External hard drive Q plse?

I'll post this over here as well.......the more heads.....etc etc


Hi again,

Briefly, what I would like to know is, can I "mirror" the entire contents of my "C" drive onto a separate detachable hard drive(ie by usb)?

With memory getting cheaper and cheaper, I'm thinking this would be a good move, especially in view of a recent computer hic-cup (now resolved).

The only doubt I have is that my Dad tried doing this a year ago and his comp wouildn't let him, telling him he was trying to transfer too much data.

He now just uses the (ext) hard drive for storing his pictures on.

Thoughts (as always) much appreciated!

How easy is this procedure?





David

 

As far as I know for mirroring you need 2 disks of same specifications and something like a RAID controller or BIOS capable of writing data to 2 HDD to perform disc mirroring. However, there is nothing to stop you backing up your data to a USB drive and keeping it in sync. I prefer to manually copy the files/folders I want to backup.

 

This would only happend if the data was more than the capacity of the disk and even then it would write the data to the disk up to the capacity and then throw out the error message.

 

I'm no too sure what happened here TBH.



I would have thouight me dad would make that sort of error.........

This subject gets more complex as you get into it.....anyone know about "ghost"?

ie for backing to an ext hard drive?

 

sorry.....

...I take that to mean two identical drives apart from your oriogional "C drive.....

...or the ext drive must be identical to the computer "C" drive?

Is this what the "ghost" prog does or soemthing different?

thats the current plan

 

I meant identical.

True disc mirroring should be transparent to the OS. It sees the two drives as a single drive. The duplicate writing is handled by BIOS/RAID controller.

 

It would appear that I have opened a "pandoras box".....


tvm.

 

Wrote a long reply and the bloody PC crashed! Let's start again...

RAID can be used for a number of purposes - speed/performance etc, but applicable here is the use of multiple identical disks and a special hardware controller - anything written to the drive (as your O/S sees it) is actually mirrored across all the disks in the array in real time. This provides redundancy, in that a disk can fail with no loss of data or system down time - the system simply uses the remaining disk(s).

This is obviously used in critical applications and is a little OTT for your needs, though I should say that with the price of storage and RAID controllers these days, it's easily done!

Symantec/Norton's Ghost which you mentioned above is a particular piece of software used for disk cloning - I'm sure there's many others out there!

Ghost is literally used to take an image of the contents of your hard drive. Should your drive then fail, you simply copy the image back onto a new hard drive, you've then got everything as it was, Windows, Programs, Settings, Files - you don't have to muck about installing anything!

You could easily go down this option if you wanted to save the hassle of reinstalling everything. You could even schedule an image to be taken nightly so you only ever lose a days work tops.

Ghost is ideal for businesses that have a large number of identical computers - you simply set one up with all the needed software and drivers etc, then Ghost the hard drive image to every other machine.

When I was at college, they were forever re-imaging/Ghosting a number of machines each night where students were mucking about with them and making them un-usable. A logical solution (to me) was to have every computer boot from the network during the night and re-image itself with a clean install - they weren't convinced!

My personal choice is simply to make duplicates of vital files on one of my spare computers/drives manually - reinstalling software is no hardship for me.

I imagine you can find some software that will do this for you automatically, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any myself. Ideally something where you choose what you want backed up - programs/settings weekly, particular directories with documents stored in nightly, that sort of thing!

But to answer your question a little more directly, anything that can mirror your drive to a USB drive in real time will be software based (if it exists... probably does by now! RAID emulation?) and will be a big draw on the system's resources when you're working. Something that does so nightly or to a schedule will be more practical!

 

"Wrote a long reply and the bloody PC crashed! Let's start again..."

,,,,,sounds like my week, Mark!


lol

you don't want what I've got I assure you!






thanks for this note



:beer:

 

Telkman was spot on. Ghost is great for a bit by bit clone of a disk image, but I would not use it for backup purposes per se. I would do both, keep a ghost image of a nice clean install of OS and apps, and keep a monthly backup regime of user files/photos/movies etc. Some people swear by the grandfather, father, son method. (ie a double backup), but this only really works if you have multiple storage options. If you want to go mad without going RAID, keep a backup in a fireproof safe!

 

Thanks.


What do you use for the monthly back up, LB?

So my shopping list is for two (?) identical ext hard drives.

This ghost prog.

Have got a couple of flash drives on order for backing stuff up regularly.

 

I just copy all my personal files, music and photos at the same time. Im lucky on the storage front - I work for Seagate

 

A good little tool for those who just want to backup certain folders is Microsoft’s SyncToy.

I use EAC to copy my CD’s to drive and the use SyncToy to make copies on other drives.

It is free from Microsoft.

Nic

 

Agree on SyncToy - which can be run as a scheduled task (so long as the PC is running at the appropriate time).

 

SynToy sounds the way to go.

I'm a behind speed with this stuff.

If anyone could help with these points I would be grateful;

1) There's talk of needing two identical hard drives for ghosting.

Does that mean that you need two (identical) external drives for the job?

One write up o the net suggested you just need one .

2) My computer came without disks. The handbook suggestes making copies of progs but isn't very clear on how. I scared stiff of moving something vital! Can some one guide me plse?

3) Also the compter should have an xp recovery disk.

How would I go about aquiring one or making one?

Any thoughts much appreciated!






David

 

Hi David,

1 - if you're using a program like Ghost, you don't need two identical external hard drives. Those programs take a (compressed) image of your internal hard drive to a single external hard drives.

2 + 3 - A backup program like Ghost will effectively create your recovery disk, although it would obviously recover your PC to the state it is currently in rather than the state in which it left the factory.

I have used Ghost extensively and also Acronis TrueImage which performs an identical task. For what it is worth, I find TrueImage to be both more user friendly and more stable.

My recommendation would be a twofold approach:

First get TrueImage (or Ghost) and take a full system backup. You don't need to do this often (maybe only ever once) - keep the image is a safe place and you can use this to recover your PC in the event of disaster. If you install lots of new software over time, it might be worth taking a further back up at that stage.

Secondly, I would take regular (daily, weekly, monthly - whatever you think appropriate) backups of key files. You can do this manually, or use automated software. I use SecondCopy to automate this and it performs well. Others have recomended SyncToy, which I have never used.

KRs

 

[1] SyncToy is "undemanding" - it just lets you keep folders synchronised, try it and see. Ghost is quite different.

[2] As long as you "copy" you won't have problems. Don't "move" things that got created by install routines. Be alert to where yoyur data files are, some programs handhold and don't tell you where they store things - they are a pain.

[3] XP recovery disks are a pain - as a lone user you'd normally make one when you start the computer for the very first time. I think manufacturers should be obliged to supply them insted of asinine recovery partitions (as in "how do I recover when my hard drive just failed, taking the recovery partition with it?"). Sorry, no suggestions about how to obtain a recovery disk - maybe the supplier can sell you one.

 

If something happens to windows or parts of your file system you may well be able to manipulate or save files using a Ubuntu, Knoppix or indeed any other Linux LiveCD. By booting using the LiveCD you should then be able to access the unmounted (Windows) file system and attempt to fix things.

Ubuntu 7.10 live cd
Knoppix v5.1.1 live cd

 

Thanks gentlemen.

Will read and inwardly digest.

 

Just in case this is useful David, I have a simple solution to what I understood you to have said in your opening post.
I organise my hard drive so that all my files are clearly under a single big folder with a pile of sub folders below. Easy to follow and consistent practice for the last ten years.
I use one external hard drive and keep all that stuff on there, so that I can run the pc without my personal and professional files sitting on the main DD (this is a confidentiality thing due to my work). Then, I keep a separate 4Gb USB stick and mirror all my files onto that just by drag and drop the main folder and say yes to all the sub folders. I have 2 copies now and the USB can go with me to another PC and will look like my own PC if I pop it into a port.
And, if everything goes ^*^$ up, I have a full copy and can pick up where I left off as soon as I've put all my software back on the main drive.

On occasion, I've also felt the need to take a copy of my hard drive, so that I can return exactly to where I just left off if something happens. However, now I use Norton GoBack and I back up about once a week, so that hopefully never happens.

I can loose any one of my drives, but shouldn't loose them all at once!
If I loose my main PC hard drive, I have to replace it and reload all the software, but won't loose so much as a bookmark... I hope