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#21
It depends on what you're doing as to which is more efficient. If transferring an existing installation to another drive, cloning is more efficient. Using an image would involve an intermediate drive and an extra step. If backing up an OS partition, imaging is best. An image takes up less room if compressed and can be used to restore a damaged OS partition without having to remove the drive from the computer. If backing up large amounts of data, a folder/file syncing program is more efficient.
whs.Thanks for the reply and I did download your iso and burnt it to a disc.
many thanks.
And also many thanks for all the support you have given me here,It was nice to hear that there are some late starters like myself.
Many thank You's till the next time.Cherio.
You are very welcome. Make a test with the CD. Define a small 1 or 2GB partition with Disk Management (shrink a bit of space off somewhere), then copy a few folders into that partition (pictures are handy), image and restore it with the CD. Before I restore it I always take some pictures out of the partition and if those comes back, I know the restore worked.
Btw: I keep that 2GB partition permanently on my system(s) for testing purposes like that.
whs,You are very welcome. Make a test with the CD. Define a small 1 or 2GB partition with Disk Management (shrink a bit of space off somewhere), then copy a few folders into that partition (pictures are handy), image and restore it with the CD. Before I restore it I always take some pictures out of the partition and if those comes back, I know the restore worked.
Btw: I keep that 2GB partition permanently on my system(s) for testing purposes like that.
Hi Sorry to get back to you,Now I'm seeing your last reply.Regarding the above it looks a good idea just to clarify one thing once I have made that small partition on my drive is it correct that I must use macriun to backup that partition then re install it from another drive using the iso file you sent me?
Do I read your posting correctly?
Many Thanks. David.
With the CD you burnt from my iso file you can do both backups and recovery - although the main purpose is for recovery. You can make an image of the little partition with that CD or with the Macrium you have installed on your system. Best is to place the image on an external disk.
Then you use the CD (boot the system with the CD) to recover that small partition from the image. I always make a few small modifications to the data in that small partition just to make sure the original content came back with the recovery.
There are 2 advantages to this little exercise:
1. You now know that your recovery CD works
2. You have learned the recovery process because at a time when you are in panic because you have to make an emergency recovery is not a good time to start learning the process.
That's another possibility, But I have that small 2GB partition all the time on my system for testing purposes.
When backing up the c drive, wouldn't one want to also BU the factory recovery partition also, to still be able to have this feature in case the HDD actually crashed and had to be replaced?