Tim said:
I bought an external usb-firewire hard drive 120G.
I want to use it to back up my C drive.
What do I do now? I don't see a "back up your hard drive"
choice anywhere! I have XP Home.
Clueless as usual.
Tim:
You might consider using Symantec's Norton Ghost program (2003 version) to
clone your internal hard drive to your USB external hard drive.
The advantage of this process is that for all practical purposes you're
making an exact duplicate of your working internal drive. Everything is
"backed up" - your operating system, registry, programs & applications,
configuration settings, your data files - everything. Unlike virtually every
other so-called "backup program" that merely backs up your data files, i.e.,
the files you have created in your various programs.
The cloning process is relatively simple. Other than the external hard drive
you'll be cloning to, disconnect any other external storage device(s), e.g.,
ZIP drive, flash drive, etc., from the computer and boot up with the Ghost
floppy disk (see below instructions for preparing the Ghost floppy) and use
the screen displays to select the source (internal hard drive) disk and the
destination (external hard drive) disk.
With a reasonably fast processor, your cloning speed (data transfer) should
be about 400 to 500 MB/min. Should you be using a USB 1.0/1.1 connection,
your cloning speed will be about 40 to 50 MB/min.
Note that in some cases, connecting the USB external hard drive to a USB hub
prevents the cloning process. In those situations, the external drive should
bypass the hub and be directly connected to the computer's USB port.
Another major advantage of this cloning process is that you can also perform
the cloning operation in reverse, i.e., from the external hard drive to the
internal one, thus creating a bootable internal drive. Naturally in this
situation during the cloning process the external hard drive becomes the
source disk and the internal hard drive the destination disk. BTW, the
cloned USB external hard drive will not be bootable - at least in my
experience with XP. I have read many comments in the various newsgroups and
websites to the effect that an external USB hard drive is bootable as long
as it's supported by the motherboard's BIOS. But I've yet to achieve this.
If anyone has successfully booted (in XP) with a USB external hard drive, I
would be anxious to hear of their experience in this area.
I prefer to carry out the cloning operation using a Ghost floppy disk,
rather than using Ghost's Windows interface. I find this process simple,
straightforward, and effective.
PREPARING THE GHOST FLOPPY DISK
1. Insert a blank floppy disk. It need not be formatted.
2. Access your Ghost program. Make sure you have the latest version 2003.793
(as of 6/04). Use Symantec's built-in LiveUpdate feature to install the
latest version in the event you're using an earlier version.
3. Click on Ghost Utilities and select Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.
4. Select Standard Ghost Boot Disk. On the following dialog box (assuming
you have USB 2.0 capability), select "USB 2.0 Support" and check "Assign DOS
drive letters". Click Next.
5. Select the "Use PC-DOS" option in the next dialog box.
6. Complete the process following the screen prompts.
7. Remove floppy and label accordingly.
With the USB external hard drive connected, boot up with the Ghost floppy
and perform the cloning operation. You should be able to easily perform this
operation by stepping through Ghost's informative dialog boxes. Just keep in
mind that the source disk is your internal hard drive and the destination
disk is your USB external hard drive. Also remember to disconnect any other
storage devices you may have connected to your computer (ZIP drives,
flash/jump drives, etc.) before you begin the cloning operation.
Art
