Blogs Attack of the Clones

There's a level of snappiness and responsiveness that you get from a newly built PC, which you just can't seem to maintain, no matter how often you de-fragment your hard disk or clean your registry...

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2011/01/02/attack-of-the-clones/

 

I find it quick enough to just do a full re-install most times (especially if you only count the time you actually have to do something).
With an old image, by the time you've updated everything, and installed the programs/games you've installed since you took the image it's about the same. (although it's obviously a much easier option if you have multiple PCs. At work I use Microsoft's Windows Deployment Services, which is perfect for a business environment, and is free).
Oh, and for everyone who re-installs a lot of PCs, check out http://ninite.com/ it creates a custom installer with all of the programs you want to install. Much quicker than individually downloading and installing everything separately. Saved my a good hour or two in the few months I've been using it.

 

I think all you need to do on Linux or cygwin on windows to clone an unmounted disk is this:

$ dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

 

I've been burned too many times over the years by these so called idiot proof backup solutions...

The 'Great data crash and burn' of 2006 is still a painful memory for me..(

Messing around with partitions has caused me more grief than any hardware failures, i can tell you that.

Now i just keep a basic 50GB Windows OS install which has enough space for a few games and the apps that i use. Everything else i keep on a seperate 2TB hdrive, and whenever i feel the need for that 'Fresh and clean' install, it takes just an afternoon to re-install the OS....

Which is a hell of alot quicker than trying to re-download hundreds of GB's of stuff on a crappy 3.5mb connection.

 

I too have a disk image of a nice fresh install of Win 7 using Windows own image software.

I also use Carbonite to remotely back up my main documents, photo's etc. For the videos, that I keep on my server, I back them up to an external hard drive.

 

At work we used DriveImage XML booting from a BartPE image on a USB hard drive to clone our Windows machines. It's free for personal use but can get a little picky about restoring backups to partitions that have shrunk, even if the data size isn't too large for the space available.

EDIT: It appears the latest DriveImage XML can image a drive in use as long as you have the Windows Volume Shadow service running (or Volume Shadow Copy as it was named in XP IIRC).

 

For the initial windows and key programs I installed I use my main hard drive paired with a smaller old one in raid 1. If anything goes wrong with the primary drive install I can just hook up the spare and be back on in minutes while it rebuilds.
I keep all my documents backed up separately.

 

I have an old 120GB IDE HDD with a full back-up of a clean install with all programs installed and updated including Anti-Virus and Windows Updates. It takes about 1.5Hours to recover and all I need to do is run a couple updates and install games.

The main thing I like about this way of back-up and recovery is not having to reconfigure Outlook and reset all the rules which can be a real pain.

All my data: Docs, MP3s, Vids... etc are on a seperate HDD.

The main thing I hate has nothing to do with the back-up itself, more to do with certain games. For example: Any Codemasters game is almost impossible to reload game save files forcing you to restart every time.

Oh... I use Acronis True Image Home 2011...

 

Well not unless you delve deep into the hidden folders on your OS root directory and save a couple of folders that contain the save data...

Doing this i've been able to backup my save games for GRID and Dirt2 and continue where i left off after a fresh OS install...

 

I do use Acronis and I'm very happy with it.
I've got a mirror partition (Raid 1) where I store a system image and files backup. Also I do make regular full and differential backups.

 

I also keep WoW and Steam on a separate hard drive, good way of making sure they don't need reinstalling.

 

i use hd clone pro, but not just for my system, but for customers machines as well, if i have to do work on a hd, i clone it first

 

Please elaborate then... as every article I have read has been unsuccessful. I have previously found game save info in two different locations and some people have also suggested that it is tied to the 'Windows Live' details... all attempts have returned the result of 'Game Save Data Corrupted'.

 

Glad to see you talk so highly of Acronis True Image 2011, as I just ordered a copy a couple of days ago from amazon £20.97.

 

For Dirt 2 just start a new save game. Once you have done the first race save the game and exit to windows.

Now navigate to C:\Users\YourUsernmameHere\Documents\My Games\DiRT2\savegame

Instead of copying your entire savegame folder which will be named something like PB0171440, just move the save game files contained with you old folder of similar name into PB0171440 or whatever your savegame folder may be.

I had the same problem only this morning, just on F1 2010 I think they work in the same way (GTAIV is the same way also)

 

as a long term windows user, i COMPLETELY agree with this article and i know exactly how that feels. however, as a currently extensive linux user, i find it funny and relieving that i don't have to deal with those problems. i really wonder where all the poor performance comes from in windows when all i do is browse a few websites and play a game here and there. with linux i can install large programs, replace them with others, and run updates every day and it actually performs better than when i first installed it.

btw, just because a program is free it doesn't mean it isn't credible or reliable. again, linux is a good example of this. its used in almost every server - computers that MUST have a reliable OS.

 

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

It's free, fast and I never had a problem with it.

 

+1 for Macrium

 

Incredible. I wish i'd found ninite before. I reinstall all the time, and install fresh systems for friends. This will save me hours.

 

Oh yeah, another benefit of using the windows imaging tool at work, is that you can inject drivers and .msi's into the image, and with Vista and 7's ability NOT to throw a complete wobbly when you boot it on new hardware, you can have one image and just apply it on everything, laptops to workstations. (XP basically requires a separate install of every type of hardware)
Of course, screwing around with unattend.xml will take a while at first.