How do I make an exact clone of a hard drive with multiple OS partitions?

[stuman74]

I have a netbook hard drive that has dual boot to multiple operating systems on different partitions.

I would like to make an exact clone of the entire drive that would keep all of the boot information as well. Is there a "relatively" simple way to do this? I have Acronis True Image which I have used in the past for specific partitions, but not for an entire drive.

Also, being that this is a netbook drive, I'm assuming I'd have to back up an image to an USB drive and then restore it back to the new drive?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[mfenn]

I have a netbook hard drive that has dual boot to multiple operating systems on different partitions.

I would like to make an exact clone of the entire drive that would keep all of the boot information as well. Is there a "relatively" simple way to do this? I have Acronis True Image which I have used in the past for specific partitions, but not for an entire drive.

Also, being that this is a netbook drive, I'm assuming I'd have to back up an image to an USB drive and then restore it back to the new drive?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Acronis can do what you want. Just tell it to back up the MBR and partition table. You should also be able to plug in the ethernet and back up to a network share.

 

[Paperdoc]

Acronis True Image can do this. when given a multi-Partitioned HDD unit, it will offer as one option to clone to the new HDD unit ALL Partitions, making their sizes on the new drive in exact proportion to their sizes on the original. You also can manually specify the new Partition sizes. With the tools available I'm sure you can accomplish what you wish.

Now, then we have to deal with how thew Destination Drive is connected to your netbook. mfenn suggests a shared network drive. What about any external drive on a USB port? I grant you, that may not really give you a way to boot from the new clone on an external drive (or network resource). But it would give you a clone copy which could be used to make another clone back to the original drive on the netbook.

 

[mfenn]

Acronis True Image can do this. when given a multi-Partitioned HDD unit, it will offer as one option to clone to the new HDD unit ALL Partitions, making their sizes on the new drive in exact proportion to their sizes on the original. You also can manually specify the new Partition sizes. With the tools available I'm sure you can accomplish what you wish.

Now, then we have to deal with how thew Destination Drive is connected to your netbook. mfenn suggests a shared network drive. What about any external drive on a USB port? I grant you, that may not really give you a way to boot from the new clone on an external drive (or network resource). But it would give you a clone copy which could be used to make another clone back to the original drive on the netbook.

Yes, I was suggesting the network drive as an alternative to USB if that's more convenient for him. You will note that the OP already considered the USB drive.