advice on hard drive mirror image please

[KRK]

Hello,

Can someone pleasse advise me on how to backup my entire hard drive,
registry & all, so that I can recover if my hard drive destroys itself ?

I am not a computer professional. I

I have bought, downloaded, installed, configured, modified, tweaked,
optimised so much over the last year or 2, and I am terrified of how much
work I would need to do if my pc were to fail & I had to get a new one.

I suspect I need to buy an external hard drive (my own is 160GB) and make a
mirror image ?

Can someone tell me the best way of doing this , what software ?, hardware ?

Thanks

K

 

[philo]

Hello,

Can someone pleasse advise me on how to backup my entire hard drive,
registry & all, so that I can recover if my hard drive destroys itself ?

I am not a computer professional. I

I have bought, downloaded, installed, configured, modified, tweaked,
optimised so much over the last year or 2, and I am terrified of how much
work I would need to do if my pc were to fail & I had to get a new one.

I suspect I need to buy an external hard drive (my own is 160GB) and make a
mirror image ?

Can someone tell me the best way of doing this , what software ?, hardware ?

Thanks

K

A third part utility such as Acronis should do the job

 

[Malke]

Hello,

Can someone pleasse advise me on how to backup my entire hard drive,
registry & all, so that I can recover if my hard drive destroys itself ?

I am not a computer professional. I

I have bought, downloaded, installed, configured, modified, tweaked,
optimised so much over the last year or 2, and I am terrified of how much
work I would need to do if my pc were to fail & I had to get a new one.

I suspect I need to buy an external hard drive (my own is 160GB) and make
a mirror image ?

Purchase an external hard drive and Acronis True Image. The home version is
very inexpensive. You'll make an image of your system with Acronis and
store it on the external drive. Acronis can also do incremental backups.
You will be able to restore your system in very little time then.

Malke

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Vista Business and Ultimate both contain the ability to create a "Complete
PC Backup", assuming you have a DVD burner, or (better) a second hard drive
in the system.

--
Please use the Communities guidelines when posting.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales/help/help_en-us.htm
Use the "Ratings" feature. It helps the new users.
Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Mark.Ferguson

 

[Ken Blake]

Hello,

Can someone pleasse advise me on how to backup my entire hard drive,
registry & all, so that I can recover if my hard drive destroys itself ?

I am not a computer professional. I

I have bought, downloaded, installed, configured, modified, tweaked,
optimised so much over the last year or 2, and I am terrified of how much
work I would need to do if my pc were to fail & I had to get a new one.

I suspect I need to buy an external hard drive

"Need to'"? No, but I think it's far and away your best choice.to buy at
least on eexternal drive. Better is having two or more and alternating
between them, so the act of backing up is not also the act of destroying
your onlt backup.

(my own is 160GB) and make a mirror image ?

Can someone tell me the best way of doing this , what software ?, hardware
?

The best software is a matter of opinion, but I recommend Acronis True
Image. If you want an external hard drive, you can either buy one or buy a
regular drive and an external case for it (a case is around $20-15
US).Installing the drive in the case is extremely easy, and even someone who
is all thumbs can do it in under five minutes.

 

[the wharf rat]

Can someone tell me the best way of doing this , what software ?, hardware ?

2 best ways:

1. Buy Acronis true image (or norton ghost) and use it to
create a disk image on an external drive (USB or whatever).

2. Temporarily remove the hard drive from the windows box, install
it in a linux box, and use dd

 

[the wharf rat]

Vista Business and Ultimate both contain the ability to create a "Complete
PC Backup", assuming you have a DVD burner, or (better) a second hard drive
in the system.

You can't really use that to easily recreate a destroyed system,
though. A bare metal quick restore is best done with an imaging tool IMHO.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Complete PC Backup IS an imaging tool. It creates an .vhd and several .xml
files and repartitions the target in prep for restore. I don't really see
how much closer to bare metal it could get. As for easy, it's a press of F8
on restart and a few selects from the menu. I have no problem with your
preference for Acronis, but if the user already owns imaging software,
telling them it's there is called for.

--
Please use the Communities guidelines when posting.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales/help/help_en-us.htm
Use the "Ratings" feature. It helps the new users.
Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Mark.Ferguson

 

[Richard Urban]

An image from one computer is not usually much good when trying to install
it on a replacement computer - unless the replacement is the "exact" same
(M/B, peripherals etc.).

 

[the wharf rat]

preference for Acronis, but if the user already owns imaging software,
telling them it's there is called for.

Well, first of all he probably doesn't have it since it only comes
with Business or Ultimate. Second of all to use it requires the install
cd which he might not have even if he DOES have the right Windows version.
Thirdly, it doesn't allow anything BUT a full image restore. Why does
that matter especially if we're talking about bare-metal restores? If the
problem is bad or corrupt files or drivers you'll need to restore Windows
then restore your data; a simple full image only backup won't permit that.
If the target system is sufficiently different the old Windows won't work
and the full image is useless (for instance, restoring to a spare PC that
uses a very different chipset and no RAID...) Also, if the source drive
is very large not being able to create partial or incremental images will
mean that backups get done very infrequently...

So with all due respect IMHO the included imaging utility is very
much like all the other included system utilities: better than nothing
and certainly useable for limited purposes but not a solution I can recommend
as close to optimal.

 

[the wharf rat]

Does this mean if I buy Acronis, and back up to an external drive, that if I
have a bad crash and want to just format, it puts back all the software that
has been downloaded along with the info?

Yes. It makes the machine an exact duplicate of the one that was
snapshotted when the image was taken. And if you need to you can only
restore the files that you want, for instance, if you needed to build a new
machine that had different Windows on it.

The first Nforce4 chipsets had a very bad bug that caused IDE
data corruption. Acronis saved my life multiple times since the problem
necessitated weekly restores until I replaced the motherboard...

 

[the wharf rat]

An image from one computer is not usually much good when trying to install
it on a replacement computer - unless the replacement is the "exact" same
(M/B, peripherals etc.).

I've had success with installing windows and then putting program
files etc. back. Some apps still need resinstalls because of registry
issues but will usually pick up the old data and settings.

I have to say that MS could fix this long standing problem simply
by taking the linux approach: examine the environment at boot time
and load the appropriate drivers.

 

[Ken Blake]

Does this mean if I buy Acronis, and back up to an external drive, that if
I have a bad crash and want to just format, it puts back all the software
that has been downloaded along with the info?
I have had to format a PC several times over the years, was always easy
as I back up files, the only PITA was taking all the Win. Updates again,
and getting the software I had paid for but bought on line, back working
again, since so much stuff is sold as a download now, with the option of
buying a CD of if you want to pay for it.
So Acronis would actually put back everything that's in here now? If so I
will have to buy it, would be worth the price not to have to deal with
downloading all the stuff all over again, and having to dig up the license
keys to stuff I bought.

It depends on what kind of a backup you make, but Acronis True Image
certainly can create an image of the entire drive. If the original drive
dies and is replaced and you made the appropriate kind of backup, yes, you
can copy your Acronis backup to the replacement drive and be back where
you were.

Although Acronis True Image happens to be the backup program that I think is
best, you should also note that this ability is not limited to them. Almost
every backup program on the market can do this.

 

[M.L.]

Does this mean if I buy Acronis, and back up to an external drive, that if

It depends on what kind of a backup you make, but Acronis True Image
certainly can create an image of the entire drive. If the original drive
dies and is replaced and you made the appropriate kind of backup, yes, you
can copy your Acronis backup to the replacement drive and be back where
you were.

Although Acronis True Image happens to be the backup program that I think is
best, you should also note that this ability is not limited to them. Almost
every backup program on the market can do this.

And some of the alternative imaging programs are free. The one I use
is not only free, but is faster than Acronis and does not install a
multitude of unneeded background tasks.

Macrium Reflect Free
OS: Win XP/2003/Vista/2008
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Paragon Drive Backup Express
OS: Win 2000/XP/Vista
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html

BTW, Paragon is offering its full commercial version of Paragon Hard
Disk Manager 8.5 SE for free (after registration) to those in the UK.
I don't know when the offer will end though.

<quote>
Partitioning, cloning, backup, defragging, recovery: managing your
hard drive throughout its life normally requires many different
functions, and a library of tools. But there is another way. Install
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5 SE and you'll get all the most useful
hard drive tools collected together in a single, easy-to-use
interface.

A powerful set of partitioning functions will help you divide up your
hard drive, for instance, very useful if you'd like two bootable
operating systems on the same PC. You're able to move, copy or resize
partitions, delete a partition you don't need, and even undelete a
partition that's been wiped by accident. (This function can even be
completed from a bootable CD created by the program, handy if your
hard drive has been corrupted and the PC no longer starts.)

If you've decided to upgrade your PC with a larger, faster hard drive
then you'll want to use the Hard Disk Manager cloning function. This
copies the old hard drive - boot structures too - onto the new one, so
it's immediately ready to use.

Once your system is working smoothly then you might use Hard Disk
Manager as a daily backup tool. This can make an image copy of the
entire hard drive, or you can speed things up with a differential
backup, which only copies files that have changed recently.
</quote>

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2229498/paragon-hard-disk-manager-se

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Hello,

Can someone pleasse advise me on how to backup my entire hard drive,
registry & all, so that I can recover if my hard drive destroys itself ?

I am not a computer professional. I

I have bought, downloaded, installed, configured, modified, tweaked,
optimised so much over the last year or 2, and I am terrified of how much
work I would need to do if my pc were to fail & I had to get a new one.

I suspect I need to buy an external hard drive (my own is 160GB) and
make a mirror image ?

Can someone tell me the best way of doing this , what software ?,
hardware ?

I do this automatically (on the fly) using RAID-1, on my data drives.

ss.

 

[the wharf rat]

I do this automatically (on the fly) using RAID-1, on my data drives.

Raid mirroring isn't backup though. It;s technically a business
continuity strategy, a way of continuing to work in spite of a problem,
rather than a way of recovering from a problem that prevents work.

It's a subtle difference, but think of it this way:

If the problem is that you accidentally deleted a key file, or
that the disc controller scrambled the data, or that you got compromised
by a virus or worm, raid won't help at all. You need an actual backup
somewhere off line.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Raid mirroring isn't backup though. It;s technically a business
continuity strategy, a way of continuing to work in spite of a problem,
rather than a way of recovering from a problem that prevents work.

It's a subtle difference, but think of it this way:

If the problem is that you accidentally deleted a key file, or
that the disc controller scrambled the data, or that you got compromised
by a virus or worm, raid won't help at all. You need an actual backup
somewhere off line.

The OP said that he wants a mirror backup, in case of drive failure. That
is exactly the reason why I use RAID-1. Read the top of this post.

Any other reasons for backing up would be dealt with by other methods. For
example, I have drive space on a friend's server that I use for files I
would never want to lose and I return that favour to him.

ss.

 

[Ken Blake]

I do this automatically (on the fly) using RAID-1, on my data drives.

If you are using RAID1 as an alternative to backup, let me
recommend that you do *not* do this.


RAID 1 (mirroring) is *not* a backup solution. RAID 1 uses two or more
drives, each a duplicate of the others, to provide redundancy, not
backup. It's used in situations (almost always within corporations,
not in homes) where any downtown can't be tolerated, because the way
it works is that if one drive fails the other takes over seamlessly.


Although some people thing of RAID 1 as a backup technique, that is
*not* what it is, since it's subject to simultaneous loss of the
original and the mirror to many of the most common dangers threatening
your data--severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus
attacks, theft of the computer, etc. Most companies that use RAID 1
also have a strong external backup plan in place.


Read my thoughts on backup here:
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

[the wharf rat]

The OP said that he wants a mirror backup, in case of drive failure. That
is exactly the reason why I use RAID-1. Read the top of this post.

Raid isn't backup. Sorry.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

If you are using RAID1 as an alternative to backup, let me
recommend that you do *not* do this.


RAID 1 (mirroring) is *not* a backup solution. RAID 1 uses two or more
drives, each a duplicate of the others, to provide redundancy, not
backup. It's used in situations (almost always within corporations,
not in homes) where any downtown can't be tolerated, because the way
it works is that if one drive fails the other takes over seamlessly.


Although some people thing of RAID 1 as a backup technique, that is
*not* what it is, since it's subject to simultaneous loss of the
original and the mirror to many of the most common dangers threatening
your data--severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus
attacks, theft of the computer, etc. Most companies that use RAID 1
also have a strong external backup plan in place.


Read my thoughts on backup here:
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

Thank you for your concern, but I am very happy using RAID-1 in case of
drive failure. It has saved me twice in the last three or four years, when
a drive has failed. There is no effort involved, and I see no reason to
*not* use RAID-1 for my data drives. Drives are cheap enough these days,
and have such high capacities, that I only need two pairs to put all my
valuable data on. I do not bother doing this for media drives.

As I said before, I also do other things, like I keep my irreplaceable files
backed up on a remote server, owned by a friend, and I also have automated
scheduled True Image Echo Workstation backups done through network, for my
desktop machines, and laptop (through wifi). Only a tiny agent needs to be
installed on them, not the full program. The server can even push the agent
onto the clients. I have very little worry about loss of any important
data, which my living depends on.

And as far as it only being used in corporations, heh, I know many people
that use RAID-1 or 5, with things like FreeNAS or in dedicated NAS
appliances. And if you know the CAD and graphics world at all, the use of
RAID is widespread, on PCs and Mac workstations.

I am thinking of retiring my server, and building a much more power
efficient, slim HTPC/server, and putting all of my data on one of those
Drobo things (after consilidating all the data onto larger drives). Two of
my friends have them, and I am very impressed. The Drobo uses something
like RAID-5, and the sort of redundancy and convenience it offers will make
my data security even more secure and hassle free than my current solution.

I think your suggestion that I back everything onto removable media is
totally unfeasible, even with BluRay, personally. It would take far too
much of my time, and I have far more important things to remember than what
has been backed up or not.

Redundancy for drive failure, along with off-site backup for security, is
the way to go.

ss.