Can Casper really create bootable clone of my Windows disk?

[kyrathaba]

I've successfully cloned my active partition "Windows 7 OS" using Drive Image XML, EaseUS Todo Backup's clone utility, etc., but none of the clones are actually bootable (go into BIOS and choose the newly cloned drive as boot disk). Someone told me Casper truly does create bootable cloned operating disk. Anyone know?

http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/

[kyrathaba]

Also, anyone heard of or used a Bounceback Drive. Here's one on Amazon:

CMS drive

The claim is:

The BounceBack Drive is the ultimate backup and recovery solution. This powerful system creates a duplicate copy of your computer's hard drive so that if your internal hard drive is corrupted or damaged, you can startup (boot) directly from your BounceBack Drive...

[MilesAhead]

I don't know about the software you reference.  But on another forum there is a long time poster who has his HD on a quick release.  He uses a Docking Station to host a bare HD identical to his system HD.  He makes a backup image of his system HD using Macrium Reflect and restores it to the drive in the dock.  He stores it in an anti-static bag in a drawer.  If his system HD fails he pulls the system drive, inserts the backup and boots.

He also tells me he can boot that bare drive from the dock or a USB enclosure.

I think he made a new image every two days so only a few new installed softwares would be lost on HD failure or corruption.  But that is personal preference.

He prefered ESata docking stations but others have told me the same scheme will work with USB enclosures or docking stations.

Edit:  Note that this is with MBR drives.  If you can do it with GPT type I do not know.

[kyrathaba]

I use EaseUS backup with preOS enabled. It hasn't failed me yet. But it would be a good feeling to have another Win boot disk.

[4wd]

A point of clarification:

... but none of the clones are actually bootable (go into BIOS and choose the newly cloned drive as boot disk).

Are you saying you're trying to boot your system when both the original and clone are connected?

Just wondering because over the years I've always had mixed results doing that, (ie. you essentially have two identical HDDs connected to the system), so much so that the original is now always disconnected, (pull the data cable), when I've cloned a HDD and want to boot off of it.

[kyrathaba]

Are you saying you're trying to boot your system when both the original and clone are connected?

Yes, that's what I was attempting: go into boot options and select D instead of C (where D is the drive to which the clone was made). D is a spare HDD connected through a USB-connected dual-bay enclosure.

[MilesAhead]

Are you saying you're trying to boot your system when both the original and clone are connected?

Yes, that's what I was attempting: go into boot options and select D instead of C (where D is the drive to which the clone was made). D is a spare HDD connected through a USB-connected dual-bay enclosure.

You may be able to get it to work if you change the drive serial number of the clone.  I believe there is software that can do it.  I have no need so I don't remember any specific utility that does.

[4wd]

You could also try disabling the internal HDD in BIOS, (if it allows it), then select the clone for booting.

[Stoic Joker]

I've successfully cloned my active partition "Windows 7 OS"

That's not the 'Active' partition, it's the boot partition. The active partition is/would/should be the 100MB System partition. So if all you did was copy the OS partition...it's not supposed to be bootable (all by itself)..