whomung

dork question:

I'm looking at a few options for solid backup....

• Cloning my notebooks drive to a second, internal disk
• Cloning to an external USB disk
• Using Acronis to image the entire drive to an external USB disk partition

I don't really want to buy another drive right now --but I will for 100% bullet proof duplication.....

Short of that.... what is the best way to test the drive image Acronis makes for 100% validity?....

I don't want to do a "restore" on the original disk --if it's a bad image-- I'm hosed

Nor do I want to take Acronis word for it.... in case I ever actually need to use it....and they lied.........

Can I boot from the disk image on the external drive and run any apps? What's the best way to fully test image reliability? All helpful tips appreciated

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whomung

whomung

no answers????? No good ideas????

I just spent 24 hours *imaging* the drive on my backup machine to an external USB drive.....

I can't boot from the image (missing "ntloader") and to use acronis to check for image errors (which only tells me Acronis thinks the image is OK, not if it actually is --will take another 20 hours....

How do you KNOW you have a good image without restoring it.... Like I said, If I need to, I'll buy a new internal disk and clone it just to make sure.... But would rather not spend the the $100+ given the amount of external storage around here.

I do have one 100gig, 7200rpm WD external.... So I might try cloning that.... And see if it boots --but a "cloned disk is not an "disk image"....

Good advice would be helpful

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whomung