A Windows XP help forum. PCbanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PCbanter forum » Microsoft Windows 7 » Windows 7 Forum
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

What exactly is copied when cloning?



 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #16  
Old December 9th 18, 10:23 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Ant[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 554
Default Clonezilla ( What exactly is copied when cloning?)

I forgot to mention the way I back up and restore is partitions and
images. For an example, back up my Windows' C drive to an image. Verify
the image is still good with its tester. And then restore that image
back to C: when needed. That's all I do. I do anything else fancy.
Clonezilla confused me on how to do that like in TUI & GUI programs.
They even show MS' volume labels (e.g., C: is labelled C-64W7hpe) to
make things easier.

Ant wrote:
Speaking of Clonezilla, is it me or is it hard to use as a newbie? I can
handle Ghost (since early 2002), TruImage, O&O DiskImage, and Reflect
with their bootable discs. Clonezilla is so technical and confusing!



Shadow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2018 17:27:09 -0600, swalker wrote:


I think it depends on the software and the settings.
Clonezilla (by default) only copies referenced clusters, so the clone
image is much smaller than the original partition. (it goes on to
compress the image, but that is not what you want to know).


AOMEI gives you a choice, copy bit by bit or only files.


DD (Linux) copies every single byte, so is more suitable for
forensics. IOW, the copy will have every file fragment of the
original, which can be recovered for malware research.


If you are just making a backup, go with Clonezilla or AOMEI.


I'm sure Paul will step in with a more correct description.
And descriptions of what Macrium, Acronis and Ghost do (I've never
used them)

[]'s


--
Quote of the Week: "When the water rises the fish eat the ants, when the water falls the ants eat the fish." --Thai Proverb
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org /
/ /\ /\ \ http://antfarm.ma.cx. Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )
Ads
  #17  
Old December 9th 18, 10:41 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Shadow
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,638
Default Clonezilla ( What exactly is copied when cloning?)

On Sun, 09 Dec 2018 15:23:23 -0600, (Ant) wrote:

I forgot to mention the way I back up and restore is partitions and
images. For an example, back up my Windows' C drive to an image. Verify
the image is still good with its tester. And then restore that image
back to C: when needed. That's all I do. I do anything else fancy.
Clonezilla confused me on how to do that like in TUI & GUI programs.
They even show MS' volume labels (e.g., C: is labelled C-64W7hpe) to
make things easier.


That's actually easier than cloning. All you have to do is say
which partition you want to backup and where to put the image. There
is no risk of overwriting a partition.
Clonezilla will tar.gz (compact) the image for you, so it'll
be much smaller than the actual partition.
Read the docs on the site.
[]'s

Ant wrote:
Speaking of Clonezilla, is it me or is it hard to use as a newbie? I can
handle Ghost (since early 2002), TruImage, O&O DiskImage, and Reflect
with their bootable discs. Clonezilla is so technical and confusing!



Shadow wrote:
On Fri, 07 Dec 2018 17:27:09 -0600, swalker wrote:


I think it depends on the software and the settings.
Clonezilla (by default) only copies referenced clusters, so the clone
image is much smaller than the original partition. (it goes on to
compress the image, but that is not what you want to know).


AOMEI gives you a choice, copy bit by bit or only files.


DD (Linux) copies every single byte, so is more suitable for
forensics. IOW, the copy will have every file fragment of the
original, which can be recovered for malware research.


If you are just making a backup, go with Clonezilla or AOMEI.


I'm sure Paul will step in with a more correct description.
And descriptions of what Macrium, Acronis and Ghost do (I've never
used them)

[]'s

--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012
  #18  
Old December 10th 18, 06:11 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
swalker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 67
Default What exactly is copied when cloning?

On Sat, 08 Dec 2018 12:39:58 -0500, Paul
wrote:

swalker wrote:

As to the original question, I still don't know for sure what Acronis
does.

Time to move on. Not that I didn't learn something, just not what I
expected and that is OK.

Thanks to all for the responses.


With either of the two disks as the boot device, try

cmd # open an administrator command prompt window
diskpart
list disk
select disk 1 # salt to taste
detail disk # look for DiskID
exit

Compare the two DiskIDs and see that they're different.

That would be an example, of the "not-exact" nature
of a good clone. If the DiskID is different, and
the drive still boots, it means the BCD file on
each drive is now subtly different. And that's
a good thing, as these changes are intended to
allow the two disks to be inside the computer
at the same time, without causing problems
(offline disk in Disk Management).

Seeing a different DiskID is proof of good workmanship.

You can do

bcdedit

and see that the dump on the two different disks, is
also different (modified). The long-string-identifiers
in there will be different.

Paul


Thanks Paul, the next time I do a clone I will check that.

That would be an example, of the "not-exact" nature
of a good clone. If the DiskID is different, and
the drive still boots, it means the BCD file on
each drive is now subtly different.


About the snip above. I am using Acronis and have for years through
various editions. Because I have spare bays I used them for the
cloning operation for years with no problem. In late 2016 or 2017
Acronis made some type of change and the clone would no longer boot as
Acronis had changed the drive letter to something like CD). That
may not be exact but is close.

The obvious answer was to change the drive letter but I could not
because the system doesn't allow 2 exact C drives even if one was
CD).

So I booted from BIOS and then was able to change the drive letter.

All that to say this; maybe the BCD file each drive was exactly the
same.

Thanks.
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off






All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:23 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PCbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.