onetech4all
Member
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- California
Wasn't this question asked before many times by other techs? 
Hard Drive Replacements - Cloning vs Fresh Install
- Thread starter Bootman 650
- Start date
joydivision
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- Manchester, UK
It depends on many factors, I would say it is 50/50. If the drive seems to be working ok but feels slow, fails SMART and has bad sectors etc I will clone it but if there other problems I will do a N&P.
brandonkick
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- 859
Clone unless the machine is goofed pretty badly.
I just did one last night, restored a clonezilla image of a syspreped Win7 onto a machine that was acting goofey. Took ten min to back up data to my external hard drive, fifteen min to restore the image from my image repository and another fifteen or so to grab a handful of windows updates, insert product key from side of the machine and test.
Done and done in just over half an hour.
I just did one last night, restored a clonezilla image of a syspreped Win7 onto a machine that was acting goofey. Took ten min to back up data to my external hard drive, fifteen min to restore the image from my image repository and another fifteen or so to grab a handful of windows updates, insert product key from side of the machine and test.
Done and done in just over half an hour.
mrapoc
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- Shropshire
I prefer to clone when possible, although a lot of times I wished I had just fresh installed and carried data across!
What cloning software gets the vote nowadays? I hear a lot about clonezilla but it really doesn't deal well with failing drives.
Is clonezilla generally better for making images of working drives before conducting any surgery?
What cloning software gets the vote nowadays? I hear a lot about clonezilla but it really doesn't deal well with failing drives.
Is clonezilla generally better for making images of working drives before conducting any surgery?
Krynn72
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- Connecticut
We're 99% fresh reload. We're almost entirely residential, and most of our customers come in only when the drive is totally messed up. We used to do clones for a little while, but it'd bring over tons of other messed up stuff we'd then have to call and ask them to pay us more to fix. Now we only do it if there's a specific reason to. We also just use Disk Jockey Pro, super easy cloning.
The only times we ever had issues are when people don't have their Office install media/product key, but we can usually get around that complaint by offering to install one of the free alternatives (again, we're almost entirely residential customers, so it doesn't matter much do them).
The only times we ever had issues are when people don't have their Office install media/product key, but we can usually get around that complaint by offering to install one of the free alternatives (again, we're almost entirely residential customers, so it doesn't matter much do them).
YeOldeStonecat
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You can download a "branded" version FOR FREE! From Seagate, and Western Digital. The branded versions only work as long as a drive of their brand is connected. So if you're going to clone to a Seagate ...install Seagates Discwizard. It does not matter what brand the original "source" drive is.
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/discwizard-master-dl/
For Western Digital,
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
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quick question, are all the same tools avialable with these branded versions? I guess main reason is making a virtual drive image from the .tib.
