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General discussion

How do you prepare for a major hard drive failure?

Sep 21, 2005 9:11AM PDT

How do you prepare for a major hard drive failure? I back up my data on:

External hard drive (what type?)
Jump drive (what type?)
Tape drive (what type?)
USB Flash drive (what type?)
CD-R or DVD-R
Additional hard drive on my system (is it safe?)
Online storage facility (which one?)
Other (tell us more)
I don't need no stinkin' backups (why?)

Discussion is locked

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Clone to 2nd Internal HD using Norton Ghost
Sep 23, 2005 1:28AM PDT

I never want to reinstall an OS and all of the PC's hardware drivers and numerous applications and then have to copy over all of my personal files. Therefore, I clone the c: drive to another internal HD every week.

If the c: drive fails, then I just yank it out and set the clone drive to the boot drive configuration and I should never miss a beat.

It is one thing to lose files and folders. To me it is quite another to think about that huge time-sink of bringing up a new HD from scratch. I'm talking days getting a new HD back to before the crash.


lyle

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I backup nightly
Sep 23, 2005 2:23AM PDT

to external HD using Acronis True Image.

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Firelite
Sep 23, 2005 2:28AM PDT

I use a Smartdisk Firelite 40gig external. Simple set up, connects and powered by usb, hasn't failed yet.

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Get a Network Hard Drive!!!
Sep 23, 2005 2:37AM PDT

I bought a 120GB Buffalo Technology Linkstation a couple years ago and now it is a crucial part of my home network:
http://buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=36&categoryid=16

Basically the Linkstation is an external USB hard drive with a built-in network link, it has an integrated power supply with power management capabilities, and even a built-in print server if you want to connect a USB printer to it.

I absolutely love the convenience it gives me. Using Norton Ghost (previously called PowerQuest DriveImage), my computers back themselves up to it by schedule. I have them set to backup their system partitions to the Linkstation once a month, and backup their personal files every day. I don't even give backing up my computers a thought anymore, and the backups they automatically create have saved my butt more than once.

I also have a set of folders on the drive called "Copy To Desktop" for each of my computers, and each time the computer starts, it checks this folder and moves whatever is in it, to the desktop. This way, I can copy things to another computer without it even being turned on.

It hosts files just like any windows machine using file sharing, it also allows you to host an FTP site, and they've told me a future firmware update may allow you to even use it as a web server, which I think would be a terribly sweet alternative for small businesses.

It can even host files to media player devices with TwonkyVision MediaServer software running on it:
http://www.twonkyvision.com/UPnP/index.html

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Impressed with the Linkstation
Sep 29, 2005 5:35AM PDT

I'd recommend the Linkstation too. I use it as file server rather than backup target and I've set a backup job to copy current files to an external drive. Non current files are stored as read-only and backed up to DVD+R and CD-R media. My current policy is that individual computers are NOT backed up as I don't currently have a program capable of restoring a functional XP system (Ghost?).

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Yes, get Ghost... Or better yet, get SystemWorks Premier
Sep 29, 2005 12:01PM PDT

If you have ever used PowerQuest DriveImage, Norton Ghost is now basically identical to that (Symantec bought out PowerQuest a while back).

If you're interested, I would recommend you take a look at Norton SystemWorks PREMIER Edition instead of just Norton Ghost. It's $30 more, but it's well worth your money:

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/sysworks/pro/

Here's all of the programs included with SystemWorks Premier:

Norton AntiVirus
Norton Utilities
Norton GoBack
Norton Ghost
CheckIt Diagnostics
System Optimizer

If you decide to buy SystemWorks, double-check and make sure it's the PREMIER Edition, because the standard version of SystemWorks doesn't include Ghost.

The best part about Norton SystemWorks, is they come out with a new release about every year, and you can get the new version of all those programs very cheap (after an upgrade rebate) once you own SystemWorks, sometimes $0.00 after a rebate.

They should be coming out with a new version of SystemWorks shortly. They usually release it sometime around November. Staples usually sells it for nothing after rebates in the after thanksgiving day sales.

I have been using versions of Norton SystemWorks since 2001 and I have been very happy with them, and I highly recommend it.

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backups evolve
Oct 14, 2005 7:58PM PDT

How to backup your system(s) depends upon several things; importance of the data, amount of data, accessability (time to recover) of backups, amount of technical involvement you desire, how many systems you backup, and often what your friends or associates are doing.

Backups do evolve. Advances in software and hardware, as well as the amount of data, usually cause changes in the way you backup.

All that being said, I started off with a simple copy directories from one hard disk onto another hard disk all in the same system. I briefly used tape and found it totally unacceptable. Either too slow, limited capacity, or too expensive. Too manys toos...

Then we (I) built a home network. It grew to six computers, sometimes more, sometimes less, and I started copying files between computers. 100bT was fine. I had two RAID-5's with 1TB of total storage. I was backed up and my backups were backed up...

Then I worked at VERITAS and got a copy of Backup Exec. Did a great job, automated and very complete. Easy to use to. Did backups from a Peer-to-Peer ''Server'' of all of the other systems. No muss, no fuss. Did disk to disk, still not a tape fan.

VERITAS spent a bunch of money purchasing a company to add ''bare metal restore'' to it's flagship ''Netbackup'' line. BMR is the ability to restore a system disk with only a new disk and your last backup. No need to reload the server software (or keep track of all of the patches, licenses, and new applications with licences added, ''where did I put that distribution...''), that would add time and introduce the possibility of configuration errors - AKA failure to restore. Backup Exec, what I was using, didn't have BMR...

One day I found PowerQuest Drive Image (now it belongs to Symantec and replaces Ghost AND Symantec and VERITAS have merged). The price was right, and the capabilities were what I wanted.

So today, my Peer-to-Peer Server has hardware RAID-1 system and data disks. Drives are cheap. I added a Ximeta 200GB NAS drive to the network. All of the satellite systems backup to the NAS device, it appears as a local drive to each of them. After Backup I create a copy of the backup on the RAID-1 on the ''server''. I create directories with the backup date and system. That allows easy indexing. The Power Quest Drive Image has a restore interface that works much like Windows File Explorer. You can restore an entire drive, or a directory, or a file. And any of them to an alternate location. If it's really important I squirt a directory to a CD or DVD too.

Haven't checked out the Ghost version of the PowerQuest Drive Image yet. Hope it's all intact. Another function lets you copy system drive to new (larger!) target drive to enable moving to a larger system drive. It works very well. Just remember to mark the partition as active with Disk Manager. Works well with Win2K and XP too.


Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean something can't go wrong...

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Monthly backup/weekly incr w/ Acronis on ext WD 80GB
Sep 23, 2005 2:43AM PDT

This utility is great. Backups and Restores are easy. Had to restore entire C: drive last week due to ZoneAlarm Free upgrade that rendered my PC unbootable. Only took about 15 minutes. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with experiences using Acronis and any problems they encountered OR if there is a better product out there.

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Additional internal drive
Sep 23, 2005 2:44AM PDT

I do an image backup from my C drive to an extra internal hard drive. It has saved me in the past! Also on this hard drive is a bootable partition, so when the stress is high due to a failed drive, the steps to get me back are fairly simple. No need to boot from a CD, and the restore from the backup back onto my C drive is pretty straightforward.

However, in the case of a bad lightning strike or other such catastrophe, this probably isn't the safest method of storing backup data.

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Back
Sep 23, 2005 3:33AM PDT

Working for years in DP and using just every type backup going, I finally settled upon an extra internal hard drive. Why? Time. And, as someone already mentioned, the hassle of reinstalling everything. The data on my computer now is not the type that cannot be redone easily especially if you do any type of backup at all. Tape back-up is slow at the best. External USB drives are ok, but again, slow, and at times a hassle to keep going (I tried two Seagates). Raid is a good way to go if you have the equipment that handles it, but again, restore? I choose the internal hard drive for speed and less hassle. My in-between backup of my data files suffices for restore if I have to go to the backup hard drive and I can tell you, that restore doesn't take days to get to a precrash state.

The chance of two hard drives going bad at once has always been a question. Just think back, I've been in DP since about 1962. Have I seen two hard drives in the same machine go bad at the same time? No. Yes, an off-site hard drive back-up is a very good choice. But for the average user, I choose the extra internal hard drive cloned via Norton Ghost or an equivalent.

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internal hard drive
Sep 25, 2005 2:27PM PDT

I use a internal hard drive with a bootable partition.
One thing I have done is put a IDE to USB cable on it. I just have to plug in the USB (which sticks out of the cabinet) and back up. When I'm through, I simply unplug the USB. As the hard drive is physically removed from the system, there's no chance of any creepy crawlies getting in. Sure - it's a little inconvenient, but I can live with that

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All of the above (almost) ...
Sep 23, 2005 3:49AM PDT

I have mirrored my primary drive to protect against drive failure.

I have another other hard disk where last nights copy of all my data files get saved and yet another where a copy of my important files from last week gets saved - to protect against data corruption and my mistakes

I copy all of my important files to CD or DVD once a month and keep them in another location - to protect against catastophic failure.

I use my notebook computer (from work) to keep a current copy of all of my important files both at work and at home and synchronize, usually on a daily basis.

I keep a copy of all of my active documents on a thumb drive that I have with me always - so I have access to them anywhere.

I keep all of my digital images on a backup compact flash until all of my catalogueing and editing is finished and I have synched my drives.

I keep a ghost image of a clean install of my notebook on a network server that is backed up with tape.

I have not lost any important data files since 1989.

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Second System Hard Drive for MY DOCUMENTS
Sep 23, 2005 4:24AM PDT

I have second 300 gb Seagate Hard Drive labeled ''D'' as well as an external 160 gb Maxtor, labeled ''K'' to backup the backup!

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Hard driver backup
Sep 23, 2005 4:37AM PDT

I back up my entire C drive to a Western HD external Drive- it came with a simple to use backup program- Retrospect. It is very easy to use and since it only backs up the files that have changes since the last backup, it usually takes only about 15 minutes once a week.It gives me great peace of mind

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Norton Ghost does it again!!!!!!
Sep 23, 2005 4:55AM PDT

I have two identical hard drives one for normal and one for backup, the backup drive is in an external aluminum cartridge (normally not running or powered up) that I use only for backup purposes. About one a month I run Norton Ghost (DOS session only) and do a full backup. Been doing this for about 4 years now and have NEVER had a problem that I couldn?t recover from by ghosting.

I have always been an advocate for DOS based backups, what good is a Windows based backup if you can?t boot to Windows, I?ve been there on more than one occasion where my system has gotten so screwed up that Windows simply will not load. Then it?s time to Ghost!

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(NT) (NT) good thats what i do
Sep 23, 2005 7:42AM PDT
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I second you
Sep 25, 2005 1:41PM PDT

I use a second drive on my secondary bus (40 gig )to clone my main drive (80 gig). I dont have anywhere near capacity on my main drive so the clone still has plenty of room. I backup about every two weeks on a Sunday. That way if I crash or get any unwanted worm all I have to do is swith the jumpers and clone back the other direction. I can be up in less than 30 min. and have a new hot disk ready to switch back. If I get a partial corruption or loose a file, I can copy it directly from the standby clone. I copy my most secure files (pictures and docs) to my laptop for added security and mobility..

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System backup
Sep 23, 2005 5:11AM PDT

I have installed a Western Digital 120 gig external hard drive.

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I use Ghost doing incremental backups
Sep 23, 2005 5:19AM PDT

I have the current version of Ghost (v11.0?) running against an external 80 Gbyte USB 2.0 hard drive. I have automated full system backups once a week and an incremental hourly. Not foolproof but only lost a couple of email messages the last hard drive failure.

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Backup Over Network
Sep 23, 2005 5:21AM PDT

If I do, I throw it on my modded Xbox, which presently has a 120GB harddrive in it. It runs a local FTP server on my home network, so I can get speeds of 7000-10000 KB/s.

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CDRW or whatever is fine...
Sep 23, 2005 5:47AM PDT

CDRW or whatever is fine... but a backup is only as good as the LAST time you actually backed up. What can happen between your last backup and your next - major hard drive failure! How busy are you? How organised are you? Hence, "I don't need no stinkin' backups"! Kaycera, cera, whatever will be, will be. [forgive any possible spelling mistake, for the content and message. Thank you.]

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I use my iPod
Sep 23, 2005 6:24AM PDT

I use my ipod to store important stuff like photos and music and thats all i need to be safe

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:)Use A Free Utility (link incl) from Maxtor to Image drives
Sep 23, 2005 6:48AM PDT

I have 2 Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160G ATA hard drives. I also use 2 mobile racks that are installed in my tower (so I can quickly exchange drives as needed). One drive runs my current XP OS system and the other is my -complete- back up drive (I switch between the two, to obtain maximum life out my drives - I do not keep both drives in the system after the backup is done). The free utility that I use is from Maxtor. Here is the link:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/View%20By%20Category/Desktop%20Storage/DiamondMax%20Family

The program I use is ''MaxBlast 4 for Windows'' which will do a complete image drive copy from one drive to the other drive - while - running under windows. I know that you *do not* have to be using Maxtor drives for this utility to work. In fact I was using a Samsung and IBM drive and transfered them to my Maxtor drives (for more room). The only problem that I have noticed, is that you *can not* go from a larger partition to a smaller partition. You can go from a larger drive to a smaller drive - if - the partitions are the same size or the partitions (not the whole drive) is going from smaller to larger in size. I've only tested this under Windows XP and no other OS, but I'm sure you could be running XP and make image copies of the two other drives with no problems (which I might try one day).
I've used Ghost and it works fine... but a -free- utility that *works great* is hard to beat. Happy The ''Big Drive Enabler'' works great too! Wink

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Redirect My Documents to an External HD
Sep 23, 2005 8:46AM PDT

I don't exactly back up my data. Instead, after temporarily losing all my data to a failed HD a year ago, I simply added a USB 2.0 120GB external HD, named it 'My Documents' and redirected My Documents to it. Works like a champ. I don't notice much slow down when accessing my data, so I'm pretty happy with it.

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Addendum
Sep 23, 2005 8:59AM PDT

I should mention the reason I took this approach was because I find it absolutely pointless to back up EVERYTHING on a HD. For any apps I have purchased I still have the install cds and the updates/upgrades are found in My Documents\My Downloads (as are any downloaded apps). All e-mail data, pics, .mp3s, whatever is on the My Documents drive.

And really, if your system gets toasted its the perfect opportunity to start out fresh anyway...keep the data, ditch the potential cause of problems.

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backup
Sep 23, 2005 9:56AM PDT

I use a 80Gb Maxtor and CD/DVD as I have huge photo files.

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iPods Rock
Sep 23, 2005 11:54AM PDT

In the past I have always put my backups to CD's or DVD's but now that I have an iPod that's definitely where my backups will end up!

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Multiple backup
Sep 23, 2005 6:42PM PDT

I use Acronics True Image Server. The way I set it up is as following. My system is on a Raid 0 array, on shutdown it incrementally backs up to another Raid 0 system. On next boot it boots up from the previous backup and so on.
Once a week I also back up to another Raid 1 system, just in case. I also do a weekly backup to an external usb2 drive. Ok it sounds very complex but I sleep real well at night. Also drives are cheap now. Regards Jurgen

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HDD backup
Sep 23, 2005 10:39PM PDT

I backup a HDD to the HDD on a second networked computer. This is done at regular periods and has been satisfactory for several years.

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RAID
Sep 24, 2005 12:06AM PDT

After loseing a 20 Gig drive I now have 2 300 Gig hard drives that run in RAID at all times.
The downside is you always need 2 hard drives to upgrade.