Mirroring

[Getback]

I was wanting to mirror a computer and then use the hard drive that I saved to as the start up drive. In other words swap out a bad hard drive for a good one with out doing a step by step restore. Can this be done? I have Acronis Home.

[BaldEagl]

Yep.  I've done it several times.

[Getback]

Yep.  I've done it several times.

Do I need to format the new hard drive first or will Acronis do that? Also, I want more than one partition.

[BaldEagl]

Do I need to format the new hard drive first or will Acronis do that? Also, I want more than one partition.

If it's a new drive then yes, it needs to be activated, formatted and partitioned before you start.  I've never used Acronis, I've used both Western Digital's and Seagate's mirroring utilities (Data Lifeguard and Seatools IIRC).  They come free with a new HD or can be DL'd from the respective sites.  They both do allow partitioning and formatting but you can do that from the Windows disc management utility in the control panal/administrative tools/disc management.

Generally there's few files in use that won't get mirrored over but that's OK.  I've never had a problem with it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Keep in mind that if the drive you mirror from is already _bad_ then chances are your mirror will be broken also on the new harddrive.

Far safer option is to install a fresh OS install to the new hdd and copy only data from the old drive.

[Chalenge]

Acronis will do it in one step without having to format but if there is a problem with the original drive it might be difficult to get everything moved over perfectly. Its probably the best bet you have now though.

I suggest that from now on you use a second drive as an acronis secure zone and maintain an image of your primary drive there. If this ever happens again you can add a new drive and be up and running in an hour or so. Its always best to have three backup options like Acronis and then something like Zmanda/Mozy/Carbonite and for really important stuff back it up and ship it across country (you get the idea).

[Tigger29]

I found myself in a similar predicament... I purchased a 150GB WD Velociraptor and wanted to mirror my 320GB WD Blue drive onto it (only about 90GB used).  I found a program 'Clonezilla' which looked promising, but it absolutely REFUSES to clone a larger disk onto a smaller one.  I tried a few other free programs, and was about to accept the fact that I was going to have to purchase something like Acronis, or manually reinstall and restore my stuff.

Then right after I accepted that fact, I found out about a FREE VERSION OF ACRONIS but it only works on WD (Western Digital) drives.  It's called "Acronis True Image WD Edition".  I downloaded and installed it.  It cloned my HD and its three partitions over no problemmo.. took about 20 minutes tops... I disconnected my old drive and it booted right up!  Just like I left it!  The only difference was I had to activate WIN7 again.. but it went right through.

Now I've reformatted the 320GB and use Acronis to make a backup image onto half of it, and I'm using the other half for storage... the stuff where speed isn't so critical.

[Getback]

I found myself in a similar predicament... I purchased a 150GB WD Velociraptor and wanted to mirror my 320GB WD Blue drive onto it (only about 90GB used).  I found a program 'Clonezilla' which looked promising, but it absolutely REFUSES to clone a larger disk onto a smaller one.  I tried a few other free programs, and was about to accept the fact that I was going to have to purchase something like Acronis, or manually reinstall and restore my stuff.

Then right after I accepted that fact, I found out about a FREE VERSION OF ACRONIS but it only works on WD (Western Digital) drives.  It's called "Acronis True Image WD Edition".  I downloaded and installed it.  It cloned my HD and its three partitions over no problemmo.. took about 20 minutes tops... I disconnected my old drive and it booted right up!  Just like I left it!  The only difference was I had to activate WIN7 again.. but it went right through.

Now I've reformatted the 320GB and use Acronis to make a backup image onto half of it, and I'm using the other half for storage... the stuff where speed isn't so critical.

That gives me confidence.

[RTHolmes]

sounds like a good opportunity to do a nice clean install on the new HD and just copy the files you need from the old one.


edit: umm ... like ripley already said

[633DH98]

, I've used both Western Digital's and Seagate's mirroring utilities (Data Lifeguard and Seatools IIRC). 

Seagate's DiscWizard is a free program that handles partitioning, cloning/mirroring etc.

[Getback]

Keep in mind that if the drive you mirror from is already _bad_ then chances are your mirror will be broken also on the new harddrive.

Far safer option is to install a fresh OS install to the new hdd and copy only data from the old drive.

That makes perfect sense!

[Ghosth]

Totally agree, if you copy everything over your risking bringing any developing problems over along with it.

Fresh install of the OS, and copy the rest should work best IMO.

[Tigger29]

Awesome.. just built a system for my G/F's father (for father's day).. nothing fancy 3.0 AMD, 2GB ram, 9500GT, 160GB Hard Drive.. Win XP...

Got windows installed, all updates, drivers, etc..  then I used Acronis to make a restore disk.

First, I made a 6GB partition on his HD and made a backup image to it.
Next, I made a boot-up disk image (ISO).
Then I realized that the boot-up image only takes up a fraction of a blank DVD, so I had just enough room to squeeze his backup image onto the disk as well!

Now, if he ever screws it all up, all I have to do is boot from the disk which loads Acronis, then point to either copy of the disk image (on back up partition or on disk) and restore it.  Of course, he'll have to reinstall his games, favorites, etc... but still much easier than reinstalling windows and redoing all of the 100+updates, etc. AND if the drive crashes, I can use the image on the disk.

Pretty cool stuff!  Even though this version is free, I may end up buying it anyway!