COMPLETE backup of harddrive contents

[Guest]

Hi,
I am trying to do the right hting by completely backing up my harddrive to a
removable hard drive. What I am aiming for is a complete and total back of
the files that I currently have on the computer so that if my laptop hard
drive finally took a crap on me, I could simply get a new hard drive for it,
install XP on it again, and drag and drop the files onto the hard drive... I
don;t know if what I said made much sense, but I think some of you
understand. See, waht I've done to my computer is tweaked the he|| out of it
to make it go REALLY fast, and I've got quite a few prgrams on it that I
would prefer NOT to have to reinstall because I would be here for days or
even weeks, one of those prorgams including Windows Vista Transformation Pack
7 by Windows X-- a prorgam that transformed many of my system files to make
my GUI look a LOT like vista. Some of you may disapprove of this for your own
reasons, but I like the speed my desktop is at right now, the amount of space
it is taking up, and what it looks like.

anywyas, does anyone know how to do what I'm describing? So I don't have to
reinstall anything-- just drag and rop the files in C:/ back to any new
harddrive I might have to get?

Thakns in advance!

 

[R. McCarty]

You're referring to a process called "Imaging". This takes a full drive and
copies ( and compresses ) it's contents into a module or series of modules.
When needed, you can reverse the process to restore the full drive or a
specific set of files and folders. An image is itself not bootable, that's
what
is referred to as a "Mirror Copy" or Clone.
There are a number of products available, I'd recommend Acronis True
Image Home.
One other note about imaging - saving to any magnetic media including an
external hard drive has it's own risks. It's always best to make a copy of
the Image modules on optical media (CD-R, DVD-R).

 

[Gordon]

Hi,
I am trying to do the right hting by completely backing up my harddrive to
a
removable hard drive. What I am aiming for is a complete and total back of
the files that I currently have on the computer so that if my laptop hard
drive finally took a crap on me, I could simply get a new hard drive for
it,
install XP on it again, and drag and drop the files onto the hard drive...
I
don;t know if what I said made much sense, but I think some of you
understand. See, waht I've done to my computer is tweaked the he|| out of
it
to make it go REALLY fast, and I've got quite a few prgrams on it that I
would prefer NOT to have to reinstall because I would be here for days or
even weeks, one of those prorgams including Windows Vista Transformation
Pack
7 by Windows X-- a prorgam that transformed many of my system files to
make
my GUI look a LOT like vista. Some of you may disapprove of this for your
own
reasons, but I like the speed my desktop is at right now, the amount of
space
it is taking up, and what it looks like.

anywyas, does anyone know how to do what I'm describing? So I don't have
to
reinstall anything-- just drag and rop the files in C:/ back to any new
harddrive I might have to get?

Thakns in advance!

You need a disk imaging package - like Acronis. With that you won't even
have to do any drag and drop - just restore the image....

 

[Guest]

So, how do you restore it if you install the new hard drive? I'm assuming
that the new hard drive is completely blank.

 

[Gordon]

So, how do you restore it if you install the new hard drive? I'm assuming
that the new hard drive is completely blank.

Dunno - ask Acronis!

 

[Guest]

Ok, thanks for your help up to this point.. One little side question for you.
If my hard drive goes (which I hear happens very quickly on most laptops) and
I want to upgrade/get a new one, would my laptop be compatible with a 160GB
hard drive from TigerDirect? My current hard drive is a SATA6 interface, but
the Tiger direct, 160GB SATA 2.5" drives are all SATA100 or 150. the laptop
is a Gateway MX6425 (googling that, you can get the exact specs on it which I
can't fully comprehend-- atleast not enough to the point that I can answer
that question).

thanks!

 

[Anna]

(SNIP)

You're referring to a process called "Imaging". This takes a full drive
and
copies ( and compresses ) it's contents into a module or series of
modules.
When needed, you can reverse the process to restore the full drive or a
specific set of files and folders. An image is itself not bootable, that's
what
is referred to as a "Mirror Copy" or Clone.
There are a number of products available, I'd recommend Acronis True
Image Home.
One other note about imaging - saving to any magnetic media including an
external hard drive has it's own risks. It's always best to make a copy of
the Image modules on optical media (CD-R, DVD-R).

mike:
Just to add a bit to R. McCarty's response to your query as well as Gordon's
recommendation of the Acronis program...

You can use a disk imaging/disk cloning program such as the Acronis True
Image program that has been recommended for your objective. When you refer
to "backing up my harddrive to a removable hard drive", I assume you're
referring to a USB or Firewire or SATA external HDD, right? And that's
perfectly fine.

Note that these "disk imaging" programs also have the facility of "cloning"
the contents of one's day-to-day HDD to another HDD, internal or external.
This is in addition to the program's facility of creating a "disk image",
which is a "snapshot" of your entire system.
The advantage of the disk cloning process rather than the disk imaging
process is that by using disk cloning you can create (for all practical
purposes) a bit-for-bit copy of your HDD so that if the recipient of the
clone is an internal HDD, that cloned HDD will be bootable and its data
immediately accessible, unlike the situation where a disk image is created
on the recipient HDD and a recovery process is necessary to restore the
image to a bootable, data-accessible state. Note, however, that should the
recipient of the clone be a USB external HDD (as apparently you have in
mind) - since that device is not ordinarily bootable - its contents
(although accessible from the boot HDD) would need to be "cloned back" to an
internal HDD should the recovery/restore process be necessary to create a
bootable HDD. On the other hand, should the HDD encased in the USB enclosure
be removable, it could be installed as an internal HDD in the PC and thus
the user would have a bootable functioning HDD that way.

While you can also use these types of programs to create disk images of your
system, note that these disk images must go through a recovery or
restoration process to return your system to a bootable functional state.
However, this recovery process is not particularly difficult to undertake.
Many users prefer the disk imaging process rather than the disk cloning
process because the backups are usually faster to complete than creating a
disk clone. Another advantage of the disk imaging methodology (albeit a
minor one in my opinion) is that the file(s) created through this process
utilize less disk space than a full clone of the system.

In any event, whatever process you choose - backing up your system in a
routine manner to an external hard drive is simple, straightforward, fast,
and most important of all -- effective - when you use a disk cloning/disk
imaging program. Unlike backup programs that merely back up your data
files - that is, the files you've created in the various programs and
applications you use - by cloning your hard drive (or creating a disk image
of your system) you are backing up your operating system, your registry, all
your programs and applications, your configuration settings, your data
files - in short, everything on your source hard drive.

You would do well to undertake some research on the net re these disk
imaging/disk cloning programs to get a more detailed understanding of these
types of comprehensive backup programs.
Anna

 

[Jim]

So, how do you restore it if you install the new hard drive? I'm assuming
that the new hard drive is completely blank.

At the very first use of Acronis, you make a bootable CD which can then
restore a cloned disk.

Or, you can remove the cloned disk from its enclosure and insert it into the
laptop. Note, that you need to make certain that the external drive is
compatible with the laptop.

Jim

 

[Jim]

Ok, thanks for your help up to this point.. One little side question for
you.
If my hard drive goes (which I hear happens very quickly on most laptops)
and
I want to upgrade/get a new one, would my laptop be compatible with a
160GB
hard drive from TigerDirect? My current hard drive is a SATA6 interface,
but
the Tiger direct, 160GB SATA 2.5" drives are all SATA100 or 150. the
laptop
is a Gateway MX6425 (googling that, you can get the exact specs on it
which I
can't fully comprehend-- atleast not enough to the point that I can answer
that question).

thanks!

I would doubt that a SATA6 is the same as either SATA 100 or SATA 150 if for
no other reason that in such a case they would not need to create a new
version of SATA.

However, you should compare the connectors, etc., for the various kinds to
see if they are compatible.

Jim

 

[Guest]

OK, I got the Acronis now... I understand it I mean. They also said that you
can just put the image on an external and boot from the external, then put
the image onto the C:\ (which would be the internal).

About the hard drives though, it's a VERY minor difference between the hard
drives as far as I can tell. Can anyone check what it is between them and
tell me if it will be fine? Like I said, googling MX6425 will get you the
gateway page with the super-advanced specs of my laptop.

thanks!

 

[Guest]

Ya, lots of people suggested that, but what good would that be if I wanted to
have an external drive still? I'd have to go out and get a new one. Plus, my
usage of that external is not limited to the cloned/image file of my H/D...
It also has all of my videos and other media on it. It's one of those HP
PErsonal Media Drives, 100GB

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Yes, what you're supposed to do is go out and buy a drive that you dedicate
exclusively to backups. Include the contents of your other external drive in
your backup scheme.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

(e-mail address removed)

Ya, lots of people suggested that, but what good would that be if I wanted to
have an external drive still?

If you have to ask that, then it would be NO good.

WHY???... because you're a moron and can't understand the simplicity
of what folks have been telling you.

 

[Guest]

WOW! I think you have taken my question WAY out of context there buddy. I
only put that question to mkae my point as to why I am not going to take the
hard drive out of the case. Many people are suggesting it as an option, I
made my point as to why I won't use that option (using hte form of a
question) and suddenly you turn to nasty words. Ignoring you, UNCLE GRUMPY:

So, Gary, are you saying that for me to put that image file created by
Acronis, onto my External hard drive that houses movies as well, it would not
work? See, my goal here is not to have a day-to-day backup of all my files.
In fact, one backup of all of my files would satisfy me just fine, as long as
all of my user settings and Window settings are still there, along with all
of my Registry edits. So, is this going to work with Acronis this way?

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

(e-mail address removed)

See, my goal here is not to have a day-to-day backup of all my files.
In fact, one backup of all of my files would satisfy me just fine, as long as
all of my user settings and Window settings are still there, along with all
of my Registry edits.

Like I said... you're a moron.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Yes, you can use the existing external HD to house your Acronis backups,
with the following serious drawbacks.

1. Makes no sense to use it to backup the other files on that same drive.
Those files aren't worth backing up?

2. You have to make your backups fairly regularly in order to have any sane
result when you have to restore them. Really, just how many days or weeks
worth of work, installations and tweaks are you willing to lose? I'm
thinking that a decent backup strategy will require more disk space than
you'll want to lose on that 100GB external drive. Set up a decent backup
strategy using that disk and then see how much space it consumes. And let
number 1, above, haunt you all the while, <s>.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[Al Dykes]

Yes, you can use the existing external HD to house your Acronis backups,
with the following serious drawbacks.

1. Makes no sense to use it to backup the other files on that same drive.
Those files aren't worth backing up?

It makes sense to use the second drive for the tmp folder and swap.
IMO, Make it a "small" partition so that defrag issues down't get complictaed
my the multi-GM files produced by Arconis.

Make sure the second disk IS NOT DYNAMIC since the CD-bootable version
of Acronis is Linux-based and Linux can't deal with dynamic disks,
yet.

As in any backup scheme, you don't know if it'll work until you've
tested it.

Make a backup then bood the CD and see if yo can browse and
test the backup imaage.

 

[Guest]

And to Gary here: I see your point of view, but, for #1, I don't care about
backing those up. Those bideo files on the hard drive can go if they want.
It's just a WHOLE lot of video tutorials for using photoshop and illustrator.
The HD came free with the computer, so I used it to save videos that I
otherwise would not have downloaded.

For #2, like I tried to point out earlier, I only REALLY care that all those
registry tweaks and transformations, and user settings tht I applied stay the
same if I had to do a hard drive switch, and I've done enough tweaks to my
system to make me happy... It took HOURs of research to find out how to do
them, what one's to do, etc. So now, I just want to have them setup if my H/D
ever fails, and I'll just continue to use my disk and page file defragmenter
to keep my computer moving quickly.

 

[Guest]

Anyone want to back me up here? I'm sorry UNCLE GRUMPY, if my priority isn't
backing up hundreds of gigs of porn that I download every day. The only files
that I PRODUCE on my computer are photoshop, illustrator, Word, publisher,
excel, and powerpoint documents. Those are all saved to my thumb drive, as is
my Itunes downloads to my Ipod. so, I'm sorry if I don't have the need to
back up my hard drive everyday, but that doesn't make me a moron.

And since when does "simplicity" include disassembling an external hard
drive and a laptop, and transplanting the drives inside, even if they are
most likely not the same types (Most likely being the key term here) ? In
this case, I think it's YOU that is the moron because that is not as "simple"
as you say.

I have different needs than perhaps you do. I have different files that I am
aiming to backup, and a different budget to stick with so, PLEASe, anyone
here gonna back me up? I was not angry until this UNCLE GRUMPY started coming

 

[Guest]

Anyone want to back me up here? I'm sorry UNCLE GRUMPY, if my priority isn't
backing up hundreds of gigs of p0rn that I download every day. The only files
that I PRODUCE on my computer are photoshop, illustrator, Word, publisher,
excel, and powerpoint documents. Those are all saved to my thumb drive, as is
my Itunes downloads to my Ipod. so, I'm sorry if I don't have the need to
back up my hard drive everyday, but that doesn't make me a moron.

And since when does "simplicity" include disassembling an external hard
drive and a laptop, and transplanting the drives inside, even if they are
most likely not the same types (Most likely being the key term here) ? In
this case, I think it's YOU that is the moron because that is not as "simple"
as you say.

I have different needs than perhaps you do. I have different files that I am
aiming to backup, and a different budget to stick with so, PLEASe, anyone
here gonna back me up? I was not angry until this UNCLE GRUMPY started coming