2nd HD - mirroring

[Bill]

OS - Windows XP Home SP2
Machine - Dell XPS Gen 5 w/Raptor 74GB, 10K HD

this is my idea:

buy another Raptor HD to install for ''mirroring''/backup purposes.
Since I have never done this before, I thought I'd ask for some guidance.

Is True Image by Aconis a good software buy for this application?

I know Norton has GHOST, but I am not a fan of Norton products - UNLESS -
those in the know tell me it is better than other software for this purpose.

Any things I should be aware of when installing the HD?
I think Windows should pick it up ok.

Any/all suggestions appreciated

TIA
Bill

 

[Default User]

Yes Acronis TrueImage will work very well for backing up to a second drive.

check here http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/ss/DIYSecHD.htm

When partitioning and formatting you should partition as a Logical drive not
a Primary drive and make certain the drive is formatted as NTFS. You need
NTFS as FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB and full system backup
often exceen 4GBs.

 

[Anna]

Yes Acronis TrueImage will work very well for backing up to a second
drive.

check here http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/ss/DIYSecHD.htm

When partitioning and formatting you should partition as a Logical drive
not a Primary drive and make certain the drive is formatted as NTFS. You
need NTFS as FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB and full system
backup often exceen 4GBs.

Harry:
As you and Kerry Brown (in another posting to this thread) have pointed out,
Acronis True Image is a fine product for the OP to use in cloning the
contents of his working drive to a second drive for backup purposes;
however, I'm puzzled by your comment that the user should format his second
(the destination) drive NTFS (rather than FAT32) because his backup will
undoubtedly exceed 4 GB and FAT32 will not be able to cope with that because
of its 4 GB limitation.

When the user undertakes the disk-to-disk cloning process with ATI, the file
system of his source disk (the Raptor) will be incorporated in the resulting
clone. There is no need to partition/format the second (destination) drive
in this situation. Presumably the OP's source disk is NTFS-formatted, as in
most cases it should be. But should the OP's source disk be formatted FAT32
(for whatever reason), that file system (regardless of size) would remain
intact when the user clones the drive to his second (destination) drive.
Anna

 

[Bill]

Thank you all for the replies. I am going to look at the different options
suggested and do what appears to meet my needs best.

Thanks Again,

Bill





OS - Windows XP Home SP2
Machine - Dell XPS Gen 5 w/Raptor 74GB, 10K HD

this is my idea:

buy another Raptor HD to install for ''mirroring''/backup purposes.
Since I have never done this before, I thought I'd ask for some guidance.

Is True Image by Aconis a good software buy for this application?

I know Norton has GHOST, but I am not a fan of Norton products - UNLESS -
those in the know tell me it is better than other software for this purpose.

Any things I should be aware of when installing the HD?
I think Windows should pick it up ok.

Any/all suggestions appreciated

TIA
Bill

 

[Lil' Dave]

Well, let's get some more things out in the open if possible. The HD you're
talking about is of SCSI variety to begin with.
Mirroring is a RAID 0 function involving two hard drives. This can be done
with hardware RAID controller, or with software. Whether your onboard SCSI
controller had onboard hardware RAID or not, check with Dell. RAID is
invisible to the user once established.

Cloning is something else, requires user interaction.
Imaging is something else again, requires user interaction.
Scheduling of cloning or imaging routines requires user interaction.
Most imaging programs (TI/Ghost for instance) are capable of cloning hard
drives. None can mirror.