I want to use Acronis TrueImage 9 (which I don't have yet)
to clone a drive containing two partitions (C and D),
to a larger drive, temporarily housed in in an external enclosure
connected by USB 2.

I have a 2nd internal drive, and several other external drives besides the target.

My understanding is that this is best done from a TI recovery CD.

And my first question is whether it is necessary to first disconnect
the 2nd internal drive and all the non-target external drives.
(-- the fear being that TI might get confused and decide to target
the 2nd internal drive instead of the external one. )

I understand also that it is very important to turn off the computer
and disconnected the cloned drive before booting back up to XP
- because the presence of two drives, both with bootable 'C' partitions,
- is bad, --when booting up, (--even though the os isn't likely runnable
from an external drive.)

My 2nd question is, after I do that, after windows is up,
would it be ok *then* to reconnect, and use, the cloned drive,
through USB?

I'd expect an initial minor hassle to do with assigning the partitions new letters.
But it would be very convenient to be able to then simply copy files to
it, as simple backup, for awhile.

The worry is that the new letters would then ruin the clone in some way,
or make it more difficult to swap replace the original with it.



~greg.

How Partition Numbers are Assigned in BOOT.INI:
http://www.bootitng.com/kb/article.php?id=159
How Windows Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234048/

I cant boot from USB drive.

I use PMagic on bootable floppies to HIDE partitions with XP
not active or weird things happen-see my post above.

Gotta change BOOT.INI on XP#2 so it'll boot.

HTH-Larry

On Thu, 4 May 2006 23:46:29 -0400, "~greg"
<g_m@remove-comcast.net> wrote:


Any advise given is my attempt to show appreciation for all
the excellent help I've received here but I'm no MVP so it
may only apply NUGS (Normally, Usually, Generally, Sometimes

~greg wrote:
Don't clone the drive. Create an image. Hook up the external drive then
partition and format it as you want. You can then create image files on the
drive as you see fit. This can be done from within Windows or from the
Acronis recovery CD. It is fine to use the drive for other purposes as well.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User