[Taffycat]

I just happened to be pondering about back-ups and such, and a thought popped into my head, but I don't know whether it would work, so maybe one of you could give me a little guidance please?

I have been thinking of buying an external HDD, for the purpose of backing up - instead of just backing-up to DVDs, etc.

Then it occurred to me... if a PC suddenly "died" of some kind of major failure (heaven forbid) would it be possible to get an external hard-drive caddy, and simply load the HD from the "dead" computer into it, and then access it from another computer...? Would that work? Or are there technical reasons why it wouldn't?

Thank you for looking

[Madxgraphics]

Yes you could use an caddy to retrieve data fronm your "dead" computer, then once a new hdd was installed transfer all data plus back up data to your new hdd. here is a good site I use quite often for anything USB related.

[Taffycat]

Thanks Madx I have just bookmarked that site, some interesting info about the products on there, which is always very helpful.

[floppybootstomp]

I use a freebie version of Acronis True Image 10 and it does recognise external drives connected via USB for backup purposes.

To back up your complete main drive and restore it you will need software such as Acronis True Image. You make a boot CD within the software and when restoring boot from it.

Nortons used to do a recovery program similar to Acronis named Ghost which actually worked very well but I don't know if they still sell it.

[Taffycat]

Hi Flopps, thank you for the advice

I downloaded a freebie of "Paragon Drive Backup 9" recently, which I've not tried yet (mainly because I havent got my external drive yet ) so I don't know what that is like.

Though if the Acronis True Image is better, I would be happy to purchase it.

[floppybootstomp]

Paragon make excellent software but I haven't used their Drive Backup so can't comment on which is better.

Acronis was available as a freebie late last year as V10.0 was superceeded by Acronis TI 2009 but V10.0 works for me.

Before you spend cash wait until you get your external drive then do a dry run with Paragon running through the program as far as doing a restore but don't actually restore.

If you get that far with it, I'd rely on the Paragon software.

So: Install Paragon and run it; Create boot CD within Paragon; Use Paragon to make backup to your external disk of Drive C (Probably Drive C, anyway); boot from the recovery CD and go as far as re-installing but don't actually reinstall.

That's how Acronis works anyway, I would imagine Paragon works in a similar manner.

[Taffycat]

That sounds like a plan Thanks very much Flopps

[psd99]

I got myself external caddy just like you mentioned and I periodically backup my files to it.

Backing up important data is crucial in my opinion.

[Abarbarian]

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

The Seagate Disk Wizard is a rebranded Acronis product and is freely available from the above link. You can get a very good maual for its use from the Acronis site, there may be a copy of the manual in the Disk Wizard download.

[Taffycat]

Psd - yes, I had a bit of a scare when the PSU packed-up last week. There's nothing like a "near-squeak" to focus the mind, lol.

Abarbarian, thank you for the link - it looks interesting and very good to be able to get a manual too. I've bookmarked it, in case I get stuck with the Paragon software.