12 replies to this topic

[ynneBBenny]

How to Easily and Freely Clone Your Hard Drive: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you've invested a significant amount of time configuring your VP system, the thought of potential SSD failure can be unnerving. While restore points offer some protection, they might not suffice in the face of SSD failure or malware attacks. Fortunately, SSDs have become more affordable, making it a good time to consider cloning your drive. Here's a quick guide to help you clone your hard drive using the user-friendly Rescuezilla software, which is built on the foundation of Clonezilla.

1. Download and Prepare Rescuezilla: Begin by downloading Rescuezilla from their official website: https://rescuezilla.com/. This tool offers a graphical user interface and is based on Clonezilla's functionality.

2. Create a Bootable USB: Utilize a USB stick to create a bootable Rescuezilla drive. Follow the instructions provided on the Rescuezilla website to make your USB bootable. This will serve as your tool for cloning your hard drive.

3. Connect the Target SSD: Prior to the cloning process, connect the new SSD to your system. You can employ a USB-to-SSD adapter (recommended with USB 3.0 for optimal speed) for this purpose. These adapters are affordable and can be easily obtained online.

4. Boot into Rescuezilla: Insert the bootable USB stick into your system and boot from it. This will launch the Rescuezilla interface, allowing you to proceed with the cloning process.

5. Initiate Cloning: Once in the Rescuezilla interface, navigate through the user-friendly options. Select the source SSD (your existing drive) and the target SSD (the newly connected one). Follow the prompts to configure any additional settings as needed.

6. Start Cloning: With your selections in place, initiate the cloning process. This will involve copying all data and system files from the source SSD to the target SSD. Depending on the size of your drive, this step might take a little while.

7. Completion and Verification: Once the cloning process is finished, you'll be notified. At this point, you can remove the bootable USB stick and shut down your system. Disconnect the source SSD and leave only the target SSD connected.

8. Boot Verification: Power up your system with only the new SSD connected. You should observe that your system boots identically to how it did with the previous SSD, indicating that the cloning was successful.

9. ***Warning***: Exercise extreme caution to avoid any confusion between your source drive and target drive when using the GUI selection in Rescuzilla. Mixing these up could lead to significant disappointment. So, let's make sure that doesn't happen! 

10. Img option: Instead of merely cloning the drive, Rescuezilla offers you the flexibility to generate an image file. This image file not only serves as a clone of your drive but also enables you to create multiple additional clones from it. This process keeps your original VP computer unaffected and secure.

NOTE: This type of clone will only work if inserting the cloned hard drive into the same computer. There is no guarantee that the clone will work in other computers, and probably wont work. The clone is to viewed as a personal backup more advanced than Windows restore point backup.

In around 30 minutes, you've successfully cloned your hard drive, ensuring a backup strategy that's more comprehensive than simple restore points. This approach provides peace of mind in the event of SSD failure or other unforeseen issues. By following these steps, you've taken a proactive measure to safeguard your hard-earned configurations and data.

Best regards, Ben

 

Attached Files

•  Clone your VP hard drive..pdf   38.77KB   9 downloads

[Drybonz]

Best thing to do is, if you only have one drive... partition and keep your stuff off the C drive so you can just copy and paste to back it up.  Pretty much don't ever put anything you want to keep on your C drive.

[wiesshund]

Best thing to do is, if you only have one drive... partition and keep your stuff off the C drive so you can just copy and paste to back it up.  Pretty much don't ever put anything you want to keep on your C drive.

personally, i would do a silly small SSD for OS, as OS is trivial to put back on SSD loss

Everything else would go on a second larger and better quality SSD, and that would get periodically cloned to an external HHD

which can then sit happily on a shelf someplace until needed

[scutters]

I'm a fan of the periodic cloning to a matching external SSD technique, only difference is i use macrium reflect.

 

It's worth remembering there is still a small risk using a single clone - if the source SSD chooses to die during the cloning process you could be pretty much shafted. But what's life without just a little risk eh!

Edited by scutters, 02 October 2023 - 09:24 AM.

[wiesshund]

prefer HDD for the clone.

it could sit on the shelf for 50 years, needs no charge to maintain state.

 

silly 80286 with its laughable 10mb HDD still runs

[garnel]

I keep two cloned SSD's for per cab for backup. Purchased the EASUS clone sw for one cabinet - it does the job.  Purchased the NTI Cloning Kit for my second cab - it also does the job, costs less, and is a little easier to use. I never transfer a cloned drive from the pc that they were created from. Otherwise you risk bricking Windows. Cloning via a USB port takes HOURS - cloning from your C: SSD to the second M.2 drive on the motherboard or to a SATA drive is much quicker. 

 

Used to keep two M.2 SSD's installed on the motherboards and periodically cloned to the second ssd. However, on one cab the primary SSD died, and without any notification, Windows 11 just started booting from and using the cloned SSD, so I don't leave the cloned ssd in the second motherboard M.2 slot anymore.

 

Wiesshund makes a good case for using an HDD for the clone.

Edited by garnel, 02 October 2023 - 05:35 PM.

[wiesshund]

 Cloning via a USB port takes HOURS

 

Should not be too bad, depending on what one has setup for it

over USB3.X should go pretty fast, if you are using a boot time app to clone (Have to do that to clone boot drive anyways)

And provided you have a decent external USB enclosure (some are just not good and are slow as hell)

 

eSATA is also an option, people just seem to have a harder time sourcing the parts
and of course the cabling for that is much shorter whan what USB offers.

eSATA requires a power outlet, or an external SATA wall adapter

It is a very viable option, if one takes the time to source the pieces though.
SSD in a little m2 to SATA enclosure, plugged into an eSATA port would run at full SATA speed.

 

Only thing to bear in mind with SSD is, 

They need powered up once in a while, because they do rely on a residual charge to maintain the integrity of the data bits.
 

And HDD is slower, but it can sit on the shelf for the next 50 years and be perfectly viable.

And not that you would do it, but they can get hit with a Telsa coil and still operate, and SSD definitely cannot (Nor would i expect it to) so HDD is more forgiving
of certain storage mishaps.

 HDD cheaper also

[garnel]

 

 Cloning via a USB port takes HOURS

 

Should not be too bad, depending on what one has setup for it

over USB3.X should go pretty fast, if you are using a boot time app to clone (Have to do that to clone boot drive anyways)

And provided you have a decent external USB enclosure (some are just not good and are slow as hell)

 

eSATA is also an option, people just seem to have a harder time sourcing the parts
and of course the cabling for that is much shorter whan what USB offers.

eSATA requires a power outlet, or an external SATA wall adapter

It is a very viable option, if one takes the time to source the pieces though.
SSD in a little m2 to SATA enclosure, plugged into an eSATA port would run at full SATA speed.

 

Only thing to bear in mind with SSD is, 

They need powered up once in a while, because they do rely on a residual charge to maintain the integrity of the data bits.
 

And HDD is slower, but it can sit on the shelf for the next 50 years and be perfectly viable.

And not that you would do it, but they can get hit with a Telsa coil and still operate, and SSD definitely cannot (Nor would i expect it to) so HDD is more forgiving
of certain storage mishaps.

 HDD cheaper also

 

Really good point on data retention. Just ordered two HDD's to use for clones. Also, if another ssd fails and transfers to the HDD clone without any notification, it should slow things down enough that it will be readily apparent, so I can leave it installed.

[wiesshund]

 

Really good point on data retention. Just ordered two HDD's to use for clones. Also, if another ssd fails and transfers to the HDD clone without any notification, it should slow things down enough that it will be readily apparent, so I can leave it installed.

 

 

 

As a general rule, i would leave HDD outside the PC.

 

Unless one mounts their HDD in an isolated mount at the very back of the cab, one could nudge an HDD into oblivion
(Based on what i see some people doing when nudging in youtube vids)

 

You would notice a boot time difference if it booted from HDD, but if you were not looking at the cab during boot, actual table loading you may notice nothing.
they dont take very long to read from disk, even the biggest tables are trivial size wise in that aspect, it is what takes place after that takes time.

 

Boot time though, you'd notice.

[scutters]

My clone backups to external 500GB SSD via USB 3 complete in maybe 40mins so i'm ok with that. 

 

Good point about the SSD vs HDD for backup, but i think i should be ok (hope so anyway).. my periodic clones are every couple of months max so it's not like the clone SSD is left unplugged in a draw for a year or two. That should be ok shouldn't it?

[Drybonz]

Everything else would go on a second larger and better quality SSD, and that would get periodically cloned to an external HHD

 

personally, i would do a silly small SSD for OS, as OS is trivial to put back on SSD loss

which can then sit happily on a shelf someplace until needed

 

Yeah, that's basically what I do as well, but there's really no need for cloning software unless you just really want to.  If you have a separate storage drive you can just dump everything on a backup disk from time to time.  The cloning is fine too though.

[wiesshund]

 If you have a separate storage drive you can just dump everything on a backup disk from time to time.  The cloning is fine too though.

 

For some people it is easier

and some may not have a separate OS and data drive.

 

But yea, in general, i just punt vpx around by copying from the drive
run any old vpx installer, just for the com objects registration, then delete the folder, and dump in everything from the external drive

import the vpm reg that was backed up and done

 

front end might need a dummy install, as i use pinballX, but i think PBY and Popper, you could forgo that too?
PBX has some ocx's that need registered

[fatman19632]

Where are my manners huh? Thank you Benny!!!