Cloning vs Mirror Image

[ramjet1121]

Can someone please explain the differences between cloning and imaging? I've read a little about both, but have not seen an actual comparison. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each, and under what conditions would each be used?
Thank you

 

[drtweak]

Cloning is when you take One drive and you make an exact copy of it to ANOTHER drive. Imaging is when you take a Drive and you care an Image file you can save for later. Its like burning DVD's. You can do an On the Fly Burn (DVD to DVD AKA Cloning) or make an ISO file that you can use when ever you want on your PC (Imagining).

They both give the same exact results. Just one is on an actual disk the other is in a single file that you can either put back on a disk later or you can mount it though the software you used to image it and access the files as if it was a connected drive.

 

[Hawkeye22]

In addition to what drtweak said, cloning is good for moving your OS/data to a new drive that will immediately be used to replace the old drive. For example, replacing a bad drive, moving to a larger or faster drive. Creating an image of a drive is used more for a snapshot or backup of a drive. For example, you can image your OS drive and later if you accidently delete a file or get infected by a virus, you could restore the image to the drive and it will be exactly as it was the moment you created the image file. A lot of people also image cd's or dvd's and mount them as virtual disks that way you don't always have to be popping a disk into the cd/dvd drive.

 

[drtweak]

If you plan on copying a hard drive then yes you want to clone. No point in imaging. Imagaing as Hawkeye22 said is to take a snapshot of what you got and keep it for safe keeping in case something goes wrong.

 

[Hawkeye22]

In my opinion, clone is faster to do the same thing.

If you are creating a backup of your drive, a clone will consume much more space than an image file as most backup/imaging software allows for compression where as a clone is 1:1.