help with HD backup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jake
  • Start date Start date
J

Jake

Hi guys,

I'm wanting to back up my entire HD. That is clone it.(I think thats the
term.)

If my HD fails I want to be up and running just by booting up the clone
drive.

How do i do this? Ive tried ghost but i cant tell which drive is which
because they both have the same # and I'm not taking that chance.

Any real easy way to do this??
 
2 identical hard drives
Click to expand...

They both have "the same #?" Do you mean that when you run Ghost, it
identifies both of them as "Drive 0" or both as "Drive 1?"
Or do you mean that the number representing their size is the same?

Your MB doesn't perchance have the capability of installing these two
drives as a RAID 1 array, does it? It really sounds like you might be
better off with a mirrored RAID setup. If you want to do it by
cloning, though, the only reliable way is to clone it every day, and
that's kind of a pain.
Another way, although not free, is by IMAGING your C: drive onto the
other drive rather than CLONING it. For this, you could use Ghost or
Drive Image, but there are two much better solutions, and both run
from within Windows. These are PowerQuest's (now Symantec's) V2i
Protector Desktop (about $70, XP and 2000 only) and Acronis True Image
7 (about $50 and I think it runs in all versions of Windows). They
are similar to Ghost and Drive Image, but (and this is a big "but")
they can make INCREMENTAL backups. You just make a baseline image,
and the software will make one or more incremental backups each day in
the background without user intervention. Then if you ever have to
restore, you just boot from the V2i or True Image CD and restore from
the images. The only data you would lose would be any that was
written after the last incremental backup. This method is both better
and easier than repeated cloning of the C: drive. This method also
has the advantage of COMPRESSION so that you can easily fit the backup
of the first drive onto the identically-sized second drive, even if
the first drive is nearly full.
Ron
 
In my job I have used Ghost scores of times for this purpose. Simplest way
to clone the entire hard disk is to leave both hard disks on 'master',
connect the origin hard disk to IDE 1 (which is where it normally is),
connect the destination hard disk to IDE 2, then to boot up with a floppy
into DOS, then run Ghost.exe

With the hard disks connected in the above fashion, you can pick
didk-to-disk, and leave the source and destination drives as default.

Alternatively, you can also connect the destination hard disk to IDE 2 and
set it as 'slave'. You can still use default settings.

Note that to clone a Windows XP system you need Ghost 7.5 upwards.

Henry
 
Milleron said:
This method is both better
and easier than repeated cloning of the C: drive. This method also
has the advantage of COMPRESSION so that you can easily fit the backup
of the first drive onto the identically-sized second drive, even if
the first drive is nearly full.
Ron
Click to expand...


But does fail his request of being able to boot the second drive. He would
be computerless until he sourced another drive to restore to.

Mirrored RAID is the best option and for less money than the software you
suggest, he could go buy one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=16-115-001&depa=0

Ben
 
Milleron said:
They both have "the same #?" Do you mean that when you run Ghost, it
identifies both of them as "Drive 0" or both as "Drive 1?"
Or do you mean that the number representing their size is the same?

Your MB doesn't perchance have the capability of installing these two
drives as a RAID 1 array, does it? It really sounds like you might be
better off with a mirrored RAID setup. If you want to do it by
cloning, though, the only reliable way is to clone it every day, and
that's kind of a pain.
Another way, although not free, is by IMAGING your C: drive onto the
other drive rather than CLONING it. For this, you could use Ghost or
Drive Image, but there are two much better solutions, and both run
from within Windows. These are PowerQuest's (now Symantec's) V2i
Protector Desktop (about $70, XP and 2000 only) and Acronis True Image
7 (about $50 and I think it runs in all versions of Windows). They
are similar to Ghost and Drive Image, but (and this is a big "but")
they can make INCREMENTAL backups.
Click to expand...


Do these also support all file systems? FAT32, NTFS? And writing to CD/DVD+
and USB/firewire hard drive?




--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
But does fail his request of being able to boot the second drive. He would
be computerless until he sourced another drive to restore to.
Click to expand...
If a drive failed, he'd want to buy another, anyway, I guess, and
unless you live way out in the boondocks, that can be done in a matter
of minutes or hours. It's also very conceivable that if the system is
that mission critical, a third drive, one just big enough to
accommodate the system, could be kept on the shelf.
Mirrored RAID is the best option and for less money than the software you
suggest, he could go buy one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=16-115-001&depa=0
Click to expand...

Yes, you'll notice that I suggested RAID 1 before going on to
descriptions of the imaging software. It's a very good solution. The
original poster should note, however, that there's one big drawback to
this option, as well. Should the first drive not fail mechanically
but become hopelessly corrupted by a virus or some other
software/malware glitch, the mirrored drive will be identically
buggered up -- i.e., if a virus deletes your system files, they'll be
gone on the mirrored drive, as well. (System Restore or Go-Back may
take care of some scenarios like this IF the machine is at least
bootable, however.)

No single system of protection is perfect. Many users use two or even
three, including backup to DVD or tape, which has the advantage of
off-site storage in case of catastrophic failure like BOTH drives
being fried by a lightning strike or a house fire.

I've been thinking that my next computer might have both a RAID 1 AND
a large third drive for imaging to cover both problems.

Ron


Ron
 
Do these also support all file systems? FAT32, NTFS? And writing to CD/DVD+
and USB/firewire hard drive?
Click to expand...

Do they support all file systems? Yes, because what they do really
has nothing to do with files systems, anyway. They simply make
sector-by-sector images of your hard drive and restore them exactly
the same way. They both run under Windows for backup purposes, and,
as such, they run on any file system that supports Windows. For
restoring an entire drive, you would boot from the recovery CD which
is, again, independent of file system on the computer.

V2i Protector will not write directly to DVD or CD, but it does have
the option of writing its backup images in either 600-MB or 4.5-GB
segments so that copying to CD or DVD is extremely simple.
I can't answer the DVD or CD-writing question for True Image, but I'm
sure it's readily answered on the Acronis Web site.

Ron

Ron
 
Milleron said:
Do they support all file systems? Yes, because what they do really
has nothing to do with files systems, anyway.
Click to expand...


I asked because I can remember the time that Ghost didn't support NTFS
drives.

They simply make
sector-by-sector images of your hard drive and restore them exactly
the same way.
Click to expand...

Like Ghost 2003.

They both run under Windows for backup purposes, and,
as such, they run on any file system that supports Windows. For
restoring an entire drive, you would boot from the recovery CD which
is, again, independent of file system on the computer.

V2i Protector will not write directly to DVD or CD, but it does have
the option of writing its backup images in either 600-MB or 4.5-GB
segments so that copying to CD or DVD is extremely simple.
I can't answer the DVD or CD-writing question for True Image, but I'm
sure it's readily answered on the Acronis Web site.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look around.



--

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
Thanks to all that responded.
I really used the term cloning loosely.
I dont know my terms or there differences for I what I want to do.

Let me put it this way.
I have two identical SATA drives. I want to copy my current usable drive (
that is the drive with everything installed) and make an exact bootable
copy.
Now it sounds like maybe this cant be done. I wont always need to append or
add to it. I can stand to lose most everything really but would prefer not
to start from scratch.
Sorry if ive confused the issue trying to use terms im not sure of.
 
Thanks to all that responded.
I really used the term cloning loosely.
I dont know my terms or there differences for I what I want to do.

Let me put it this way.
I have two identical SATA drives. I want to copy my current usable drive (
that is the drive with everything installed) and make an exact bootable
copy.
Now it sounds like maybe this cant be done. I wont always need to append or
add to it. I can stand to lose most everything really but would prefer not
to start from scratch.
Sorry if ive confused the issue trying to use terms im not sure of.
Click to expand...

That definitely can be done. It's how one usually goes about
replacing any drive -- the one with the bootable partition or any
other drive.

Drive Image and Ghost both come with utilities for doing that. V2i
Protector Desktop does, as well, and I presume that you get it with
True Image.

Why you had trouble doing it with Ghost is not yet clear.
Ron
 
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