Mirror Backup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sophie
  • Start date Start date
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Sophie

Any comments would be welcomed.
I received the following in an email newsletter from a local electronics
store. I have XP but I'm not exactly sure which program would accomplish
what is outlined below. Is it a function of XP Backup?

"Someone suggested I install two hard drives in a computer; one will act as
a backup in case of a hard drive failure. Is this a good precaution to take?
What are the chances of the two failing at the same time?"

Having a secondary drive as a backup is a great idea. The likelihood of two
drives failing at the same time is very slim. There are a few ways you can
use your secondary drive. One of the more popular methods is using one drive
for your system and one drive for your documents.

If anything should happen to your system, your documents will be saved. You
can easily reinstall the system or install the hard drive with your
documents on another computer. As you might have guessed, you still need to
back up your documents.

On operating systems like Windows XP Professional, you can use a second
drive as a mirror. A mirrored drive is an exact replica of your hard drive.
Once the mirror is made, the system will continually write to both discs to
ensure they are the same. If one should fail, you will be able to keep
running on the other drive.

The mirrored solution is a great way to protect your files. It will enable
you to recover quickly from a failed hard drive. But a word of caution - if
you have important data on your hard drive, there is no substitute for
backups. Your best bet is to keep the second drive free and only use it to
perform backups. It can hold more data than a CD and is much less expensive
than a tape system.
 
And if your entire computer fails, what then?
It really is not smart to maintain a backup on
the same computer.

This program performs a more thorough backup:

BackUp MyPC is a powerful yet easy to use data protection
and disaster recovery solution for a single computer or
peer-to-peer network. Conveniently backup important files
or your entire computer while you're not even around using
our advanced scheduling system.
http://www.stompinc.com/bump/bump-retail.phtml

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Any comments would be welcomed.
| I received the following in an email newsletter from a local electronics
| store. I have XP but I'm not exactly sure which program would accomplish
| what is outlined below. Is it a function of XP Backup?
|
| "Someone suggested I install two hard drives in a computer; one will act as
| a backup in case of a hard drive failure. Is this a good precaution to take?
| What are the chances of the two failing at the same time?"
|
| Having a secondary drive as a backup is a great idea. The likelihood of two
| drives failing at the same time is very slim. There are a few ways you can
| use your secondary drive. One of the more popular methods is using one drive
| for your system and one drive for your documents.
|
| If anything should happen to your system, your documents will be saved. You
| can easily reinstall the system or install the hard drive with your
| documents on another computer. As you might have guessed, you still need to
| back up your documents.
|
| On operating systems like Windows XP Professional, you can use a second
| drive as a mirror. A mirrored drive is an exact replica of your hard drive.
| Once the mirror is made, the system will continually write to both discs to
| ensure they are the same. If one should fail, you will be able to keep
| running on the other drive.
|
| The mirrored solution is a great way to protect your files. It will enable
| you to recover quickly from a failed hard drive. But a word of caution - if
| you have important data on your hard drive, there is no substitute for
| backups. Your best bet is to keep the second drive free and only use it to
| perform backups. It can hold more data than a CD and is much less expensive
| than a tape system.
|
|
 
I agree. I currently maintain a backup on a USB 2 hard drive for just that
reason.
My question was regarding the XP Pro program used as described below
 
In order to configure a mirror, you'll need to setup a
RAID configuration. This requires two identical hard
drives, a motherboard with RAID or a RAID controller
card. Then you must install Windows XP from scratch.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| I agree. I currently maintain a backup on a USB 2 hard drive for just that
| reason.
| My question was regarding the XP Pro program used as described below
 
In order to configure a mirror, you'll need to setup a
RAID configuration. This requires two identical hard
drives, a motherboard with RAID or a RAID controller
card. Then you must install Windows XP from scratch.


Last place I worked, I set up a mirror on a Dell system with Win NT 4.0.
There was no RAID controller. Two identical 9.1GB IBM SCSI drives were
attached to the same Adaptec SCSI controller. How come that worked? Is XP's
mirror different?
 
You cannot create mirrored volumes on computers that are running
Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional or Windows
XP 64-Bit Edition. However, you can use a computer that is running
Windows XP Professional to create mirrored volumes on remote
computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000
Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|
| Last place I worked, I set up a mirror on a Dell system with Win NT 4.0.
| There was no RAID controller. Two identical 9.1GB IBM SCSI drives were
| attached to the same Adaptec SCSI controller. How come that worked? Is XP's
| mirror different?
|
| --
| TeGGeR®
 
You cannot create mirrored volumes on computers that are running
Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional or Windows
XP 64-Bit Edition. However, you can use a computer that is running
Windows XP Professional to create mirrored volumes on remote
computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000
Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.


So then NT 4.0 was the equivalent of 2000 Server for mirroring, and had
functionality that XP has not. Therefore, if you want to do a mirror with
XP, you need to have the RAID controller to do the work instead of the OS.
Correct?
 
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