Will Acronis true image clone all drivers too??

danielsuperchef

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Jun 11, 2008
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Hi,
I have heard that when you clone a drive you will have to reinstall all drivers afterwards, and also some other software like office?
Is this true? I thought that a clone was an exact copy of old HDD?? as in, it was all there afterwards?

Dan
 

Ijack

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You have been misinformed.

If you are reinstalling on the same, or similar, hardware, then no problems. Everything is copied. But if the hardware is different it will require different drivers, and in this case they would need to be installed. All the installed software will be copied and will not need any changes, unless it is linked to specific hardware (that might apply to the OS itself and some games, and possibly some other programs, but normally it's just a question of reactivating).
 
Clone = exact copy of the drive at the time the image was taken. Not sure where you heard about the need to install anything aftwerward. A clean installation of Windows will force you to do that, but not an image.
 

danielsuperchef

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well, if i can explain a bit more, It started when I got a virus and my friend suggested I do a clone, format HDD then reinstall.
1) I cant figure out how that works when surely it would take virus too!?
2) when I was researching this, I came across that I may have to reinstall all drivers and maybe even office, work etc...
 


You are correct, if you clone the drive now, you will also take the virus with you. If you can't find any way of cleaning out the virus (check the sticky post on these forums), then you need to do a clean setup of Windows, which is not called a "clone".

My suggestion would be to spend a few dollars and get a new hard drive, install new Windows on that, and copy the Desktop, My Documents and Favorites from your profule on the old drive. Most viruses don't live in those places, they like to hide in user settings files or in the Windows directory. You can get an external USB or eSata enclosure for your old drive or set it up as a secondary internal one. It's a good idea to do this copy in Safe Mode to minimize the chances of the virus hopping over to your new drive.
 

danielsuperchef

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So plug it in as an ext. drive and just drag and drop??
 


Yep, those 3 folders should contain your whole data store pretty much unless you saved things in other areas. You can just copy over the new ones you will get when you install Windows again.