What are the differences between clone , copy , backup and make an image for a Partition or all the Hard drive ?

bsm alah alrahman alrahim

clone :

when we want to make another typical hard disk to use it when the Primary hard disk fail ,we use clone

, this process used if we don't want to loss time ( special for servers fail )

image :

when we don't want to buy another hard disk to make a clone , we can just make an image from the the hard disk and put it on the same hard or at an external hard 

copy :

observe both clone and image used for the all the hard disk with operating system , but copy is just for files and folders

backup :

another name of image or clone for the hard disk

observation

I think that compression for image ( backup ) is dangerous !

Clone is exact copy of everything on your hard drive inclding your installed programs and data.

Backup is the making copy of all your files and data but data in your backup is compressed and often protected from viruses as  backup archive cannot be accessed directly.

Copying a file is just making another copy of it using copy and paste, Drag and Drop etc.

If you want to keep only the image of your operating system then make an image of system partition in most cases C drive. If you want to keep the backup of everything on your computer then take the image of entire hard drive.