Solved Mirror the C drive?

Is it possible to mirror the C drive? I have an external HD I want to use and I've created an NTFS partiton on the external drive but when I right click on the C drive or the partition on the external HD it doesn't give me the option to Add Mirror. I'm running 8.1 Pro.

Yes. Plenty of software out there to do it. Clonezilla, EaseUS Todo, etc..

Ok thanks I'll check it out. I thought it could be done through disk management without any other software.

dave122793 said:

Ok thanks I'll check it out. I thought it could be done through disk management without any other software.

Click to expand...

Check out a load of info here:

Change a Basic Disk into a Dynamic Disk

broe23 said:

Yes. Plenty of software out there to do it. Clonezilla, EaseUS Todo, etc..

Click to expand...

I'm using Paragon Backup and Recovery right now. Tried to install EaseUS initially and for some reason the install failed. Looks like Paragon is a good solution though.

Easily the most intuitive one is Acronis True Image. It clones your disk, adapts itself to the size of the new disk and let's you stay in control without being overly complicated or using jargon. It will clone the partitions as they are, if that's what you want, or change their size, if that's what you want.

It asks you in plain English about what you have in mind, then it does exactly what you wanted.

I keep two C: drives, one is a sort of backup, to use if I get an infection, or mess something up.

The two drives are different size, but that's not problem for Acronis.

On the same topic, is there a reason the "add mirror" option is missing? I wanted to mirror two of my drives but also have the function missing

There's a difference between mirroring and cloning. The poster asked about mirroring - I'm interested too, which is how I found this topic. I, too, do not see the mirror option that is described elsewhere (although I do not have 8.1 Pro).

Mirroring is dynamic, and real time. Changes to the system drive are immediately reflected in the mirror. Cloning is a snapshot in time, and is only as current as the last snapshot.

Acronis BackUpper works great, but it cannot be scheduled like Macrium Reflect cloning. Alas, Reflect has developed a VSS aversion for me that I simply cannot remediate. And that is why I am looking at mirroring.

Either mirroring or scheduled cloning doesn't depend on me to take an action to protect my system in the event of a drive failure. That's what I'm after.

Dan

mirror means if drive c screws up so does the other drive what is the purpose f ts a backup better to create disk image as you can create a lot of images so you can role back with a few stand byes a clone you only have one backup. You can mirror by using built in robocopy / mirror option thats a copy but not continuous

You mean, if *I* screw up. Point taken.

But I'm trying to protect against a hard drive failure, not against myself. In a mirror, if drive A fails, I can remove A and boot from B. Then, get a new A and mirror again. That may not be what other folks are after; but, that's what *I'm* after.

Sure, I can create images on B, and then when A fails, I can hope I kept my bootable DVD current with the last upgrade to imaging software, and will talk to the images on B, so I can restore one to C. But I don't want to be bothered. I just want to keep on rolling.

In any event, the poster asked about mirroring, and got cloning responses. And now, an imaging response. I'm interested in responses about mirroring. Any takers?

Your missing the point. Mirroring increase the risk of disk failure. If c is infected so is d no backup, if c won't boot d won't no backup, if c is corrupted so is d no backup, if c gets bad blocks so does d no backup. Delete anything on c it's gone on d get infected with ransom were d is gone as well. However you look at it the idea is flawed images you can have a few backups if you still want to mirror raid on your mb is best option anything else can slow system to a crawl

The purpose of mirroring is not to protect your data. It will only protect data in the event of a drive failure and even that cannot be relied on. To protect your data you need backups.

The purpose of mirroring is to maintain access to your data in the case of a drive failure. Drive replacement can then be deferred to a more convenient time. This is a big deal on a busy server. On a client it is often difficult to justify the cost.

Disk management will only set up mirroring on dynamic disks. And I don't know if mirroring works with external drives. In any event not something that would be recommended.