Clone or Image for a ready backup


  1. nkaufman
    Posts : 156
    Win 7, Win-10
       New #1

    Clone or Image for a ready backup


    Hello,
    Have a laptop with 1TB NVMe drive and with remote work etc. I'm being asked to prepare for any redundancy.

    So, got another 1TB NVMe (laptop can have 2 of those) and want to be in a situation where if original disk is not working for any reason (software issue or drive craps out), I can plug in the second disk and work with minimal disruption. Of course there will be some data missing from second disk unless I keep them synced every time.

    After looking at some options, i think Macrium Reflect has a Clone feature that clones only sectors with data and then has a feature to update clone at regular intervals that can sync the 2 drives.

    My Priority is -
    Get laptop working immediately without having to spend any time restoring image etc,
    Second comes - try and get all data from original drive

    Any suggestions/pointers?

    Thanks
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  3. dalchina
    Posts : 43,022
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       New #2

    You can certainly clone the disk, but note the numerous threads on failing to boot after cloning.

    Just a thought...
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  4. Steve C
    Posts : 7,909
    Windows 11 Pro 64 bit
       New #3

    I would use imaging and use the scheduling feature for differential / incremental backups to keep the backup up to date. You can recover a working system drive using Reflect to a SSD in under 15 min unless you have a huge amount of data to restore.
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  6. cereberus
    Posts : 15,499
    Windows10
       New #4

    If you buy a Macrium Reflect licence, it has a great feature called Rapid Delta Clone.

    You clone main drive to secondary drive, and then periodically you can re-clone main drive to secondary drive very quickly as it only copies the differences to the secondary drive. I am not sure if you can schedule the incremental clones using Reflect, so you may have to do this manually. You can sync data from main drive to secondary drive using a variety of tools.
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  7. nkaufman
    Posts : 156
    Win 7, Win-10
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    dalchina said:
    You can certainly clone the disk, but note the numerous threads on failing to boot after cloning.
    Exactly.. that is my main concern.
    Since my First Objective is to be up and running with minimal effort.
    Second Objective is access to Full data but I can wait for some time for data to sync



    Steve C said:
    I would use imaging and use the scheduling feature for differential / incremental backups to keep the backup up to date. You can recover a working system drive using Reflect to a SSD in under 15 min unless you have a huge amount of data to restore.
    Yeah but in this case there is a chance to lose data from the time the last incremental/diff backup was made. With cloned drive, I can be up and running and can then spend some time trying to retrieve data from original drive. Would love to hear if you have a different thought on this.



    cereberus said:
    If you buy a Macrium Reflect licence, it has a great feature called Rapid Delta Clone.
    You clone main drive to secondary drive, and then periodically you can re-clone main drive to secondary drive very quickly as it only copies the differences to the secondary drive. I am not sure if you can schedule the incremental clones using Reflect, so you may have to do this manually. You can sync data from main drive to secondary drive using a variety of tools.
    Yes, exactly my point - Rapid Delta Clone is what I meant by - "feature to update clone at regular intervals that can sync the 2 drives."
    But concern is as @dalchina mentioned - risk of cloned drive not booting..

    - - - Updated - - -

    One quick question -
    Say I clone a hard drive and use the new cloned drive, what happens to windows license and license of other apps etc?
    Do I need to do anything about it?
    Last edited by nkaufman; 30 Jan 2022 at 10:54.
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