Imaging
Imaging a drive is generally for back-up purposes. The best way to use the computer imaging process would be to take an image of a healthy computer, copy that image file and put it in a safe place, then set up an incremental backup on the original image.
That way when there is a problem with the incremental backup you can always restore to a working state up to the last know safe increment.
Cloning
Cloning a drive actually clones the entire contents of the drive to another drive or partition (and does not create an image file).
- clone a hard drive to upgrade to a larger one.
- clone contents of a failing drive to a new one.
I need to replicate all installed softwares/packages into it(For example I have installed ruby on it). So what is the best way for doing it.
- if you want to backup your system but not use it: image it.
- if you want to use that other version (to replace the old one): clone it.