Clone/image/? laptop drives?

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Susan G
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2015/07/31 00:43:37 (permalink)

Clone/image/? laptop drives?

Hi-
 
I've had desktop computers all my adult life and have no problem cloning drives, etc., with those, since I can just use an external drive (never had to use a cloned drive, knock wood.) I inherited a laptop a few years ago and I've been using Acronis True Image to backup my data files, but since I'm considering moving to Windows 10 at some point, I want to clone or image or something my laptop drives before I do so I can get back to square one if need be. [Maybe there's a rollback feature, but I'd still like to do this and feel like I should know how anyway.]
 
The Acronis site says "The new disk, to which you clone your older one, should be inside the laptop during the operation." I *really* would rather not open up the laptop unless absolutely necessary. Is there another way I can do what I want to do?
 
This is the laptop:
Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop
 
It has two hard drives and I have it set up as a dual boot with Windows 7 x64 on one and Win 8.1 x64 on the other.
 
TIA for any advice. Laptops make me nervous, for some reason.
 
-Susan

2.30 gigahertz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 16 GB RAM
Windows 10 x64; NI Komplete Audio 6.
SONAR Platinum (Lexington) x64
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    slartabartfast
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    Re: Clone/image/? laptop drives? 2015/07/31 12:41:49 (permalink)
    OK the operation is to image the current disk in your laptop to external storage. That image does not have to be made to a disk inside your laptop. What they are saying is that when you restore that image back to the laptop it should be done to a disk that is installed in the laptop--rather than restoring it in another computer or drive caddy, and then installing the restored disk into your laptop. So no need to remove the disk from the laptop at all if all you are doing is making an image, and restoring that image to the disk in the laptop. There are some issues with how the laptop identifies its installed disk that are avoided by already having the disk in place when you load the image onto it.
     
    Actually "cloning" a drive like cloning a sheep implies creating two organisms. Like when you are moving a system from a smaller to a larger drive. What you need to do is image and (possibly) restore to the same drive. If you are dual booting you can image the partitions separately, and restore them separately, but it is more complex because of boot loader issues. I am not yet clear on what happens to your old system if you 'upgrade' to Win 10. If there is a way to revert, then the Windows installer must preserve the old system in an inactive form. If you have a dual boot, which system do you plan to upgrade? Will Windows upgrade installer give you a choice? Will it just automatically download to the drive you use to access the internet when it is pushed by Microsoft, and install to that drive?
    post edited by slartabartfast - 2015/07/31 13:51:52
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    Susan G
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    Re: Clone/image/? laptop drives? 2015/07/31 18:40:24 (permalink)
    Hi David-
     
    Ah, I see (I think.) I was concerned about it not being bootable for some reason if I restored the image from an external drive, based on how Acronis described it, but maybe that's only for cloning(?). I'm not sure yet which OS I'm going to upgrade, but I was thinking I'd get separate installers for each since I thought MS would register it for the system you requested the upgrade from. You pose good questions, though. Maybe someone who's upgraded a dual boot system can chime in.
     
    Come to think of it, I had to do so many updates to my Win7 system I've lost track of whether I actually registered for a copy for that or not. I did register 10 for my Win 8.1, but I get a message saying it hasn't been validated yet and they're working on it or some such when I open the app.
     
    Thanks very much!
     
    -Susan
     
     

    2.30 gigahertz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 16 GB RAM
    Windows 10 x64; NI Komplete Audio 6.
    SONAR Platinum (Lexington) x64
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    Susan G
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    Re: Clone/image/? laptop drives? 2015/07/31 18:57:48 (permalink)
    BTW, I just found this:
     
    The Windows 10 upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 requires that you upgrade that installation. No dual boot option. If you want to dual boot, you need to purchase a brand new Windows 10 license.

     
    From <http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/free-upgrade-from-windows-7-to-windows-10-dual/29b232b2-ac67-45d6-be88-ac14b0c7bf8e?auth=1>
     
    That's fine, since I didn't want to upgrade both anyway; just thought it was good to know.
     
    -Susan

    2.30 gigahertz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 16 GB RAM
    Windows 10 x64; NI Komplete Audio 6.
    SONAR Platinum (Lexington) x64
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    slartabartfast
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    Re: Clone/image/? laptop drives? 2015/07/31 23:20:20 (permalink)
    If it were me, I would do nothing for six months. By then a Google search for 'dual boot Windows 10 upgrade fails" wll probably return some useful information.
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    Susan G
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    Re: Clone/image/? laptop drives? 2015/07/31 23:34:53 (permalink)
    slartabartfast
    If it were me, I would do nothing for six months. By then a Google search for 'dual boot Windows 10 upgrade fails" wll probably return some useful information.


    Sounds good to me. I'm in no rush.
     
    Thanks-
     
    -Susan

    2.30 gigahertz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 16 GB RAM
    Windows 10 x64; NI Komplete Audio 6.
    SONAR Platinum (Lexington) x64
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