MIG said:
Anna and Shenan thanks for the info regarding this option. Anna I do
appreciate the additional detail. Btw which rack do you recommend? And
additional info on disk-cloning would be appreciated. I always like to
learn
and keep good info because I never know when I may need it.
At this point after reading my MB manual there is an option after the
computer POST and prior to Windows starting to load I hit the F8 key and a
window pops up allowing me to choose which device I want to boot from. If
I
do not hit F8 and sinply allow windows to load it will boot to what I have
specified in the BIOS. I didnt have to set up anything for this optional
window and I wasnt sure if it would work after I read it - but it did.
Thanks again.
MIG:
First of all there is nothing inherently wrong or misguided in accessing
your motherboard's BIOS to access the boot priority order and utilize that
setting to boot to one or the other bootable HDDs you've installed in your
desktop PC. Thousands upon thousands of PC users utilize that process every
day. In your situation pressing the F8 key during the bootup process allows
you to enter the BIOS. In many cases the Delete key or some other key can be
used to access the BIOS.
You previously indicated that you're working with a PATA and a SATA HDD,
each one containing a bootable OS. And you further indicated that you
desired the drives to be separated in some way so that the drive *you* would
be working on would be "earmarked" as your drive, hopefully not to be able
to be accessed by this or that family member, and the latter would be
restricted to working on his or her own "earmarked" drive. At least that's
what I took away from your post re this issue.
I did respond to your post in some detail re the advantages of installing
one or more removable hard drives in your desktop PC case assuming it was
practical to do so. If you have any specific questions re the installation
process and/or the utilization of removable HDDs in their mobile racks it
would be best if you post such I'll be happy to respond.
As to our preference re mobile racks...
For the past few years we've been working primarily with the Athena Power
MR-125B mobile rack. See...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817123302
As you will note it's quite reasonable in price even when it's not "on
sale". Note that this mobile rack is specifically designed for SATA HDDs.
It's an all-plastic model but has proven very reliable for us. (There's also
an all-aluminum version at slightly higher cost). The rack includes a
bottom-mounted 80mm fan that's virtually inaudible. What we particularly
like about it (aside from its reliability and simplicity of operation) is
that rather than use an ON-OFF keylock, a simple push-to-release lever turns
the device on or off, thus it can be easily physically connected or
/disconnected from the system. It's a particularly important consideration
for us since we're continually changing HDDs and trying to find the key can
be an annoyance. But most of these devices do come with the keylock
mechanism and many users prefer that type of switch.
As I mentioned in my last post...the installation of these devices is no
more complicated than installing an optical drive. Of course one's desktop
case must have one or more vacant 5 1/4" bays to accommodate the rack(s).
AthenaPower also markets a number of mobile racks designed for PATA HDDs but
except for a couple of instances we've never really worked with them. See...
http://www.athenapower.us/web_mobile_zoom/mobile.htm
I don't believe newegg carries their PATA models.
Since we work primarily with SATA HDDs it's only infrequently that we need a
mobile rack to house a PATA HDD. When we were working nearly exclusively
with PATA HDDs we used the Lian-Li RH-32 & RH-42 models. I think both models
have virtually disappeared from the market. Since we still have a stock of
the RH-42 model we really don't have any need nowadays to secure any add'l
models designed for PATA HDDs.
Anyway, take a look at newegg's offerings, including mobile racks designed
for PATA HDDs...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...PA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=mobile+racks
As to my preference for a disk-cloning program...
The program we strongly recommend as a comprehensive backup program is the
Casper 6 program. This program is a disk-cloning program and not a
disk-imaging program. It is designed to create what amounts to a
byte-for-byte copy of your day-to-day working HDD. As such it will create a
clone of your "source" HDD, in effect a precise copy of your operating
system, all your programs & applications, configurations, and of course your
personal data. In short, *everything* that's on your day-to-day working HDD.
It's hard to imagine a better backup system for the great majority of PC
users.
The Casper 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 15 - 20 seconds or so to get to that point.
But the truly significant advantage of the Casper 6.0 disk cloning program
compared with other disk cloning programs that we're familiar with, e.g.,
Acronis True Image, 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, not merely an "incremental file". Thus the PC
user is encouraged to maintain reasonably up-to-date *complete* backups of
his/her system.
So if you use the program to back up your system every few days or on a
weekly basis (or even daily) it will probably take not much more than 4 or 5
minutes to complete the disk-cloning operation. Obviously the amount of time
it will take will depend upon the amount of data being cloned and the time
that has elapsed between disk-cloning operations.
Again, bear in mind that the recipient of the clone - the "destination" HDD
(internal or external) - would contain the *complete* contents of one's
internal HDD (presumably the boot drive). Since that destination drive would
be a precise copy of the source HDD, its contents would be immediately
accessible to the user and potentially bootable. Again, what better backup
system can one have? And again - because the Casper disk-cloning operation
takes a relatively short period of time to complete its disk-cloning
operations there's a strong incentive for the user to more frequently keep
their backups up-to-date than they might otherwise do.
The Casper 6.0 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 the user prefer he or she could arrange for automatic backups at
pre-determined times.
A trial version (slightly crippled) of the program is available at
http://www.fssdev.com, so give it a try and see how you like it. Also avail
yourself of the opportunity of trying out other disk-cloning/disk-imaging
programs. Virtually all of the commercial ones have trial versions available
for download.
Anna
