Cloning for Backup: who does it and how?

[corkyg]

Ok. But what exactly is the logic behind that? You still have to clone the internal drive to the external drive occasionally, and the "restore" procedure will be the same. Why not always keep the same drive in the machine and use the other for the clone/backup? Why all the drive swapping?

There is an added benefit that I have used for many years. By rotating drives, the wear and tear is halved. Example, on this old machine, I change drives evbery Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The active drive runs 24/7 for a week. Then it gets a week off. And, yes, I do clone to an external drive occasionally. However, that is a clone, and for emergency use only. Should it be necessary (it was two weeks ago) I can then clone from the external back to the internal, and no restore is involved. The only machine that requires actual physical swapping is the laptop, and swapping the drive takes less than two minutes. No restore or clone job can work that fast. Simply put, my drive swapping is for me, the more efficient option. And, it extends the life of the drive by using it half as much. In general, I prefer hardware solutions to software ones. And, no matter where I travel or what I do, I always have a "spare tire" ready at hand.

 

[Carson Dyle]

There is an added benefit that I have used for many years. By rotating drives, the wear and tear is halved.

 

[corkyg]

Just an added point - this old machine is still running XP-Pro. The two OS HDDs are PATA IDE. Here is how I swap the drives:

I power down. turn the switch from A to B or vice versa, or A+B to clone. Power on and boot up. That's all there is to it. Easier with SATA PnP drives.

 

[npaladin-2000]

There is an added benefit that I have used for many years. By rotating drives, the wear and tear is halved. Example, on this old machine, I change drives evbery Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The active drive runs 24/7 for a week. Then it gets a week off. And, yes, I do clone to an external drive occasionally. However, that is a clone, and for emergency use only. Should it be necessary (it was two weeks ago) I can then clone from the external back to the internal, and no restore is involved. The only machine that requires actual physical swapping is the laptop, and swapping the drive takes less than two minutes. No restore or clone job can work that fast. Simply put, my drive swapping is for me, the more efficient option. And, it extends the life of the drive by using it half as much. In general, I prefer hardware solutions to software ones. And, no matter where I travel or what I do, I always have a "spare tire" ready at hand.

Uh why don't you just do a RAID1 setup and periodically pull one drive or the other? That is in essence what you're doing. Except you're doing it manually and not getting the read speed benefit. On the other hand, your increasing the lifetime of your hard drive from 5+ years to 5+ years and a little more. Seriously, you're not, drive lifetime is as much dictated by chemical composition of the platters as it is the mechanical components. The platters degrade whether they're spinning or not. And they already last crazy long, I've got systems that have been up and spinning 24x7 for a decade or more with no drive failures.

 

[corkyg]

I do use a RAID1 array for data in that system. There is no real speed advantage, and a RAID array does not provide for recovery from a beta glitch or malware. Any error in one drive is present in the other. My system puts me in control, not a piece of software in a controller. Further, running 24/7 would mean both drives run all the time. Mine run half the time. In over 15 years I have never had a HDD failure, nor have I ever had to resort to a clean OS install except when moving to a new computer.

Bottom line, what you suggest may work just fine, but my way does it without having to pull the unit from under the desk, open it up and change drive connections. Besides, that won't work for my laptop - only room for one drive.

As for the platters degrading - that may be, but the main cause of drive failure is in the IDE not the platters in my experience. It is the elctronics that benefit from being off as well as the drive motor.