blackhawk13
Senior Member
----I limit my OS partition size to 40 to 60 GBs (with 600 GB of space!), enough room for the OS, the apps, temp files, and 60% extra 'head room' for whatevers and defrag. When cloning though, I try to limit the cloned image size to 8 to 12 GBs by not cloning freespace and making sure no unneeded data is present when cloned. Since I use seperate data HDs, this is easy to do. This solution will not work for all, or will need to be modified. I always try to keep my OS and data on separate HDs.
Remember to reset your page file to minimum size and so it's on the same partition as the OS before you clone! I usually make the page file setting after it's cloned to the second of my logic disk's OS partitions (sized just for that purpose) with a ton of unused freespace on the 'back' of that logic disk for better speed. Partitions toward the 'back' of the RAID disk transfer data slower than the 'front', and disks with more freespace will run noticeably faster.
OS partition> page file partition> freespace or data partition if separate HD(s) aren't used.
Remember to set up a partition for the image on the HD that your cloning to if you wish to store additional data or use the space for a page file etc. Otherwise Acronis will usurp the entire drive and create a single partition, oops! Remember to specify the removal of image slack space, and to delete or transfer unneeded files before you clone to minimize the image size and time needed to clone it. You may simple wish to keep an activated copy of the OS with only the mobo and vid drivers loaded, but no apps. I sometimes use multiply copies of the OS in different stages of completion; a fully loaded OS with all the apps configured is a real time saver, but can sometimes become a problem if issues with an app or MS update arise.
When you clone with Acronis you have to clone to the front of the HD and it must be free of all data/partitions or it will overwrite it when creating the clone. That's one limitation, however you can that out all of the slack space in your image to be cloned to minimize the image size. I don't use the compression feature. After you have cloned the image you can set up a second partition in the free space to store data or use as a scratch/page file disc; only disadvantage is the cloned image is always on the faster portion of the HD disc. Make sure the bios is set to boot of the new OS HD if you keep the HD with the back up clone on the same machine, something I normally do.
Having multiple HDs with same OS's with Acronis loaded can cause cloning issues and crashes which is why I as a dedicated, stand alone IDE HD for Acronis; Acronis is never installed on my main OS or it's copies. You can work around this potential issue different ways, or as simply as just pulling the HD to be cloned and doing it on a separate computer that has Acronis loaded.
Ha-ha, things happen... remember I never claimed this was idiot dumb easy, but much better than a cold reload from scratch when you don't have the time
-I shoot my images as I live, in the open-
Hey any movie peeps need a rigger? Blackhawk for hire.
-I shoot my images as I live, in the open-
Hey any movie peeps need a rigger? Blackhawk for hire.
Remember to reset your page file to minimum size and so it's on the same partition as the OS before you clone! I usually make the page file setting after it's cloned to the second of my logic disk's OS partitions (sized just for that purpose) with a ton of unused freespace on the 'back' of that logic disk for better speed. Partitions toward the 'back' of the RAID disk transfer data slower than the 'front', and disks with more freespace will run noticeably faster.
OS partition> page file partition> freespace or data partition if separate HD(s) aren't used.
Remember to set up a partition for the image on the HD that your cloning to if you wish to store additional data or use the space for a page file etc. Otherwise Acronis will usurp the entire drive and create a single partition, oops! Remember to specify the removal of image slack space, and to delete or transfer unneeded files before you clone to minimize the image size and time needed to clone it. You may simple wish to keep an activated copy of the OS with only the mobo and vid drivers loaded, but no apps. I sometimes use multiply copies of the OS in different stages of completion; a fully loaded OS with all the apps configured is a real time saver, but can sometimes become a problem if issues with an app or MS update arise.
When you clone with Acronis you have to clone to the front of the HD and it must be free of all data/partitions or it will overwrite it when creating the clone. That's one limitation, however you can that out all of the slack space in your image to be cloned to minimize the image size. I don't use the compression feature. After you have cloned the image you can set up a second partition in the free space to store data or use as a scratch/page file disc; only disadvantage is the cloned image is always on the faster portion of the HD disc. Make sure the bios is set to boot of the new OS HD if you keep the HD with the back up clone on the same machine, something I normally do.
Having multiple HDs with same OS's with Acronis loaded can cause cloning issues and crashes which is why I as a dedicated, stand alone IDE HD for Acronis; Acronis is never installed on my main OS or it's copies. You can work around this potential issue different ways, or as simply as just pulling the HD to be cloned and doing it on a separate computer that has Acronis loaded.
Ha-ha, things happen... remember I never claimed this was idiot dumb easy, but much better than a cold reload from scratch when you don't have the time
-I shoot my images as I live, in the open-
Hey any movie peeps need a rigger? Blackhawk for hire.
-I shoot my images as I live, in the open-
Hey any movie peeps need a rigger? Blackhawk for hire.
ata/Swap 
