Cloning two 3TB hard drive to two 3TB external hard drives

Hi all,

After almost losing most of my data I want to start a good back-up routine.

My computer has two internal 3TB hard-drives. I have ordered two external USB 3 3TB hard-drives.

I thinking about buying HDClone 'Standard Edition', but I want to make sure it's right for me before I buy.

I want it to be a completely exact copy.

Does HDClone clone 3TB hard-drives? (I saw that some software only clones hard-drives up to 1TB)

Do you think I should buy it?

Thanks!

 

Remember that Cloning means the Target Drives are PRECISELY "the same OR larger" than the original drives. If the original drivers are 2,974,442 formatted and the Target drives are 2,974,308, you MAY have problems. It doesn't take a lot to be 'smaller', in other words.

Before I plan on software, I make sure the drives fit this important criteria.

I can test out some freebie stuff (Macrium Reflect is one example, or if I'm getting Seagates or WDs, they often include a clone-capable package themselves). I don't want to discourage buying good software - I find the best packages have extensive partitioning services, too - making smaller or larger partitions based on Actual Usage rather than some synthetic boundary.

We do a lot of cloning for Boot SSDs, and our practice is to buy two identical drives. Build one up, load all the software, let the user mess it for a few days, then clone it to the 'cold' identical unit. And then make the users switch that 2nd drive for actual usage. If there's a problem, then the original's intact.

Since your 3Tb drives probably aren't your boot drives but are 'just data drives', I wonder about the time spent cloning instead of "just copying what I want to save" directly.

 

Unless your drives are substantially full you would be far better off imaging them rather than cloning them, as the latter would take forever. Imaging gives you the same end result as cloning, in that the two drives will be functionally identical, even boot drives, but the space occupied by an image will be a mere fraction of the original due to imaging not copying empty sectors and the data compression techniques used. There are many imaging programs available, including several free ones. Ask if you would like more info.

For data files only you could also use any of the myriad of backup programs available as Christine has suggested.

 

Maybe I misled you a little there. When you clone you do end up with two identical drives, but when you image you get a file that can be restored either to the original drive or to another drive and the drive to which you restore will be functionally identical to the original. Thought I'd correct that before someone else does

 

For me, the Backup Process is argued poorly. The REAL value of backups only comes in the Restore Process. Making the backup easy and quick is nice, but Restore is where the real issues become pronounced. To me, making the Restore Process easy AND certain is the biggest issue. NOT the backup process.

The choice between Imaging, Cloning or Just Making Copies should be examined from the Restore Side - NOT the backup side. In other words, I'd counsel asking a user, "How will this be used?"

Will I need to replace an entire drive immediately when it fails?

If so, then Cloning is the solution.

If a drive fails, do I need to replace it immediately, OR can I order a replacement and restore the contents later on?

Then Imaging offers many benefits, as Earthling well described.

Or has the user more frequently deleted files or folders accidentally, and they need a quick Restore?

This calls for Simple Copy-Backups.

I see 100-to-1 Accidental Deletions to Hard Drive failures.

Cloning is nice. Imaging is nice. But in real world experience, I see that "making Restores by Files & Folders easier" is the most useful option.

But each user has their goals. Fortunately, if someone gets two additional 3Tb drives, they could test all the scenarios and end up using the tried-and-true Best For Them choice.

 

Thanks everyone.

I have looked into imaging, but I didn't want to compress my photos and music.

What I'm thinking about doing now is making an image of my 'boot' hard drive, and having all of my photos, music, videos, etc on the other hard drive which I do a 'copy back-up' of.

Although, at the same time I like the idea of cloning because I could use the hard drive right away if I needed to.

What imaging software do you recommend?

 

That's the same basic approach I have used for years - system on one drive and all my personal files on another, though I use partitions rather than physical drives. My routine is a manual Acronis system image about every two weeks and my personal files daily using WinRAR, set to run automatically. It works well.

It's a myth that you could simply substitute a cloned drive and carry on as if nothing had happened. Cloning drives of that size is a tedious business as you will discover, and your clone is likely to be rather out-of-date when you need it. Imaging is far quicker and more practical and it doesn't have any adverse effect on music or photos whatsoever.

 

Hmmm, we've been successful in several thousand mythic examples then, and for a couple of decades. But I'm talking about Boot Drive Clones which, in my opinion, can be time-sensitive replacements for money-making production purposes.

For a 3Tb data-drive, like Earthling elaborates, Cloning would be a last choice for me.

I could imagine taking Earthling's Acronics (or Macrium Reflect or ??) and creating Images of my Data Drives onto one 3Tb drive.

Then using my other 3Tb drive to do even-more frequent simple COPYs of my files from my 'constant use' drives onto this backup drive.

This would provide a swiftness of Recovery Operations on one hand, and the completeness on the other. The chances of both 3Tb drives dying at the same time are mitigated on something like frequency of nuclear blasts and ELE type comet strikes!

 

Hi all,

What I ended up doing was buying Acronis True Image 2014.

I do a image of my system hard drive with Acronis, and make a copy of my file hard drive using SyncToy.

All works well, and doesn't take all that long!

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

That's the stuff! Just be sure you have a working Acronis Rescue CD for the day the system won't boot, and that you test it.

 

Thanks. I tested it today, and it works!