Cloning pc to my cloud?

My Cloud OS 3 My Cloud Single Bay
1

Hi

Is it possible to clone or copy a pc drive image to My Cloud? What I have read so far seems to suggest that you need to physically connect the back up drive to the pc in order to clone/image the drive. I wondered if anybody has tried this and what success you had.

Thanks

1 Like
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It is important to understand what “cloning” actually means.

Generally cloning means you are turning another hard drive into an exact copy of the first hard drive. This includes copying over partitions, data, everything. The idea behind cloning a drive is that you can take the clone drive and put it into the PC and boot that PC into the OS. Once the drive is cloned one doesn’t need to use the backup/cloning program to restore the first drive’s data.

Could you actually “clone” a PC to the My Cloud? It is probably possible, but you would destroy the My Cloud OS and partitions in the process. Rendering the My Cloud unusable, which means you’d have to pull the hard drive from the My cloud to use it, or unbrick it. Not sure why someone would want to do that.

Can you create a backup image of a computer to the My Cloud? Yes. A backup image is different than cloning. Typically a backup image is a single file (or files) created by the backup program that will allow that program to restore the data and partitions to either the same hard drive or to a new hard drive.

Again there is a difference between cloning and imaging when it comes to backing up a computer.

See the following link that generally explains the differences between cloning and imaging when when to use each method.

To Clone or Image? That is the Question
http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/Image_or_Clone.html

There are plenty of backup programs, including free, that can both clone and image a computer’s hard drive.

3

Maybe I don’t understand your question, but if your goal is to copy a harddisk in your PC bit for bit to an image-file, and save this file on My Cloud, it should be possible as Bennor pointed out.

One possible option is to use Clonezilla Live, see http://clonezilla.org/
Once you have the bootable Clonezilla Live media, you can boot it in the machine you want to clone. To access My Cloud through a network drive, just mount it to a folder, and give username and password if necessary.

In Clonezilla’s forum search: “network drive” to see examples


4

In addition to Clonezilla there are a variety of other free programs, many which will create a bit for bit image file. Here are a few other popular backup programs.

EaseUS Todo Backup Free: http://www.easeus.com/
Macrium Reflect Free: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
Paragon Backup and Recovery 14 Free: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
Free File Sync (in Mirroring mode): http://www.freefilesync.org/

5

Hi

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

I have a hdd which shows signs of failing so am looking at securing options in case the drive fails completely. I have backed up all my files etc from the hdd but then wanted to find a way to simply transfer all my data and information to a new system should the drive fail completely.

I recently replaced a my book with a my cloud, then I looked into wicht was the best option - cloning or image copying - and am currently trying out EaseUS Todo backup as a means to achieve this. It will clone or copy a disk image to a backup drive such as my cloud but it seems that the option to clone is only available with a physical cable (such as usb3) connecting the backup device. As my laptop only has usb2 the amount of time to carry out the task would be days


Surely it must be possible to carry out this task via wifi I thought, which is what led me to ask my poorly worded original question.

One thing I am going to try is to connect the ethernet cable from my router direct to my laptop and; as the my cloud is also hard wired to the router; am hoping that will address the issue. Just suprised that wifi is such a faff


Hope that clarifies my situation, and thank you for your contributions. I will post back after trying the ethernet cable.

Thanks

6

If you are attempting to “clone” a drive, that will NOT solve the issue. As previously explained cloning is different than creating a backup image. What you want to do is “image” the potentially failing drive to the My Cloud. The EaseUS ToDo Backup will accomplish that task if you select Disk/Partition Backup then select the entire hard drive and all its partitions then choose the My Cloud as a destination where the backup image will be saved.

The whole point of cloning a drive is to copy the data from one drive to another so you can pop that second drive into the computer, boot it up and be on your way. A second reason for cloning is to have a series of similar computers configured with the exact same drive contents. Businesses often use cloning so their workers all have the same computer setup which reduces IT costs.

Here is an example of when you would use Cloning. Your computer has a traditional spinning platter type hard drive that have been around for ages. You buy a new SSD hard drive. You use the clone option to copy the older hard drive to the new SSD drive. Generally one would connect that SSD drive direct to their computer (using an external USB enclosure for example) in order to perform the cloning. Once the cloning has been completed one would remove the old hard drive and replace it with the SSD drive and then boot the computer with the new SSD drive.

7

Hi Bennor

I do understand your well put and clear examples.

However, I have read about people cloning their existing system to a back up drive in case of hdd failure - these are private individuals. Also, I have read computing publications who have written articles comparing cloning vs imaging.

I simply posted on this forum to see what experience people had here specific to the wd equipment.

To that end yourself and BeKn2 have been more than helpful and I will check out the programs you both suggest.

Regards

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[quote=“Peter_Trowsdale, post:7, topic:172910, full:true”]
However, I have read about people cloning their existing system to a back up drive in case of hdd failure - these are private individuals. [/quote]
If they used the word “cloning” when talking about backing up a computer to an NAS drive like the My Cloud then they may be using incorrect terminology. Sometimes the confusion between true cloning and imaging comes when one uses the imaging process to “clone” one hard drive to a new hard drive (non NAS). Most of us here are private individuals as well.

9

Point taken, I agree that the terminology can be confusing! Being new to this area has meant quite a steep learning curve and I certainly appreciate forums such as this one populated by individuals who are prepared to help others.

Taking your comments into consideration I have decided not to wait for my laptops hdd to fail and am going for a replacement so will clone direct to a new drive.

I like the look of the wd blue sshd 1tb, my laptop only has usb 2 so will take forever to clone as my existing hdd is just under 600gb. I do have an esata port so could use that to increase speed and believe that it is possible to acquire a male usb3 to male esata cable to do so. The external hdd enclosures seem to come with a usb3 cable so maybe going for a female usb3 to male esata cable will work.

Maybe I am over thinking this


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If you run a backup “image” to the My Cloud using a backup program that supports creating an emergency boot disc then you can use that emergency boot disc to boot the PC and restore that backup image to the new hard drive once its installed in the computer. Or you could install the backup program on another PC with the new drive connected on that second computer and restore the backup image to the new drive then install the new drive into the other computer.

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So if I understand you, use - for example - EaseUS for a full system backup and then use the same program to create an emergency boot disc I can simply stick the new drive into the laptop, boot from the emd and then restore the full system back up to have my current system but a new hdd?

Would Acronis true image do the same? Which is the better prog? I understand that the wd hard drives are ‘user friendly’ towards Acronis?

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Yes you understand correctly. That is one of the purposes of an emergency boot disc. Boot a PC with the disc so you can restore the entire image or specific files from that image to a hard drive. One must remember however to image the entire hard drive including all partitions on that drive if they plan to do a full drive restore from that image.

I use both Acronis True Image (paid older version several years out of date) and the free EaseUS ToDo Backup. Both work fine at backing up and restoring full drive images (which I’ve had to do several times over the years). Both offer creating emergency boot discs. In fact I picked up a free limited time since expired giveaway version of EaseUS ToDo 9.2 Backup Home the other day. Easeus offers the Backup Home version free every now and then through certain websites.

13

Hi, I am in a similar sanitation. But in this case. I have a utility USB which I want to clone in mydrive so my data of the clone remains secured. Is it possible?
Or Do I have to backup my file using EaseUS to saved the backup files in the cloud? but if I want to make another utility USB can I use that backup file to create one? won’t it create any issue?

14

Generally “cloning” means copying one hard drive (or USB flash drive) to another hard drive (or flash drive) so that new drive or flash drive can be used to boot a computer (or have a mirror copy of the data). Normally what one does is create an “image” file of the source hard drive or source flash drive which can later can be used to create an exact copy restore the source drive contents to a new drive or new flash drive. That image file can then be stored on the My Cloud (or other NAS) for later use or recovery. Most backup programs offer the option to either clone or image a source location.

Or for a flash drive that is not being used as a boot drive or boot device, just copy the contents to a directory or Share on the My Cloud then set the permission of the Share to read only so no one else can write to it. Then when needed just copy the Share or directory contents back to a new flash drive.