Windows 7 Windows 7 Cloning

[benmcdevitt]

Does anyone know the easiest way to keep 2 windows 7 pc's exactly cloned? it can be a nightly thing or a weekly thing....

i have 2 gaming PC's i use to run VMware, all of the vm's need to be backed up and ready to boot up in minutes, i cant be shutting them down nightly so i thought the easiest way would be to set up cloning, like i did with Domain Controller 1, i could clone a DC2 but thats win svr 2008 not windows 7.... does anyone have any ideas for me? they are running windows pro, and they are both 64's

 

[OldTimer]

Why clone the whole thing, when only a few files will have changed from day to day?

Cloning can only be done if both computers are EXACTLY the same. However, it's
fairly easy to synchronize files between two PC's.
I synchronize all the data files from my C: drive to a Safe Place on another hard drive,
daily, with a simple DOS Batch File.
I can do the same thing, synchronizing data files between two OS's on separate hard drives,
again with a batch file.

Once set up, it only takes a few seconds to run.

Cheers Mate!

 

[OldTimer]

I wanted to edit my last post, but the forum software won't let me, so Just this one additional observation.

A clone can be used as a backup, but a backup is not necessarily a Clone.
My own backups are made one file at a time and then compressed to save space. So, they can be quickly and easily restored by the same program (Ghost 11.5) that made them. But they are FAR from being a clone.

Cloning makes a second hard drive an exact copy of the first hard drive, warts and all.

Happy Holidays Everyone!