Cloning only gives you one copy per drive. This can be helpful if you download a virus and need to roll back to an earlier disk image. Taking an incremental backup snapshot gives you the option to save multiple images without taking up a lot more space. Cloning is great for fast recovery, but imaging gives you a lot more backup options. So if you can’t afford to be without access to your data for long, this is your best choice. And that’s one of the primary benefits of cloning: it minimizes downtime. And imaging takes time, so cloning a drive often makes the most sense. But there are issues while trying to image a failing hard drive. Scenario 2: Replacing a Bad DriveĬloning makes a lot of sense if you’re moving your operating system and data to a new drive that will immediately be used to replace the old drive. This option usually gets you up and running with a new drive within a couple of hours. Image the old drive, deploy it directly to your new flash drive, and then yank your old drive.
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Install the flash drive alongside your old drive. If your current PC is stable and all you need it a larger drive, better options exist.Ģ. But it might be worth going this route if your current Windows installation is giving you problems. Pull your old drive, install the flash drive, and reinstall Windows and all of your programs on your new drive.
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So you decide to upgrade your primary mechanical hard drive to a speedy new flash drive. Say you keep getting reminders that you’re running out of disk space. For this example, taking an image beats cloning.
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And that brings us full circle: Cloning can get you up and running quickly, but it doesn’t offer as much flexibility as imaging. If a hard drive fails, you can remove it and replace it with the cloned drive. Because the image file itself is large, they are often saved to external drives or the cloud.ĭisk Cloning: Cloning creates an exact, uncompressed replica of your drive. You can then restore this file to bring your drive back to life. disk cloning.ĭisk Imaging: Imaging creates a large compressed file of your drive. So how do they differ? Let’s take a look at disk imaging vs. That includes all the files on the drives along with the master boot record and everything else your PC needs to boot in Windows. And both do achieve the same goal.īoth cloning and imaging create an exact record of your drive. You’re confused because both sound like they should work. One person tells you to clone your primary hard drive. And you don’t want to lose all your hard work to a hard drive failure. After running Windows Update, you’ve got your PC back to exactly how you like it. You then spent a few hours reinstalling all of your applications such as Office 365, Google Chrome, and Adobe Creative Suite. Let’s begin with an example: You recently installed a fresh copy of Windows on your PC. Defining Terms: Disk Imaging vs Disk Cloning We’ll define and then discuss a number of use cases for both imaging and cloning. At some companies, imaging has basically replaced cloning. IT pros have used both going back 20+ years.
But you should understand the benefits and downsides of both technologies before you make a decision to use either. Both imaging and cloning have a place in today’s workflow.