OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even DVD-/+R media, I've
decided to get myself an external hard disk and connect it to either my USB
2.0 or Firewire port.

In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to be able to
restore the previously backed-up hard disk image from the external USB or
Firewire drive directly to a new hard disk... without having to install
Windows first.

Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want? Is there anything
else that I need to consider to get this to work?

Hackworth <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even
> DVD-/+R media, I've decided to get myself an external hard
> disk and connect it to either my USB 2.0 or Firewire port.

Yeah, lot to be said for that approach.

> In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to
> be able to restore the previously backed-up hard disk
> image from the external USB or Firewire drive directly to
> a new hard disk... without having to install Windows first.

> Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want?

Ghost 2003 and Drive Image 7 will do that.

> Is there anything else that I need
> to consider to get this to work?

Just that Drive Image 7 will only do that with Win 2K or XP.
Ghost will do it with the lesser Win98s too.

"Rod Speed" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bkod2m$428s4$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Hackworth <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even
> > DVD-/+R media, I've decided to get myself an external hard
> > disk and connect it to either my USB 2.0 or Firewire port.
>
> Yeah, lot to be said for that approach.
>
> > In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to
> > be able to restore the previously backed-up hard disk
> > image from the external USB or Firewire drive directly to
> > a new hard disk... without having to install Windows first.
>
> > Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want?
>
> Ghost 2003 and Drive Image 7 will do that.
>
> > Is there anything else that I need
> > to consider to get this to work?
>
> Just that Drive Image 7 will only do that with Win 2K or XP.
> Ghost will do it with the lesser Win98s too.

Thanks. I guess I just need to make sure that my system can boot from the
USB drive, correct?

"Hackworth" <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Rod Speed" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bkod2m$428s4$(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> > Hackworth <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> > message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
> > > OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even
> > > DVD-/+R media, I've decided to get myself an external hard
> > > disk and connect it to either my USB 2.0 or Firewire port.
> >
> > Yeah, lot to be said for that approach.
> >
> > > In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to
> > > be able to restore the previously backed-up hard disk
> > > image from the external USB or Firewire drive directly to
> > > a new hard disk... without having to install Windows first.
> >
> > > Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want?
> >
> > Ghost 2003 and Drive Image 7 will do that.
> >
> > > Is there anything else that I need
> > > to consider to get this to work?
> >
> > Just that Drive Image 7 will only do that with Win 2K or XP.
> > Ghost will do it with the lesser Win98s too.

> Thanks. I guess I just need to make sure that my
> system can boot from the USB drive, correct?

Nope, you dont need to boot from the USB drive.

You can boot from whatever you have, usually the distribution
CD is most convenient, but you can boot from floppys with Ghost,
and then use what you have booted to restore the image from
the external drive, or clone the external drive to the replacement.

I

>OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even DVD-/+R media, I've
>decided to get myself an external hard disk and connect it to either my USB
>2.0 or Firewire port.
>
>In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to be able to
>restore the previously backed-up hard disk image from the external USB or
>Firewire drive directly to a new hard disk... without having to install
>Windows first.
>
>Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want? Is there anything
>else that I need to consider to get this to work?

I would recommend Acronis True Image 6

http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/

In the event of a crash you will boot up with a CD which has a compact linux
code. (the CD has only 6 megs). This will recognise your USB or fire wire
drive.

Farouk Dindar

"Hackworth" <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even DVD-/+R media, I've
>decided to get myself an external hard disk and connect it to either my USB
>2.0 or Firewire port...

Before you do this, I recommend that you consider the following
issues.

First, how inconvenient will it be if you lose all of your data in a
fire or burglary? A burglar will probably steal your external disk
along with your computer, but is much less likely to steal your tapes
or CDs (at least, if you put them away). Off-site storage will protect
you fully against both risks.

Second, how inconvenient will it be when you modify or delete a file,
either accidentally or intentionally, and decide some time later that
you need to get it back? A nonremovable storage medium is "flat" --
each time you make a backup, the preceding backup is lost. Thus it
furnishes no protection against this risk, except over time periods
less than the interval between backups. If you are conscientious, that
means "less than one day"!

I say "WHEN you modify or delete a file," not "IF...", because unless
you never make mistakes, you will do this.

I have not had a catastrophic disk failure for about 10 years, but I
utilize my backup tapes to restore files every few months.

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.

Rod Speed wrote:
....
> > In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to
> > be able to restore the previously backed-up hard disk
> > image from the external USB or Firewire drive directly to
> > a new hard disk... without having to install Windows first.
>
> > Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want?
>
> Ghost 2003 and Drive Image 7 will do that.

Is it possible to make a series of backups on an external drive that has a
larger capacity than your hard disk? For example, with Drive Image 7, can I
make three images (separated by, say, three weeks) of my 40Gb main disk on a
120Gb external disk, and in the event of a disaster, choose which image I
want to restore to the replacement main disk?

Thanks

Matt M

Matt M <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bkr5b0$4tdbb$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Rod Speed wrote:

>>> In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to
>>> be able to restore the previously backed-up hard disk
>>> image from the external USB or Firewire drive directly to
>>> a new hard disk... without having to install Windows first.

>>> Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want?

>> Ghost 2003 and Drive Image 7 will do that.

> Is it possible to make a series of backups on an external
> drive that has a larger capacity than your hard disk?

Of course you can.

> For example, with Drive Image 7, can I make three images
> (separated by, say, three weeks) of my 40Gb main disk on
> a 120Gb external disk, and in the event of a disaster, choose
> which image I want to restore to the replacement main disk?

Yep, just like you can with an internal hard drive for the image files too.

Been doing that for years now with most system.
The only recent change is that now the drive can be
an external USB2 or firewire drive instead of an internal.

>Is it possible to make a series of backups on an external drive that has a
>larger capacity than your hard disk? For example, with Drive Image 7, can I
>make three images (separated by, say, three weeks) of my 40Gb main disk on a
>120Gb external disk, and in the event of a disaster, choose which image I
>want to restore to the replacement main disk?
>
>Thanks
>
>Matt M

Hi Matt

With drive image you can do scheduled backup and specify the maximum
number

In your case I would schedule them weekly and specify a maximum of
about 4.

The backups will be numbers 0001 , 002 etc automatically.

During the fifth week the first one will be overwritten

With Acronis True Image I have created folders 1 2 3 and 4.

I have set up win 2000- scheduler to start the program weekly
I will manually go through a few steps to make images in
to the appropriate folder

I have chosen True Image over Drive Image 7 because my
restored win 2000 partition would give me constant errors
whereas True Image restores perfectly.

Farouk Dindar

Have 3 different methods. One image to a local onboard HD, and one image to
a removable HD using DI 2002 (98SE). One image to a Firewire HD shared on
home network using DI 7.0 in that case (XP image).

There are advantages / disadvantages to each method. I know I can restore
individual system files with DI 2002 using image explorer to a temp
directory, then real mode dos move to proper location. Do not know how to
do that with DI 7.0 yet.

In the case of the networked Firewire HD and DI 7.0, the password must be
the same for the user/administrator and access to the network to backup.
For restoration, the network computer with the Firewire HD must be up and
running of course with its own access available to the Firewire HD. DI 7.0
makes a couple of network driver boot diskettes so you can access it for
restoration. Have heard complaints from some about if the HD is removed
from the Firewire case and placed on the ide cable, the data being
scrambled. This is not the case regarding my Firewire harddrive. So, I can
still use it if the Firewire interface fails.

What you need to consider is the amount of data you save now and in the near
future, the target media of adequate size to accomodate it, whether or not
you want to make multiple backups to the same media in regards to capacity,
the backup software in regards to the OS you're backing up, whether or not
you want the backup image on the computer or removable or off-site. For
restoration purposes, you should consider again how easy it is to access the
backup media and its confidence factor in restoration.

Last thing to do is do both a backup AND a restore. You don't want to get
caught with your pants down if the restore failed for one reason or another
in the case of HD failure.
Dave
"Hackworth" <spam-me-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> OK, rather than backing up my hard disk to CD-R or even DVD-/+R media,
I've
> decided to get myself an external hard disk and connect it to either my
USB
> 2.0 or Firewire port.
>
> In the even of a catastrophic hard disk failure, I want to be able to
> restore the previously backed-up hard disk image from the external USB or
> Firewire drive directly to a new hard disk... without having to install
> Windows first.
>
> Which software utility will let me do exactly what I want? Is there
anything
> else that I need to consider to get this to work?
>
>
>