We all know that computers have a very unpleasant property of breaking at the most unexpected moment. The moment is more unexpected, the less often you performed diagnostics of the main computer components. The hard drive most often fails, so cloning a hard drive should be the rule for any user who cares about the safety of his personal data.
By the way, what is it? In this case, by cloning is meant not the creation of a second Dolly sheep, but a complete copying of all the information that is recorded on the hard drive of a computer or laptop. Gone are the days when only professionals needed such data protection measures. Today, creating a hard disk image is more important than ever for ordinary home users who have accumulated a large number of unique home photos and video files.
This is very justified, because current backup programs are so simple that even a novice can deal with them. By the way, how do you know if it's time to clone a hard drive? Our advice to you: do not be lazy, but rather check it with special diagnostic programs (like Defragger). If such an application starts to show a sharp increase in the number of bad sectors and reading errors, then this is a sure sign of a serious malfunction and an occasion for quick emergency measures.
For beginners, the best way out of this situation is to use Acronis TrueImage. It is easy to learn and incorporates an intuitive wizard that will make cloning a hard drive even easier. To start the process, you just need to double-click the left mouse button on the "Clone Disk" icon located in the main application window.
A dialog box opens in which you should select automatic mode. It will be necessary to select the primary disk from which the system image and the receiver disk will begin to be written off. Note! If the size of the original hard drive is larger than the size of the "recipient", then copying will be impossible. Make sure that the source and receiver are selected correctly, and then click "Next." All partitions are deleted from the target disk. To do this, a check box is placed in the corresponding field of the dialog box that appears, then again click on “Next”.
Actually, that’s all! The program will independently check the disks for errors, after which it will block them and begin copying information. Needless to say, power surges and blackouts are highly undesirable at this time , so please stock up on reliable UPSs in advance. For the safety of information, it is better to use a reliable external drive, placed in a shockproof housing.
What else do you need to know? First of all, do such a copy at least once a month or even once a week, if you constantly work with valuable data. Always remember that simply cloning a hard drive can save your money and nerves, so never forget about it!