Reliable Cloning

[Terry Smythe]

I have a 5 1/4 caddy containing 2 SSD drives, both are C: drive, OS/software only. Every couple weeks, I clone one to the other via XXCLONE, been reliable for years, always have a reliable backup. Recently, XXCLONE seems to have been abandoned, no longer works, current downloads no longer install. What experience have others achieving reliable cloning to a bootable drive? I've tried several utilities that purport to clone, but so far I've not found one that works. They all "copy", but fail to boot. Thoughts of others?
Regards,
Terry

 

[Grizzly]

Does it have to be a clone or would an Image be sufficient as well??
I am not a friend of cloning as I do Images. It may be a little more work but so far I've never had a problem...

 

[Terry Smythe]

Does it have to be a clone or would an Image be sufficient as well??
I am not a friend of cloning as I do Images. It may be a little more work but so far I've never had a problem...

Thank you for your observation, appreciated. I'm frankly not comfortable with the "image" approach. If my C; drive fails to boot, I would have no way to execute the image recovery process. Just hedging my options, to ensure I will always have a bootable C: drive with all my software up to a week previous..

 

[clifford_cooley]

That's why recovery software has boot disk in case of boot failure. Maybe you should consider a Raid 1 drive configuration, as it mirrors your data in real time.

 

[davehc]

If my C; drive fails to boot, I would have no way to execute the image recovery process. Just hedging my options, to ensure..

I, like Grizzly, prefer the image approach. But, perhaps you have had a bnad experience with image recovery.? All third party image programs have the option to make (once only) a boot disk. In the event of a total shutdown of your computer, your last image can be reinstated.

 

[Grizzly]

Thank you for your observation, appreciated. I'm frankly not comfortable with the "image" approach. If my C; drive fails to boot, I would have no way to execute the image recovery process. Just hedging my options, to ensure I will always have a bootable C: drive with all my software up to a week previous..

When one does an image, one does not create it from within the OS, always with a bootable disc (CD/DVD/Flash drive). As I said before, I'd never had a problem with restoring an Image.

[edit]
Have you tried Clonezilla yet??
http://clonezilla.org/

 

[davehc]

Another very important point, if you are not familiar with the procedure. It is important that the image is save in an accessible place. An extra partition is good, but, in the unlikely event of a hd failure, then useless. An external drive is the better solution..

 

[Grizzly]

agreed. Myself is using a WD My Passport drive to store my images and, it may sound paranoid, a copy of those on another external HDD just for safety reasons.

[edit]
Did some research on XXClone. It is suppose to support Windows 10 in all versions.

http://www.xxclone.com/iproduct.htm

 

[Norton]

Grizzly I may be paranoid too. I create regular images on 2 separate external HDDs, one image is created using Acronis and the second using AomeiBackupper.

 

[Terry Smythe]

Many thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. I do not deny that the "image" approach has merit. But if it needs a boot disk as a functional backup, how does that differ from a bootable cloned C: drive? For whatever reason, a reliable utility that has been around for several years, XXCLONE, appears to have been abandoned. I know to be Win10 compatible, is still there in the Pixelab website, but both the Freeware and TestDrive versions no longer work, and emails to them over past couple weeks go unanswered. Very disappointing.

I did try CloneZilla, but for whatever reason, could not get any of its 3 versions to install in Win10. Maybe finger trouble on my part? I also tried Acronis and Aomei unsuccessfully. BTW, I'm not a newbie, been using personal computers since late 70's in the fondly remembered CP/M era. These failures now have me wondering if my 2 year old target SSD drive may be reaching end of its useful life. Thoughts of others?

Regards,
Terry

 

[Grizzly]

These failures now have me wondering if my 2 year old target SSD drive may be reaching end of its useful life. Thoughts of others?

Could you elaborate a little regarding your SSD drive (Brand/Model)?
You can check your SSD drive with this:
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
or you can use SSDLife:
https://ssd-life.com/eng/help/index.html
This is what I am using to check the status of my drives (I have a Samsung 750 EVO and two OWC Mercury Electra 6G).
I just finished cloning my OWC to the Samsung and it works like a dream and took only 10 minutes to do so (with Acronis 2011 - on a stick)

 

[Terry Smythe]

At this moment, my system (Win10 Home Premium 64bit, i3-4150, is running on a Crucial M4, DPACH81020 - 256 gig, and I'm trying to clone to an ADATA SP550-240gig. Yesterday I bought a new SilicanPower Sata III S55 240gig, which I'm about to try again. I also have an older Plextor PX512M5Pro 512gig, and another ADATA SP550 240gig, Your thoughts?

 

[clifford_cooley]

Have you tried running "XXCLONE" as an administrator? It is possible Windows 10 is preventing XXCLONE from accessing part of the OS unless it is run as an administrator, that is since it is an older application. It may seem strange but I have run across this several times myself in Windows 10, and never had issues like it in any other version of Windows.

 

[Norton]

clifford Would it not ask a user for Administrator permission if that was a requirement.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Requirement is not the way to look at it. The program is more than likely old enough, it doesn't know how to function with Windows 10's permissions. But then again I don't know. All I know is I have had some programs act weird or not at all, until I ran them as an admin.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

...
1. Recently, XXCLONE seems to have been abandoned, no longer works, current downloads no longer install. 2. What experience have others achieving reliable cloning to a bootable drive?
3. I've tried several utilities that purport to clone, but so far I've not found one that works.
4. They all "copy", but fail to boot....

1. They say it supports WinXP thru Win10. May not yet support Anniversary Update.
2. Clones very rarely boot, since the advent of the System Partition in WinVista.
3. Macrium Reflect; restored images always boot; images are half the size of a clone, since they are compressed..
4. Don't use cloning software.

 

[Terry Smythe]

Have you tried running "XXCLONE" as an administrator? It is possible Windows 10 is preventing XXCLONE from accessing part of the OS unless it is run as an administrator, that is since it is an older application. It may seem strange but I have run across this several times myself in Windows 10, and never had issues like it in any other version of Windows.

Interesting question, if it was actually possible. The current problem with both the free version and the TestDrive version is that neither will even install. Both are blocked by - ...version expired... or ....design life expired..... Beginning to look like XXCLONE has been abandoned, although the Pixelab site is still active, although emails to it go unanswered.

 

[clifford_cooley]

The current problem with both the free version and the TestDrive version is that neither will even install. Both are blocked by - ...version expired... or ....design life expired.....

I'm not sure if relevant or not, but I recently ran into the same type of problem with CCleaner. Windows refused to let it run or install. With a bit of irony, Windows would however allow CCleaner to uninstall. The kicker here is I knew the version would run. I'd had it running on the very same machine as well as others. The only thing I knew to do was reinstall Windows.

For reference to my CCleaner issue.
https://www.windows10forums.com/thr...-on-this-version-of-windows.11728/#post-55937

So just because you are having issues with an application (as in only one), doesn't mean a fresh install wouldn't fix it.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

Change the name of the install file to setup.exe (or anything except the default).

 

[Terry Smythe]

Assuming XXCLONE really has been abandoned, a search for an alternate came up with several candidates. After unsuccessfully trying them all, Clonezilla emerged to my attention.

For my computer, Windows 10 Home 64bit, AMD3+ cpu, it seems that Clonzilla works. Yesterday, I tried working with Clonezilla, has a steep learning curve. My first attempt was from a 256 SSD drive to a 512 SSD drive. The target 512 SSD drive was set up as a full 512 gig partition, but when the clone process completed, the target was now a 256 gig drive. I extended the 256 to the full 512 and to my disappointment, the drive is no longer bootable. All the files are there untouched. In theory, perhaps I could have set up the remaining 256 as another partition/drive, but I chose not to do so.

I chose to visit Memory Express this morning and picked up a 256 SSD drive. After setting it up as a 256 empty formatted drive, I restarted Clonzilla and this time, the clone emerged consuming the full 256 gigs and booted normally.

There is nothing in the Clonzilla documentation that indicates that both source and target drives should be same size. I chose the TuxBoot approach to create a bootable USB stick running Clonezilla. Looks like it is running under an OpenSource operating system, very crude graphic display. But it works. Stay tuned....