Jo-Anne Naples said:
Thank you, Anna! I would definitely like more info. I have to admit that
ease of use is something I appreciate--and Casper seems to offer that. Of
course, reliability is paramount. I read some reviews of Acronis in which
people said it corrupted their computers to the point where they had to
reinstall Windows. Of course, lots of others said it worked fine.
I don't mean to be intrusive, but it sounds like you're in a corporate
environment and have a good deal of expertise
with various drives and backup situations. I'm just a home and
small-business user; but after a nasty malware attack, I'm trying to get
more organized in dealing with the possibility of disk or software
failures that could leave me stranded.
So, yes, anything more you can tell me will be gratefully accepted!
Jo-Anne
Jo-Anne:
Before we get to the Casper program I wanted to make a comment or two about
your plans to purchase a 500 GB HDD to be used as a USB device. (I think you
later said something about a 320 GB HDD so I'm unsure as to your precise
plans re an USB external HDD.)
In any event, since you have only a relatively small internal HDD in your
machine - I believe you had said it was about 50 GB - would it not be more
desirable to install the much larger HDD in your PC as your day-to-day
working HDD and use that smaller HDD as an external device for
backup/storage purposes? It's not a particularly difficult chore to install
a new internal HDD in place of an older, smaller drive. Would you be up to
this?
If you do go that route you would *first* clone the contents of your present
internal HDD to the new larger HDD in its USB enclosure and following the
disk-cloning operation remove the HDD from its USB enclosure and install it
in place of the present internal HDD. The formerly internal HDD would then
be installed as your USB external HDD.
Actually a more straightforward way to accomplish this would be to install
the new larger HDD as a *secondary* HDD in your system; clone the contents
of your present internal HDD to the secondary drive, and then connect the
new drive as your primary HDD (Primary Master). I really don't know how
familiar you are with the "innards" of your machine so you will have to make
the judgment as to how you wish to proceed.
BTW, I believe you've had some exchange of correspondence with one or more
responders to your query re whether you should purchase a 2 1/2" HDD for a
USB enclosure. My advice would be *not* to consider a 2 1/2" HDD as your USB
external HDD. There's really no advantage for you to do this in your
situation. Stick with a 3 1/2" HDD.
As regards the Casper disk-cloning program...
Here's a recent post I sent in response to a similar query as yours where
the inquirer was casting about for a comprehensive backup program.
You are certainly correct in your objective to backup your data to an
external hard drive. Not only is this a worthwhile objective, it really
should be your *primary*, if not exclusive objective (as opposed to
manipulating the partitions on your HDD in an effort to provide some sort of
data security). And when we use the term "data" in this context, consider
that this "data" includes *everything* on your day-to-day working HDD, i.e,
your XP operating system
(OS), all your programs/applications, as well as your user-created data. So
through a comprehensive backup of *all* the data on your working HDD you
can, in effect, have a copy of that HDD. A precise copy whereby should your
day-to-day HDD fail or your system becomes unbootable because of a corrupt
OS, you would have at hand the wherewithal to restore your system to a
bootable, functional state with a minimum of fuss. What better backup system
can one have?
You can achieve this through the use of a disk-cloning (or disk-imaging
program). A comprehensive backup program that you could use on a daily basis
should you want.
There are a number of disk-to-disk cloning programs available. The program
we greatly prefer as a disk-to-disk cloning program is the Casper 4
program - see
http://www.fssdev.com
This program is extremely simple to use even for an inexperienced user,
reasonably quick in operation, and quite effective. There's virtually no
learning curve in undertaking the disk cloning process as one navigates
through the few
easy-to-understand screens with a final mouse-click on the button on the
screen which will trigger the disk-cloning process. After undertaking one or
two disk-cloning operations it should take the user no more than 20 seconds
or so to get to that point.
The significant advantage of the Casper 4.0 disk cloning program compared
with other disk cloning programs that we're familiar with is its ability to
create *incremental* disk clones following the creation of the original
(first) disk clone. Employing what Casper calls its "SmartClone" technology
the program can create subsequent disk clones of the source HDD usually at a
fraction of the time it takes to create a "full" disk clone. This results in
a decided incentive for the user to undertake frequent complete backups of
his or her system knowing that they can create "incremental" disk clones in
a relatively short period of time. Understand that this "incremental disk
clone" is a *complete* clone (copy) of the "source" HDD.
Following the first time you clone the contents of your internal (boot) HDD
to your USB external HDD (USBEHD), it would probably take no more than two
or three minutes to back up your system should you desire to do so on a
daily basis. And probably not much more than 4 or 5 minutes to back up your
system on a more-or-less weekly basis. Again, bear in mind that your USBEHD
would contain the *complete* contents of your internal HDD - a precise copy
of your internal HDD. While the USBEHD would not ordinarily be bootable in
an XP OS, it would be a simple matter to clone the contents of the USBEHD
back to a internal HDD should a restoration of the system be necessary.
Again, what better backup system can one have?
The Casper 4.0 program is also capable of scheduling the disk-cloning
process on a daily, weekly, or other time period selected by the user so
that should you prefer you could arrange for automatic backups at
pre-determined times.
There's a trial version available (see above link) although as I mentioned
it's somewhat crippled but it should give you a good idea as to how the
program works. And I can provide further details about using the program
should you (or anyone) be interested.
The downside to the Casper 4 program as compared with the Acronis and most
other disk-cloning programs is the cost of the program which comes to $49.95
for the program + $9.95 for the "Casper Startup Disk" (the program to create
the bootable CD containing the Casper program). So it's more expensive than
the others. But in our view, well worth the additional cost considering its
overall effectiveness and the fact that one will be using the program many,
many times over the weeks & months ahead. AFAIK, the program is available
only through download from the developer.
Another possible downside to the Casper 4 program (depending upon one's
interests) is that it's really not designed to create "generational" copies
of one's system. Some users like to maintain complete copies of their system
at various points in time. For example a user might (for one reason or
another) want to have available a backup of his or her system on June 1,
June 5, June 10, etc. etc. To that end a disk-imaging program (such as the
Acronis True Image program) is more practical for that user since to
accomplish that objective using a disk-cloning program such as Casper 4 the
user would obviously need a fair number of HDDs to serve as the recipients
of the clones at these various points in time. But based on our experience I
would say that the vast number of users (and I would assume you are one of
them) are basically interested in only
maintaining a *current* up-to-date copy of their system and have little or
no
interest in maintaining "generational" copies of such. But that could be an
important consideration for some users.
Anyway, all of the above is predicated on the basis that you're seeking a
reliable program to backup your *entire* day-to-day booting HDD, including
the XP OS, all your programs & applications, and your user-created data, in
short - everything that's on your "source" HDD. And you want an effective
simple-to-use program to do this on a systematic routine basis and do so
reasonably quickly. To that end we've found this Casper 4.0 program really
fills the bill. So I would suggest you take a look at it.
Anna
