Please forgive my ignorance! I don't know what the difference is between a clone and an image. I can tell you exactly what I'd like to have accomplished, then perhaps you can point me the right way . . .Here's the scenario. I actually have 3 drives: 2 250Gb SATAs, and 1 500Gb SATA. Kinda wishing I'd sprung for two more 250's which might have made this much less complicated, but I don't know for sure.I have a nice complete installation of XP of all the basic programs I use, ready to rock n roll, on 250Gb drive #1. The other two drives are currently empty.Eventually, I want to install Vista 64 on the 2nd 250Gb drive. I've read up on some issues with dual booting these two OS's, so hopefully I will get that going ok.What I have no idea about is how I can use the 500GB drive to make a clone (an image?) of EACH of my two 250 drives, and have either or both of those copies be bootable, so that in the event of a crash of drive 1, I can just set the 500gb drive as the boot drive and start up from there. Is this doable, or is it too complicated or problem prone? It seems like it could be either impossible (can you have the 2nd partition on the 500gb drive boot, and the first partition too?) or problematic.Anyway, I really appreciate the guidance from people who understand the issues. NoelQX9650 @ 4.0GHz/1.285 vCore / 8GB PC-800 Mushkin (cheap!) / evga 8800GT @ 660Mhz / 2xSATA 2 drives /

Hi Noel,Have you tried asking on the acronis forum here:http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65Bob

Thanks Bob, and no I hadn't. I did check in at StorageReview.com. It appears it will not be possible to use a 500gb drive partioned into two for what I had hoped to do. I CAN make a drive image of each XP and Vista, but that is not a bootable situation. Which I'm guessing means I need to have a different PC to be able to restore an image if my OS drive is hosed. I think the best solution is to see if I can send my 500Gb SATA back and pick up two 250s, which would have only been another $30. Kicking myself for opening the package the drive came in. Hopefully I can still return it. I REALLY want a straight up clone so in the event the drive dies it's plug n play.QX9650 @ 4.0GHz/1.285 vCore / 8GB PC-800 Mushkin (cheap!) / evga 8800GT @ 660Mhz / 2xSATA 2 drives /

Drive cloning or imageing is basically using a program to read only the sectors of a hard drive that contain data and copying this data into an file or series of files to any other device that the program can write to. It doesn't matter where you copy the data files, as long as you can get to them.The hardest part is being able to boot your system from a CD so your imageing program can get full access to the drive.I use Drive Snapshot because I like programs that just run and don't require an install.As long as your spare drive has enough space on it, you should not have any issues.

Thanks Jim. I am able to return the 500Gb SATA for 2 250's + $30. I am second guessing again, too, meaning I may just use the other 250 i have for a clone of my current XP install which is on the other 250 I have in this box, and keep the 500 for a new install of Vista 64 just to play with. I don't think I need to back anything up on Vista yet as I am really just using to learn and play with, keeping XP as my main OS for now.

These are Acronis terms. In Acronisese, "Cloning" means making an exact duplicate of HD 1 to another HD 2. This process' first step is to format HD 2. The process will then make a bit by bit copy from HD1 to HD2. In the end, they will be identical. You can boot from either. They are identical. In Acronisese, "Image" means making a image file that represents HD1. You can tell Acronis to put this image file anywhere. It's just a file (.tib). If you need to restore, you Must use the Acronis program to restore the image file to a HD of your choice. The Image Restore process first step is to format the target drive. When the restore process is done, the restored HD will be identical to the origional HD. It's not hard, so just try it. Partition the 500 into two, 250 partitions. Does the bios see the two partitions on the 500 as separate drives? That is step one. The partitions must appear as separate drives. Now boot from the Acronis boot disk and see what it sees. Does it see the two partitions on the 500? If so, try a clone from the boot drive to one of the partitions. If that works, select that partition it as your boot drive and boot. Now make an image file. Will Acronis restore the image file to either of the partitions on the 500? I've never messed with booting off various partitions. Just give a try. If you have entirely separate instillations on entirely separate drives, that's not "dual booting". Just pick the drive you want to boot (in the bios) as desired. There will be no problem.

>It's not hard, so just try it. Partition the 500 into two, 250>partitions. Does the bios see the two partitions on the 500 as>separate drives? That is step one. The partitions must appear>as separate drives. I'm using DiskWizard, which worked great for the first clone I did--thanks!Hmm, with one of my Cat drives I had partitioned in Win2K, and it appeared as a single disk in the BIOS on my old mainboard. Seems kinda unlikely it would be different here, but I can try.>If you have entirely separate instillations on entirely>separate drives, that's not "dual booting". Just pick the>drive you want to boot (in the bios) as desired. There will be>no problem.When I did that in Win2K/XP, boot.ini display both OS' on separate drives as a choice during boot up. Having to stop off in the BIOS is something I'd prefer not to do if possible. From what I gather you can do this on one drive or two.I think I probably should swap in my 500 for 2 more 250's, at which point I can make duplicate drives (or RAID-5?) and call it good. Very cool to be able to take a complete copy, plug it in and go. You convinced me this is a good thing! The clone thing is just hard to beat as it's plug n play from there on.Sam, what type of RAID do I need for a faster tranfers plus redundancy or copy?

If you are going to get 2 more 250s, use all 4 to build a raid 10. It's the best of all worlds. Clone/image will be unnecessary. It's as fast as a raid 0, plus you can have 2 drives physically fail and still recover. Get Intel's matrix storage manual, study up, then write us an essay on how to do it.

Wheels r spinning again. In reading up on dual booting, I think you are right--might be slickest, safest, etc to just install Vista on a sep drive, and boot to one or the other OS by changing boot priority in the BIOS. This eliminates any interdependecies and changes with the boot loader etc. I am guessing it MUST also eliminate the issue with restore point corruption when you boot XP after installing Vista without the appropriate tweaks. In either case I think it makes sense to swap out the 500 for 2x 250 for only $30 more.QX9650 @ 4.0GHz/1.285 vCore / 8GB PC-800 Mushkin (cheap!) / evga 8800GT @ 660Mhz / 2xSATA 2 drives /