Clone vs Image
- Thread starter veasnayim
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From a response on a forum:
I have Macrium Reflect and do Image backups of the entire disc (all partitions). I do not do incremental backups, only full drive backups.
I have Macrium Reflect and do Image backups of the entire disc (all partitions). I do not do incremental backups, only full drive backups.
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I also use Macrium but I do incremental image backups. Either method will work.
Neither will prevent hard drive failure or prevent Windows from working but either can be used to backup a drive so that things can be restored in the event of a drive or Windows failure.
Image is in case you incrementally backed up a virus or some other form of scumware on the original image. If that happened, you would still have the original image for restoration purposes without having to reinstall Windows and all of the other applications that have accumulated on your hard drive. Cloning a drive is useful to upgrade your hard drive or clone a failing drive to a new one. The only issue is that you need to have two drives in the same computer unless you have an USB hard drive . If you accidentally pick the new empty drive, and clone that to the original drive, you will totally overwrite all of your data. No getting it back, it’s gone. So I recommend using EaseUS Todo Backup imaging process to upgrade a hard drive. It is a safety measure as well.
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Disadvantages to a clone:
When you make a clone of your main HD, it will totally occupy the 'To' disk.
But, when you make an image of your C: drive, for instance, to a separate HD, of sufficient size, then you can store multiple images, which is good if one image goes bad on you.
Personally, I like the idea of doing an Image Backup of my C: drive once a week, to a second internal HD, and also to an external 1TB, USB 3.0 hard drive.
"The only bad backup, is the one you decided NOT to make". All others will have some merit.
But remember...... if your main HD totally crashes, your Restore program MUST be on some bootable media, like a CD or Flash Drive.
A Backup & Restore program that totally lives on drive C: , is totally worthless, in case of a HD crash.
Cheers Mate!
TechnoMage
When you make a clone of your main HD, it will totally occupy the 'To' disk.
But, when you make an image of your C: drive, for instance, to a separate HD, of sufficient size, then you can store multiple images, which is good if one image goes bad on you.
Personally, I like the idea of doing an Image Backup of my C: drive once a week, to a second internal HD, and also to an external 1TB, USB 3.0 hard drive.
"The only bad backup, is the one you decided NOT to make". All others will have some merit.
But remember...... if your main HD totally crashes, your Restore program MUST be on some bootable media, like a CD or Flash Drive.
A Backup & Restore program that totally lives on drive C: , is totally worthless, in case of a HD crash.
Cheers Mate!
TechnoMage
I recently wanted to move my OS from a HDD to a SSD and was advised to image the disk rather than clone when using Macrium Reflect. I was advised that cloning might duplicate the disk signature and I might end up with 2 disks with the same signatures.