deuces wild Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 My computer has a 120 gb hard drive.I can purchase a WD 120 gb 7200 rpm hard drive for $50 this week and am thinking about using it as a drive to backup my main hard drive. I have most of my programs and data backed up on CD but restoring them after a reformat is a pain and my time is worth something.Is this a good idea or is there a more reliable solution?If so, what software will I need to back up all the date from one drive to another?Thanks in advance for your help. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 You're looking probably for such software such as:Symantec’s Norton Ghost 9.0 provides advanced backup and recovery for your PC. Protect your data by making a backup of your hard drive’s contents—without restarting Windows®. Incremental backups save you time and disk space. You can even schedule backups to run automatically. Quickly restore individual files, selected folders, or the entire hard drive.Acronis True Image 8.0 Acronis True Image allows you to create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning providing the most comprehensive data protection.The disk backup file contains the exact copy of a hard disk, including all the computer data, operating system, and programs.Either of the above will allow you to create an Image of your current hard drive [or partitions of HDD], this image will be your backup. The image itself can be several GB in size and the time it takes for it to be created varies.If trouble strikes you restore this image and volia your backup and running. If you want to restore a file or two then you can explore the images to resore a file or two.The images wil not require the whole of the 120GB HDD [unless the images are HUGE].As for applications create another partition and store all of them there. Then you can install from the HDD as opposed to swapping Disks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 All the machines I build have a second hard drive on to which is a backup facility. Nowadays I use Acronis True Image which puts the backups into a "Secure Zone" hidden from the rest of the computer. The remainder of the drive is then usable for data storage (or whatever you want).Almost all machines have a connector for a second device on the IDE cable and the only problem I have had setting up a system like this is that some cases have insufficient space to fit the extra drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Is there any advantage of having an external hard drive vs. internal for backup purposes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Suggest you go for an external one. I had a nasty experience when my domestic power supply did some very nasty things while I was using my PC. Tashed one HD and had to do a complete re-format with the other. If you only connect your second while backingup then you should be relatively safe. but then again my second HD is still internal. One day I'll practice what I preach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 As doug says, an external one is technically better but not so versatile e.g. you cannot use the Acronis Secure Zone properly with an external drive and it's more of a fag remembering to do the backups than having them scheduled. OK you can do scheduled backups to an external drives but you need them connected most of the time and that defeats one of the objects of having the drive external.Remember as well, an external case is likely to cost notably more than the drive that is contained in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Thanks. And indeed the external costs $25 more but is only 80gb vs 120gb. If I could not use Acronis to back up to an external, is there a program that will? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Acronis does work with an external drive it's just that the Acronis Recovery Manager is restricted in that it won't automatically restore the backup during bootup - you must use the boot discs to get it going, that's the only problem. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 I use an internal second hdd to back up to using Acronis, I haven't had any problems with it yet.Also, something worth thinking about is dual layer dvd's you can get a lot of data on to those apparently (I don't have one... but I read about it somewhere) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 I use an internal second hdd to back up to using Acronis, I haven't had any problems with it yet.Also, something worth thinking about is dual layer dvd's you can get a lot of data on to those apparently (I don't have one... but I read about it somewhere)I have one :PBut the disks are expensive :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 I also have one but, having suffered from data loss in the past from optical discs, I wouldn't even put my shopping list on a CD or DVD, dual layer or otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Well I decided on an external drive and picked up a Western Digital 80gb USB external drive for a little under $70 after rebates. Am scheduling my first full backup now.Thanks to everyone for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Which WD was it?As mine came with Retrospect software, whilst I do not use it seems a very neat backup prog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Western Digital 80gb USB external drive, dual option backupUPDATE: Just spent the last 3 1/2 hours between trying to install the HD and being on the phone with WD tech support. The drivers would not load and/or the unit is defective. The bottom line is that I cannot get it to work, and neither can tier 2 tech support.So I am stuck with having to return the unit at the store and ask for a new one.What a waste of time. :angry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Symantec’s Norton Ghost 9.0 provides advanced backup and recovery for your PC. Protect your data by making a backup of your hard drive’s contents—without restarting Windows®. Incremental backups save you time and disk space. You can even schedule backups to run automatically. Quickly restore individual files, selected folders, or the entire hard drive.I am looking for a replacement for my old backup utility (PowerQuest DataKeeper). Although not a big fan of Symantec, Norton Ghost could be something to look at. Unfortunately this is not a product that Symantec lets you try for free; you have to fork out the $70 before you can try.I have just one question right now about the product, if anyone here uses it:What means "incremental backup updates" -- is it similar to DataKeeper, where incremental backups are done dynamically when files change or are added, or is it scheduled updates? (I assume that the backup data is compressed?)But also: any other good automatic backup software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Instead of creating another image an incremental backup will only update a backup image with the files that have changed.So it will be quicker.I'm not sure about it all being dynamic.Compression yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Try Acronis true image you can get a trial download from here.http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 Update: Reformatted and re-installed the hardware/software with no problems.I have now backed up my entire hard drive, including a partition I made for my music and pictures.This WD external hard drive is working just fine.Life is good. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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