What is the difference between making a drive image versus backing up a drive?

[rnmcd]

Is one preferred over the other?

Thanks.

 

[her209]

Drive image is just an image of a drive.

Drive backup is just a backup of a drive.

 

[melly]

Originally posted by: her209

Drive image is just an image of a drive.

Drive backup is just a backup of a drive.

lol

 

[Heisenberg]

An image is an exact copy of the drive. Backing up just means moving files to another place.

 

[notfred]

Analogy:

Image of a business card - photocopy of the card.
Backup of a business card - writing down "Bob Smith, ERA Realty - 555-1212" on a peice of paper.

 

[her209]

Seriously speaking:

A drive image is used when you want to deploy the image to a lot of machines without having to install the OS and programs for each one.

A drive backup is used when you only need to retrieve select files.

Each has their own advantages.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: her209
Seriously speaking:

A drive image is used when you want to deploy the image to a lot of machines without having to install the OS and programs for each one.

A drive backup is used when you only need to retrieve select files.

Each has their own advantages.

So if I want my laptop to have the exact same programs and files as my desktop I would need to to make an image of the desktop and install that 'image' on my laptop? Apparently everything is copied over right...registry, OS, programs, and files, right?

 

[vi edit]

So if I want my laptop to have the exact same programs and files as my desktop I would need to to make an image of the desktop and install that 'image' on my laptop? Apparently everything is copied over right...registry, OS, programs, and files, right?

Do that, and you'll have blue screens out the wazoo. A drive image copies EVERYTHING. Load the image from the desktop onto the laptop and the O/S is going to have a seizure when it tries to use the device drivers that you had on your desktop over on your laptop.

You only want to do an image if you are using EXACT hardware on the machine that you are loading the image as what you had on the machine that you took the image from.

 

[rnmcd]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

So if I want my laptop to have the exact same programs and files as my desktop I would need to to make an image of the desktop and install that 'image' on my laptop? Apparently everything is copied over right...registry, OS, programs, and files, right?

Do that, and you'll have blue screens out the wazoo. A drive image copies EVERYTHING. Load the image from the desktop onto the laptop and the O/S is going to have a seizure when it tries to use the device drivers that you had on your desktop over on your laptop.

You only want to do an image if you are using EXACT hardware on the machine that you are loading the image as what you had on the machine that you took the image from.

Could I just install the correct drivers on the machine I want to image or won't I even be able to boot the just imaged computer?

If that won't work, is it possible to create an image of my PC without the drivers?

The reason I want to do this is because it takes me forever to get the OS and software setup/configured to my preferences.

Thanks.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: rnmcd

Originally posted by: vi_edit

So if I want my laptop to have the exact same programs and files as my desktop I would need to to make an image of the desktop and install that 'image' on my laptop? Apparently everything is copied over right...registry, OS, programs, and files, right?

Do that, and you'll have blue screens out the wazoo. A drive image copies EVERYTHING. Load the image from the desktop onto the laptop and the O/S is going to have a seizure when it tries to use the device drivers that you had on your desktop over on your laptop.

You only want to do an image if you are using EXACT hardware on the machine that you are loading the image as what you had on the machine that you took the image from.

Could I just install the correct drivers on the machine I want to image or won't I even be able to boot the just imaged computer?

If that won't work, is it possible to create an image of my PC without the drivers?

The reason I want to do this is because it takes me forever to get the OS and software setup/configured to my preferences.

Thanks.

MS makes software called sysprep that does something similar. You can make an image of sorts that has all the drivers you'll need beforehand. Then when it installs it's much faster than a clean install. However, the software is expensive and it would take longer to set it up than it would to do a clean install on a single machine. Just bite the bullet and install fresh.

 

[FoBoT]

if the stuff is going to go back onto the same PC or an exact same model , use an image

if the stuff is going to go onto a different PC ie not the same model, different chipset/video card, etc , do a backup

 

[tcsenter]

Image of a business card - photocopy of the card.
Backup of a business card - writing down "Bob Smith, ERA Realty - 555-1212" on a peice of paper.

But what if the business card read "Gene Smith, Butler Realty - 555-2121"???