Backup of multiple drives to a single large drive

Solo75 · 16 Oct 2019

New member here. Running Win 10 Home, 64 bit. I have three 1 TB hard drives on the system and back them up to three 1 TB drives periodically using Casper 10.1 . I also have a 4 TB drive that I'd like to use for offsite backup and my intention was to partition the 4 TB drive into 3 partitions and use Casper to copy the 1 TB drives into those partitions. Casper doesn't deal with that the way I intended - it copies the first drive OK, but then wants to copy the second drive into that same partition. It doesn't allow me to specify a second partition on that drive. Also have Macrium Reflect (old - 5.1 level) and was unable to create a clone copy of the three drives using that either. Reflect would allow me to create an image of the drives into the three partitions on the large drive. Again, the goal was to be able to create a clone of the three drives in each of the partitions. Maybe I'm missing something? Is there a way to do what I want to do? All suggestions welcome.

dalchina · 16 Oct 2019

Hi, there's no actual need to create a partition like that for your image files. You can simply create one folder per drive (in your case) imaged, each folder holding the set of image files for a drive (in your case). So if you were ising the free version, you might create a base image, then a number of differential images- all in one folder. That way you don't have to worry about size constraints imposed by unnecessary partioning.

Example - I image two different PCs holding the images in two separate folders on a 2Tb drive. If I upgrade the build, I create a new folder and start a new image set with a new base image.

Solo75 · 16 Oct 2019

Understood. I may have been a bit loose with my description of what I'm trying to do. I have no interest in maintaining IMAGES for backup. What I want is a pure clone that requires no unpacking of an image to restore the drive. I will go the image route if there's no alternative. I'm not well versed in the images - is there an image format standard, or do different programs that produce an image of a drive produce non-interchangeable results?

f14tomcat · 16 Oct 2019

Solo75 said:

Understood. I may have been a bit loose with my description of what I'm trying to do. I have no interest in maintaining IMAGES for backup. What I want is a pure clone that requires no unpacking of an image to restore the drive. I will go the image route if there's no alternative. I'm not well versed in the images - is there an image format standard, or do different programs that produce an image of a drive produce non-interchangeable results?

The image format is generally proprietary to the vendor's software. I.E. - Macrium and Acronis use different imaging techniques and produce system images, compressed, compatible with their software. They aren't interchangeable.

Since Macrium is free, won't cost you a penny to try it and see. Using Dalchina's advise of the Folder, not partition.

Tutorial here: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Link to software: Macrium Software | Home Edition

Samuria · 16 Oct 2019

You can clone the drive to another then remove the drive but you would need to do it often to keep up with updates and any new things

Solo75 · 16 Oct 2019

Thanks to all for the informative comments. I had also asked the question of Casper support and received an answer tonight. It turns out that it indeed is possible to accomplish the cloning of a drive to one partition on a large drive - you just have to know the procedure. I tested the procedure they gave me and it works just fine.

f14tomcat · 16 Oct 2019

Solo75 said:

Thanks to all for the informative comments. I had also asked the question of Casper support and received an answer tonight. It turns out that it indeed is possible to accomplish the cloning of a drive to one partition on a large drive - you just have to know the procedure. I tested the procedure they gave me and it works just fine.

Glad you found a solution for that. I know it's your preferred method. Maybe some day we can talk you into system imaging.

Still happy you're happy.

SIW2 · 16 Oct 2019

Casper doesn't deal with that the way I intended - it copies the first drive OK, but then wants to copy the second drive into that same partition.

It turns out that it indeed is possible to accomplish the cloning of a drive to one partition on a large drive - you just have to know the procedure. I tested the procedure they gave me and it works just fine.

Can you share the procedure with us?

I presume you need to copy as partitions rather than attempting disk clone?
I looked at Casper a while ago - seemed pretty good from what I can remember.

Casper can do imaging as well. Obviously the OP prefers "cloning", and there is nothing wrong with that.

Solo75 · 16 Oct 2019

f14tomcat said:

Glad you found a solution for that. I know it's your preferred method. Maybe some day we can talk you into system imaging.

Still happy you're happy.

Many years ago, I started out with the image route. One day, I lost a drive and had to restore the image. As you can guess, the image was unable to be restored for some reason. Maybe differences in the versions of the software.

Bree · 16 Oct 2019

Solo75 said:

Many years ago, I started out with the image route. One day, I lost a drive and had to restore the image. As you can guess, the image was unable to be restored for some reason. Maybe differences in the versions of the software.

"Many years ago..." sounds like you may have tried Microsoft's system imaging that was introduced in Windows 7. If so, don't judge other imaging solutions by that experience.

The built-in Windows imaging is notoriously temperamental and unreliable. It's most common failing is that it would fail to recognise an image as being restorable. Another failing is that you have to use restore boot media that's an exact match to the system in the image being restored, same version of Windows and same bits, or it will say it cannot restore the image.

In fact, it was so unreliable that Microsoft gave up on it and deprecated it years ago, saying you should use something (anything) else.

Microsoft said:

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution
We recommend that users use full-disk backup solutions from other vendors.

Features removed or Deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Macrium is the 'something else' I use, totally reliable.