Disk to Disk Backup Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken
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Ken

Hi. This is a question about backuping up my home desktop PC. I have
a 160GB SATA internal drive. I was looking to purchase a 250GB SATA
internal drive (the Maxtor 7200rpm with 16mb cache is available now for
$190 (that includes tax). My thought was that I could partition that
second drive and use one partition to backup my 160GB drive, then use
the second partition for stuff I don't need to backup.

My question is this: Is it stupid to use a second internal drive to
back up a primary boot drive? Should I instead be purchasing an
external drive to do my disaster backups? Note that I will still use
my DVD drive to backup long term archive data. The hard drive to hard
drive backup would just be for disaster recovery.
Thanks for any advice!

Ken
 
This is a question about backuping up my home desktop PC.
I have a 160GB SATA internal drive. I was looking to purchase a
250GB SATA internal drive (the Maxtor 7200rpm with 16mb cache
is available now for $190 (that includes tax). My thought was that I
could partition that second drive and use one partition to backup my
160GB drive, then use the second partition for stuff I don't need to backup.
Click to expand...
My question is this: Is it stupid to use a second
internal drive to back up a primary boot drive?
Click to expand...

Not stupid so much as taking a real risk.

Most obviously of theft of the entire PC which
would leave you without any backup at all.

Ditto with the house burning down or getting badly flooded.
Should I instead be purchasing an external
drive to do my disaster backups?
Click to expand...

That doesnt necessarily help with the risk unless you
do shift it away from the PC when the risk is highest.
Say hide it when you are out of the house etc.
Note that I will still use my DVD drive
to backup long term archive data.
Click to expand...

Thats a good enough approach for most, particularly if it
contains more than just long term archive data, but also stuff
you'll have a real hassle replacing if the PC gets stolen etc.
The hard drive to hard drive backup
would just be for disaster recovery.
Click to expand...

It makes more sense to use a decent backup app to do
incremental backups to the new internal drive, rather than
a dedicated partition for that, unless you want the absolute
fastest recovery from a failure of the original hard drive.
Thanks for any advice!
Click to expand...

Even advice to shove you head up a dead bear's arse ?
 
Ken said:
Hi. This is a question about backuping up my home desktop PC. I have
a 160GB SATA internal drive. I was looking to purchase a 250GB SATA
internal drive (the Maxtor 7200rpm with 16mb cache is available now for
$190 (that includes tax). My thought was that I could partition that
second drive and use one partition to backup my 160GB drive, then use
the second partition for stuff I don't need to backup.

My question is this: Is it stupid to use a second internal drive to
back up a primary boot drive? Should I instead be purchasing an
external drive to do my disaster backups? Note that I will still use
my DVD drive to backup long term archive data. The hard drive to hard
drive backup would just be for disaster recovery.
Thanks for any advice!

Ken
Click to expand...
Stick with your plan for quick recovery, and this is assuming both hard
drives won't fail at the same time.

You should still maintain a full backup that is removable, and recoverable,
no matter where you restore the backup to.
 
Hi. This is a question about backuping up my home desktop PC. I have
a 160GB SATA internal drive. I was looking to purchase a 250GB SATA
internal drive (the Maxtor 7200rpm with 16mb cache is available now for
$190 (that includes tax). My thought was that I could partition that
second drive and use one partition to backup my 160GB drive, then use
the second partition for stuff I don't need to backup.

My question is this: Is it stupid to use a second internal drive to
back up a primary boot drive? Should I instead be purchasing an
external drive to do my disaster backups? Note that I will still use
my DVD drive to backup long term archive data. The hard drive to hard
drive backup would just be for disaster recovery.
Thanks for any advice!

Ken
Click to expand...

A second disk is, IMO, a find way to automate your backups,
but has some downsides;

On the plus side; An internal disk always connected and reliable. You
can automate your backup tool to run every night and get a good
backup. It's fast. If you need to restore to a new disk you don't
have to worry about USB compatibility if your backup software gives
you a bootable CDROM for full restores.

IMO, external USB disks can get screwed by any glitch in the AC power,
of (less likely) bumping the cable. This can be checked by doing a
read-back.

These cheapo USB cases, with huge NTFS file systems worry me. For one
thing, they run hot, which is the worst thing for disk reliability.
I've been watching Usenet posts for people asking for help on
recoverying failed NTFS file systems and an unofficial poll shows that
they are mostly external USB cases.

You can use an external disk to copy you backups off for off-site
storage.
 
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