clone a cf-18 hard drive

I have 3 cf-18's, tablets, to load new operating systems and drivers on. Is there any easier way to do this rather than using the restore disks on each. Can the hard drive's be cloned to make it easier?

 

Yup! As long as you have the same model. I always use the acronis software.


ohlip

 

Acronis can do it. Even to a dissimilar drive if you get the right pieces of software from them. It's worth the investment if you make more than the federal minimum wage

Don't tell them I said so, but if you have more social engineering skills than a banana slug they will send you all the code on a trial basis.

 

So, I have never attempted thisbefore , can I get some step by step instruction on how to do it. I'm not a techie so let's not go way over my head

 

I doesn't have all the features of the Acronis software, but a great free imaging tool is Macrium Reflect. I've used it for years and found it completely reliable. If there are no hardware differences it should be all you need.

 

A little off topic but, after using Acronis for years, I just nuked and paved the CF-30 (don't ask) and after carefully rebuilding the C: drive with everything I had on it before the issue, I partitioned the drive and loaded about 100GB of files on the D: partition. I don't usually partition the onboard drive, but the new 320GB single platter Samsung is too big for one partition. So I go to save a clone of the all set up C: and then I find out that Acronis will only clone at disk level, not at partition level,(w*t*f is profanity? AGFY) ! Anyone know of a good Acronis like program that will clone at the partition level?
CAP

 

I think the pro version of Acronis does that if you get some extra ISO's (Irritating Software Omissions?).

http://kb.acronis.com:80/content/6042

 

Thanks for the feed back, but what I wanted to do was just save a clone of the 40GB C: on an old but good 40GB IDE drive. I don't want to put this drive together again, once was enough. Acronis will resize a partition, but it will only clone a bootable image of the entire physical drive. Sooo... what I had to do was move the whole 100GB of files off the new drive, delete the D: partition, clone the drive, and then move all 100GB of files back on to the internal drive. It just doesn't seem that it would be that hard to enable the software to clone just the partition rather than the whole physical drive. I was hoping one of the gurus had experience with something as handy as Acronis, or close, but with the partition level functionality.
CAP

 

I've done that with Clonezilla. You can do each partition separately to an image on an external Hard Drive.

 

Thank you sir, I'll check it out. I prefer to get my software reviews here rather than from the vast interwebs. We generally have a better class of folks here.
CAP

 

Again, I can recommend Macrium Reflect for this. I always divide my drives into an installation and a data partition, and I back up the installation one with Reflect.

Golfcartqueen asked for detailed instructions so I'll go over that here. First though, I have to question whether cloning the hard drive is the correct solution. You say you have 3 CF-18s to load Windows and drivers on. Is your idea to do it on one and then clone that to the other three?

The problem with this is that you'll be using the same license for all three, which is obviously bad and wrong...

And the other thing is, it doesn't really save you any trouble. Those restoration discs are hard disk images just like you'd be making by cloning the first one - but ready made. So there probably is no easier way than to use the restoration discs.

But, once you have Windows and its (many!) updates and all your preferred software installed, and everything set up just how you want, I think it would be a very, very good idea to image them then. In that way, in case of a hd failure you can be back working again in less than an hour instead of more than a day.

So, How To Make An Image:

1) You'll need an external hard drive you can connect to by USB or over a network, a USB CD burner, and Macrium Reflect Free. (Other programs may do the job just as well but this is what I use.)

2) Download and install the program, then any available updates.

3) When asked, use the burner to create a Rescue CD. You have a choice to make one using Linux or Windows - I recommend the Linux version as it's actually simpler, believe it or not. Keep this safe. (It makes sense to burn more than one.)

4) Use the Reflect program to create an image. This is a very straightforward process with few choices. Choose the disk (or partition) you want to clone, and the destination to copy it too (most logically the external drive, but a different partition works too). There are other options, like changing how much the image is compressed (smaller = slower) but the default options are right for most people.

5) Once the image is made, Reflect can test it if you like.

To Restore From an Image, or Clone it to a New Destination:

1) Plug in the CD drive, insert the Rescue CD and boot from it. (You may need to set your BIOS to boot from a USB device. Press f2 when prompted during boot.

2) This launches a basic version of Reflect you can use to navigate to your image and expand it to whatever drive or partition you want.

It's really quite simple. I recommend doing it a few times a year, whenever the computer is running well.

 

I would recommend using SysPrep for situations such as this. It is provided by Microsoft on the installation discs for just such a purpose--cloning a single image onto multiple computers. An important caveat is that it really only works well when the target computers are all of the same (or at least very similar) hardware/device driver configuration (differences in things that aren't driver dependent, such as RAM aren't an issue).

If not using a Volume License disc, my experiences is that there is a limit on the number of times you can re-run SysPrep on a single image before you have to start over, but with a Volume License disc, there is no limit to the number of times you can SysPrep a disc, open it back up, make changes, and re-SysPrep the disc.

When creating a SysPrep image, not only can the driver setup be created, but any base software installations can also be performed. Thus, once you are ready to run SysPrep and then create the master image, you could potentially have a disk image that is ready to go right away.

It can be done, and it saves a lot of trouble once the master image has been created. I've used this approach for deploying a standard disk image onto hundreds of ruggedized mobile computers. Once a machine was reimaged and then rebooted, it would run through some completely automated initialization scripts and then it was ready to go--no intervention required.

 

Yeah... for mass-deployment, ESPECIALLY over a network, SYSPREP is one of the things MS did RIGHT. Of course, you would expect that... need to make as easy as possible to infect as many PCs as possible... err, upgrade as many PCs as possible to keep their customers happy. :wink:

mnem<~~~ Currently deployed in first-stage parenthood ~~~<<<

PS - My thanks to those deployed overseas who make it possible for me to be here - may you all be home safe with your families as soon as possible.

 

I as well, have used the clonezilla with success and it came with a usb to SATA/IDE adapter model no. ADA-2020-D kit that I've used at least a dozen times so far. It comes with a list of instructions that guide you thru the process and have other options as well. I'll try and find the buyer I purchased it from and let you know........Driller
a seller on fleabay info-on-cd has just the software, queenmicro has the kit that I purchased..Driller

 

Hey Driller,
Clonezilla is itself free. I monitor Distrowatch and they post when new releases come out. I try to stay at least within two releases of whats current.

 

sounds even better, I guess you can download it and do your homework and cloning without having to wait. Old school here, I got the kit with disc and instructions and was up and running in about 24 min. We got about 10 inches of snow today and is still snowing temps around 20. Looks like cabin fever is about to set in, my wife has been carrying a knife around with her and looks a bit dangerous............Driller

 

I'd be keeping an eye on her! A woman with a knife is dangerous in the best of times!

I'll assume the seller was selling it as a kit to promote his wares. Makes sense, selling his as a ready to package compared to the others selling hardware only.
I have a few here that are USB to SATA when friends ask me to look at their laptop that needs a new drive, and the local stores have USB drives on clearance. I was buying larger drives than what was original for about 2/3 the cost at Micro Center OEM drives.