I have Acronis and use it regularly (I've had Acronis for several years/several versions). I make full backups of my hard drive (all partitions) to a second hard drive. Cloning is when you want to make an exact copy (clone) of your hard drive to another drive. Backup is when you make a full "backup" of your hard drive so you can restore it if needed. With the backup you can access the backup copy and recover individual files from the backup if needed. I always make full hard drive backups, I do not use the "incremental" backup method as it can become confusing and will take more time to recover if a full hard drive recovery is needed.
However, neither the Clone or Backup can be used if you get a new PC, except for your backed up "user data". Programs will have to be installed on the new PC, you can't just copy them or "restore" them from backups. Even the backed up user data will have to be handled a little differently as you may not be able to "restore" the backed up user data to the original locations - they may change with a new PC.
Keep in mind a backup is just a copy of what you have on the hard drive, you don't want to have the only copy of any data just in the "backup" file. If you have the only copy in the "backup file" then you do not have a backup.
fireberd
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August 13th, 2010 05:00
I have Acronis and use it regularly (I've had Acronis for several years/several versions). I make full backups of my hard drive (all partitions) to a second hard drive. Cloning is when you want to make an exact copy (clone) of your hard drive to another drive. Backup is when you make a full "backup" of your hard drive so you can restore it if needed. With the backup you can access the backup copy and recover individual files from the backup if needed. I always make full hard drive backups, I do not use the "incremental" backup method as it can become confusing and will take more time to recover if a full hard drive recovery is needed.
However, neither the Clone or Backup can be used if you get a new PC, except for your backed up "user data". Programs will have to be installed on the new PC, you can't just copy them or "restore" them from backups. Even the backed up user data will have to be handled a little differently as you may not be able to "restore" the backed up user data to the original locations - they may change with a new PC.
Keep in mind a backup is just a copy of what you have on the hard drive, you don't want to have the only copy of any data just in the "backup" file. If you have the only copy in the "backup file" then you do not have a backup.