Recommendations on Cloning Software

lx07 said:

No it is not. Windows will not boot from an external drive.

I'm aware of that.

lx07 said:

I'm honestly not sure if you are taking the piss. Let us assume not.

I don't know what that means...

lx07 said:

No. If either my PC or Mac had a drive failure I would buy a new disk and then restore the last backup I had from my backup image.

How would you "restore" it onto a new drive?

And, why would you do that?

If you had a clone, why not pop that in and boot from that?

lx07 said:

If you make an image or a clone of a disk you can always restore individual files on either platform. It doesn't matter what software or hardware you use - you always can.

Okay.

Allegheny said:

I don't know what that means....

"Taking the piss" is a phrasal verb in English meaning to joke with someone. The assumption being that the other person is not aware and is therefore seen as slightly stupid. It isn't especially rude - more like a joke

I thought you assumed I was an idiot. Never mind.

Allegheny said:

I don't know what that means....

OK I'll try.

When you start your computer it will look for something to do. As you have a Mac we'll start from there.

What it will do is (after checking the RAM works OK and so on during the POST step) have a look in the NVRAM (which is a chip in your mac). It will say "ah-ha" I remember lets try running <Whatever>. NVRAM just means a chip that doesn't forget.

Before you get to the OS the firmware will try to run something. This will be something that is defined by the EFI standards and exists in a partition with a certain type code (7).

If that volume exists it will look for a directory called EFI. After that it gets a bit boring but eventually it will find a EFI program called a bootmanager. What bootmanager it picks by default is not clear (it depends on the manufacturer) but the last one it ran will be stored in the NVRAM.

The boot manager will generally try internal, external, USB, DVD, SD, even your phone if it is connected.

MacOS will include any drives it can find and boot them. You can boot MacOS off your TV if you want if the wire is connected. The MacOS loader is a it finichity about running anything apart from MacOS or Windows on a Bootcamp partition. It is quite happy with Linux though.

Windows will say "Is this drive I'm running on internal?" It will then say no. It will only boot internal drives.

If you use a different boot loader then you can boot whatever OS from whatever storage you want. That would be my recommendation and my recommendation would be to use rEFInd.

lx07 said:

"Taking the piss" is a phrasal verb in English meaning to joke with someone. The assumption being that the other person is not aware and is therefore seen as slightly stupid. It isn't especially rude - more like a joke
I thought you assumed I was an idiot. Never mind.

I had to read up on that expression on Wikipedia.

Not sure where you got that idea, but no, I wasn't making fun of you.

Also not sure what prompted the lesson on booting, but thanks anyways!

Yes, I understood you that on a PC, Windows expects an internal drive when booting.

Got it.

BTW, do you speak cockney, or is your "Taking the piss" just a general UK expression?

Allegheny said:

BTW, do you speak cockney, or is your "Taking the piss" just a general UK expression?

I think it is pretty normal around the UK. I lived in London for 10 years but I can't say for sure if it is only there.

I never heard anyone say "gor blimey mate up the apple and pairs" or "me ma innit".

cereberus said:

Every Brit knows meaning of 'Taking the Piss' (Extracting the Urine in polite company!)

Yeah, I have never heard that one before!

cereberus said:

What is funny to Brits is when our friends across the Pond say they are pissed i.e. angry. In UK, to be pissed means to be drunk. We use term 'pissed off' to mean angry.

Yeah, "pissed" is just short for "pissed off" in the US.