1/27/08

Why Clone?


You've all heard ad-nauseum about how important it is to backup your computer files. I submit that a data or file backup is just one part of the equation. The other is cloning.

Cloning is a much different type of backup. Let me compare/contrast for a moment. With "standard" backups, you run jobs to create copies of your most important files - your precious digital photos, word processing documents, and so forth. You backup on a frequent basis, enabling you to recover a specific file from a specific point in time. It might be a basic, manual copy to a CD or keychain drive, but hey - you've got an extra copy of the stuff that's important to you. The goal of frequent and regular backups is to give you data recovery options.

A clone, on the other hand, is just what its name implies - an exact replica of your hard drive, including not only your files but the Windows or Mac operating system itself and the drive's boot settings (its "DNA"), plus all applications and settings. The goal of cloning is to give you disaster recovery options.

Cloning involves either launching a special application that can take "snapshots" or copies of data, even off of disk drives you're currently booted into, or booting from a special CD or floppy disk. Next the data from your hard drive is written to files on another hard drive. It could be an external USB or firewire drive, a secondary internal drive, or even CDRs or DVD-Rs. Those clone files are also called disk images. Products for cloning include Symantec Ghost and Acronis on the Windows side, and SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner on the Mac side. There are others as well; these are just the ones I'm familiar with. Note than any of these four sites will provide more information about what cloning is and why it's important.

I mentioned before that the goal of cloning is to give you disaster recover options. Imagine right now that a water pipe broke in the ceiling above your basement office, and water trickled down overnight onto your computer and fried it. Your insurance company will probably pick up the tab for a replacement computer, but they can't very well help you get back your bookmarks, address book, financial files, digital photos, and even your favorite games.

Now, if you did standard backups to a separate drive and you have that drive stashed away, you at least know you've got your data. But think of the time it's going to take to set up Windows and your programs all over again! If you've got a cloned version of your hard drive, however, what would take several days is only going to take a few hours. You don't have to dig out all your serial numbers and CDs, reinstall Windows, deal with re-activating software, and reset all your personalized program settings such as bookmarks, desktop preferences, and so forth.

The best of all possible worlds is to have a regular, automated data backup system - nightly or weekly, and clone once every few months. Or clone right before you make any major changes to your system, so that if something goes wrong you can go "back in time" when things still worked. And if your computer data is critically important - if it's a major part of your livelihood - consider storing backup and clone drives off-site. I keep a clone and data drive for my home system in a drawer at my office, and vice-versa.

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