By M.K. Wong

LONG before scientists cloned sheep, geeks had already done a cloning of their own: They made double copies of their hard disks.

So that if one failed, there would be another on standby.

Also, hoarders that they are, they could pile up digital junk from document files to music clips and all the whatnots in between.

One of the most reliable and foolproof solutions that I have used for cloning comes from Acronis (http://www.acronis.com).

The latest version Acronis True Image Home 2009, retailing for US$49.99 (S$75), is power-packed, with one-click backup and recovery for your PC system.

There is also the Acronis Secure Zone technology that allows you to save your PC system to a special secure and hidden partition of your hard disk for quick and easy restoration.

Before we embark on the steps to cloning, determine your hard disk type.

There are two prevailing standards - Pata (Parallel AT Attachment) or Sata (Serial AT Attachment).

To find out which one your PC uses, open up the casing.

The older Pata drives (also called IDE) use a thick ribbon connector whereas the newer Sata drives are connected by cables no more than 1cm thick. (See main photo - the top one is a Sata drive and the one below is a Pata drive).

For laptops, use a small screw driver to remove the hard disk cover located on the base of the unit.

There should be another set of screws to secure the drive to the chassis.

Unscrew these and carefully slide out the drive.

If your drive is connected by a long set of pins, it is the older Pata drive.

Now, take the cloning plunge.

Step 1: Connect the new hard disk to your system

For desktop systems, connect the two Pata drives to one ribbon cable.

The first is the master drive and the other, the slave.

The other end of the ribbon cable connects to the motherboard.

There is usually a pair of IDE connectors on your motherboard.

Usually one is already used by the CD or DVD-ROM drive.

Make sure that you set the DIP switches at the rear of the drive.

If not, the drives will not be recognised by the system.

DIP switches are the set of pins sandwiched between the IDE pins on the left and the four power pins on the right.

Usually there is a sticker on the hard disk to specify how to configure these switches (right).

I recommend that you set both drives to Cable Select for hassle-free automatic detection.

Sata drives are much easier to configure.

All you need is an extra Sata cable.

Connect one end of the cable to the hard disk and the other to an available Sata slot on the motherboard.

There is usually at least a pair of Sata slots on the motherboard for you to use.

Finally, look for an extra power cable connector from the power supply unit and attach to the hard disk.

(See right - the one on the left is for Sata drives and the one on the right for Pata.)

For laptops, it is simpler.

Get hold of an external USB 2.0 casing, insert your new hard disk and close the casing.

Then, it is a matter of connecting the unit to your laptop using the USB 2.0 connector.

Step 2: Install and run the hard disk cloning software

Install the software to your hard disk and run it.

Using Acronis True Image Home 2009 as an example, click on the Utilities tab on the bottom left of the menu.

Next, click on the Clone disk button to select this function.

If you have more than one drive installed, select your source and destination drive and then proceed with the cloning process.

Take a long coffee break - depending on the size of your drives, the cloning process could take from minutes to hours.

It is best to do the cloning just before you knock off for the night.

The newly cloned drive should be ready in the morning.

Step 3: Remove the old drive and replace with the newly cloned unit

Finally, remove your existing drive and replace it with the newly cloned drive and power up your PC system.

It should be up and running, with lots of free hard disk space to last you many more months to come.

As a precaution, do not discard the old hard disk just yet.

Test the new hard drive for, say, about a week or so before you put the old one in cold storage.

M.K. Wong is an entrepreneur and freelance writer

Hard disk cloning software

Macrium Reflect
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

The freeware version is very capable and can be used to clone Microsoft Windows XP as well as Vista systems.

The full edition, US$39.99 (S$60), supports Windows Server 2003 and allows you to perform more advanced archiving.

For example, after the first full backup following cloning, you can do in-between or differential backups once a month, on top of daily archiving.

HDClone 3.7
http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

Having proven itself over six years, this program has gained fans who like its reliability and robustness and the fact that it works on nearly all operating systems.

Clonezilla
http://www.clonezilla.org/

This is an OpenSource initiative designed for the techie.

It allows you to create a bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive to boot and run the software.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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