HDD clone

ColColt said:

This was one of the few five star docks I saw but only USB 2. The W7 does have slots for USB 3. Still, it's a start to getting me where I want to go.

StarTech USB to SATA External HDD Dock for 2.5 or 3.5in Hard Drive - Newegg.com

That's as good as any for a start.

I wouldn't put a lot of faith in the 5 star, 4 star thing at Newegg.

USB 3 would be noticeably faster, but if it's only an occasional thing, USB 2 would be fine. Expect it to take 2 or 3 hours if it's several hundred GB.

A typical folder could have anywhere from200-600mb of photos. Each photo is around 15.5mb. I shoot in RAW format and they're rather large. Now that I have a newer camera it has a larger sensor. My old one, that shot most of the pictures, is 10mb whereas the new one is about 16. RAW photos shot with that camera is around 21 mb.

There's about 150 folders.

Shouldn't be a problem.

The docked drive will appear in Windows Explorer. Just drag and drop as if from one internal drive to another.

Very good-thank you much. I think I'll try this one since it has USB 3. It would be worth it as I could also clone my OS HDD.

StarTech SATDOCK2REU3 2.5" & 3.5" Black SATA II USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station and Standalone HDD / SSD Duplicator - Newegg.com

Just a caveat-I take it no software is required?

ColColt said:

Very good-thank you much. I think I'll try this one since it has USB 3. It would be worth it as I could also clone my OS HDD.

Not sure what your intent is regarding the OS drive, but.......

Cloning is generally the best idea if you are trying to move a Windows system from one working hard drive to a larger or new hard drive. Often from a hard drive to a solid state drive. Cloning isn't a backup.

Imaging is the better idea if you are attempting to "back up" a working Windows system so it could later be "restored" to another drive should the original hard drive fail. Imaging creates a single file that is later restored. Cloning does not.

Macrium is an excellent choice for either task.

No--you don't need software for your original task of simply copying pictures from one drive to another. All the dock does is provide a way to use an internal drive in an external fashion, without opening cases and getting involved with cables, power supplies, and motherboards.

I agree with Lady Fitzgerald on the overkill.

That is a nice one but it really is overkill for your needs.

I'm known for doing that. I'm certainly open to suggestions, however.

Cloning isn't a backup.

That's where I've always been confused. I thought cloning process was to make a duplicate of your OS HDD in the even of failure. I had a setup years ago that did just that-clone my HDD on my old XP machiine. It didn't do an incremental backup, just cloned the drive. I'd do it periodically to keep abreast of changes. It would over write what was there before however. Not a good set up but kept me from having a useless machine in the eve of HDD failure.

ColColt said:

That is a nice one but it really is overkill for your needs.

I'm known for doing that. I'm certainly open to suggestions, however.

Cloning isn't a backup.

That's where I've always been confused. I thought cloning process was to make a duplicate of your OS HDD in the even of failure. I had a setup years ago that did just that-clone my HDD on my old XP machiine. It didn't do an incremental backup, just cloned the drive. I'd do it periodically to keep abreast of changes. It would over write what was there before however. Not a good set up but kept me from having a useless machine in the eve of HDD failure.

For ordinary purposes, your first choice would be fine rather than the overkill one. You might step up to USB 3 and pay maybe $30 or so. You don't need that "hard drive duplication" function.

You could use cloning as you did it, but there are shortcomings:

That drive that you cloned to is not otherwise being used--until and unless you have a failure. Imaging avoids that. You can continue to use the drive containing the image file for ordinary purposes. The image file is just a file---like a JPEG or TIFF. It's different only in content and in that it needs to be "restored".

Did you test the clone to make sure it works?

Anecdotally, I'm not sure cloning is as reliable.

If your C drive has 50 GB occupied, you can make an image of it in maybe 10 minutes once a week or once a month and store that image just like any other file. The image file might take up 25 GB. Restore it when needed. Maybe keep the most recent 2 or 3 images. Restoration typically takes under a half hour.

One last word about docks: they aren't overly sturdy. Be prepared to replace them. Mine has lasted 3 years, but I take it out of the closet only every 2 or 3 months, so it's not powered on much. I'd say you should get an external drive for data backup.

It's such a joy to go on a forum where folks know what they're talking about and know the answers to problems-such a joy.

I did test that clone and it worked great, booting right up just like the original. I didn't want to get in a situation whereby I did have a failure and the lone wouldn't works so, I tried it.

You're right about the disk sitting for six months or more and being woefully behind on all updates and fixes or new programs added. I'm a bit confused about the "imaging" but I'll read up on that rather than take up time asking about that.

There's a good tutorial on Macrium imaging on this forum. Search for it. Done by respected member WHS.

The key thing about imaging is that you make a bootable "recovery" disk as part of the process. It's a CD that you boot from if your original drive dies. That recovery disk MUST be bootable. You need to test it. If it won't boot and your C drive is dead, you cannot restore your image file and you are completely out of luck.

You make the recovery disk from within Macrium. You can make a Linux-based recovery disk or a "WinPE" based recovery disk. Choose the latter. When disaster strikes, you boot from that disk and you'll see an easily understandable interface from which you restore the image file.