDD booted to the logon screen.

You can do a similar restore with Macrium.

If you have a spare $60 and don't mind unplugging some cables then you could try it. You can plug your existing HDD back in if you strike a problem. The added complication is that you are working with a laptop.

mjf said:

The short answer to your question is (probably) yes you can restore everything to the existing laptop. These comments do not relate to migrating to a different PC.
Acronis still offer a migration tool.

You will only feel confident when you reimage your HDD for the first time. I have reimaged my existing HDD many times without any problem. You could have a problem because of some specific configuration issue.

In terms of restoring to a brand new HDD this is what I have done twice:
1) Made a Windows sytem image which included my 100MB system reserved partition and C: (my OS partition).
2) Removed the existing 1TB HDD. Replaced with a different brand new, out of the bag, 1 TB HDD.
3) Booted from a system repair disk and restored the image.

The new HDD booted to the logon screen.

You can do a similar restore with Macrium.

If you have a spare $60 and don't mind unplugging some cables then you could try it. You can plug your existing HDD back in if you strike a problem. The added complication is that you are working with a laptop.

Sounds good...
I still have a question now that you mention migration. Could I migrate my old XP system and programs( from my old notebook) into the new notebook and use XP mode so I can run them? Or would I have to try to reload the programs one by one (that's if I still have all the install disc's/floppy's ) in Win7 or XP Mode if necessory?

I'd do the XP transfer one application at a time. If they all run without a hitch great - maybe buy a lottery ticket.

mjf said:

I'd do the XP transfer one application at a time. If they all run without a hitch great - maybe buy a lottery ticket.

What is XP transfer? thanks