Automatically Duplicate 2 Internal Drives

[Don Cohen]

Hi,

I am about to purchase a new Dell Vista 64-bit system. I originally
intended to have a pair of 500gb to 640gb hard drives in a Raid 1
configuration, so I would have automatic duplication of both OS and data
files. If one drive failed, I could just swap in the other, and be good to
go.

The particular system I'm looking at doesn't offer a Raid 1 configuration,
only Raid 0. The system is otherwise exactly what I want, at a very good
price, so I'm trying to figure out an efficient work-around. Systems that
do come with Raid 1 installed and active just don't have the hardware I'm
wanting.

Basically, I want to accomplish the same thing as Raid 1 - have 2 identical
internal hard drives, including all OS files, boot files, partitions, etc.
so the duplicate could be swapped in if the primary one were to fail. Is
there a utility that will automatically do this, or one that I can schedule
to do this on a daily basis, for example at night?

If so, I would buy the system with a single HD, purchase a second HD myself
(cheaper than from Dell directly), and then just install and use the utility
to duplicate the primary drive, and have it automatically update it on a
nightly basis, so I don't have to think about it.

Any suggestions on an efficient way to accomplish this, and the
tools/utilities needed?

Don

P.S.:

Getting a system with an installed Raid 0 configuration would require me to
reformat/reinstall everything to switch to Raid 1, which is possible, but a
time consuming task I'd rather avoid if possible.

Getting a system with a single HD, and no Raid active, and then installing
the 2nd drive, and activating Raid 1 is apparently not a simple task. From
what I've read, it might require cloning to a 3rd drive, wiping the 2
drives, then activating the Raid 1 from the BIOS, copying the image to the
Raid 1 system, etc., etc. Not a very elegant solution.

 

[Riccardo L.]

Hi,

I am about to purchase a new Dell Vista 64-bit system. I originally
intended to have a pair of 500gb to 640gb hard drives in a Raid 1
configuration, so I would have automatic duplication of both OS and data
files. If one drive failed, I could just swap in the other, and be good
to go.

The particular system I'm looking at doesn't offer a Raid 1 configuration,
only Raid 0. The system is otherwise exactly what I want, at a very good
price, so I'm trying to figure out an efficient work-around. Systems that
do come with Raid 1 installed and active just don't have the hardware I'm
wanting.

Basically, I want to accomplish the same thing as Raid 1 - have 2
identical internal hard drives, including all OS files, boot files,
partitions, etc. so the duplicate could be swapped in if the primary one
were to fail. Is there a utility that will automatically do this, or one
that I can schedule to do this on a daily basis, for example at night?

If so, I would buy the system with a single HD, purchase a second HD
myself (cheaper than from Dell directly), and then just install and use
the utility to duplicate the primary drive, and have it automatically
update it on a nightly basis, so I don't have to think about it.

Any suggestions on an efficient way to accomplish this, and the
tools/utilities needed?

Don

P.S.:

Getting a system with an installed Raid 0 configuration would require me
to reformat/reinstall everything to switch to Raid 1, which is possible,
but a time consuming task I'd rather avoid if possible.

Getting a system with a single HD, and no Raid active, and then installing
the 2nd drive, and activating Raid 1 is apparently not a simple task.
From what I've read, it might require cloning to a 3rd drive, wiping the 2
drives, then activating the Raid 1 from the BIOS, copying the image to the
Raid 1 system, etc., etc. Not a very elegant solution.

It is unlikely that you'll be able to destripe the array onto itself, for
the same reason that any data recovery procedure is carried out by
definitely writing on another disk.
I wonder why manufacturers do not install on a single disk leaving the
choice to the user of building their striped disk (very trivial, just add
the second drive basically).
Why don't you inquire Dell for shipping a system like that (I know that Dell
customizes their systems somewhat)?

 

[Curious]

You might consider a non raid system and set up a backup program to back up
from one drive to the other on a regular basis.
Even Raid 1 systems can be unrecoverable if the OS writes corrupt data to
both drive at once.

 

[Don Cohen]

Hi Riccardo,

Thanks for the reply.

It is unlikely that you'll be able to destripe the array onto itself, for
the same reason that any data recovery procedure is carried out by
definitely writing on another disk.

The system I'm looking at getting would come with a single HD, with RAID
*not* enabled. I'm wanting to add a second HD and through software
duplicate the primary HD, with automatic nightly updates.

I wonder why manufacturers do not install on a single disk leaving the
choice to the user of building their striped disk (very trivial, just add
the second drive basically).
Why don't you inquire Dell for shipping a system like that (I know that
Dell customizes their systems somewhat)?

I have pursued this at length with the guy at Dell, but the customization
doesn't extend this far.

Basically, given the system as it comes, and with more reading about some of
the pitfalls of RAID, I'm inclined to not use RAID at all.

So, I want to have two regular, non-RAID internal HD's, and use a software
solution to have the 2nd drive effectively mirror the first, through a
nightly update. I'd like this to include all partitions, the full OS, etc.

Do you (or anybody else) know if this can be done, and if so, using what
software?

Don

 

[Don Cohen]

You might consider a non raid system and set up a backup program to back
up from one drive to the other on a regular basis.
Even Raid 1 systems can be unrecoverable if the OS writes corrupt data to
both drive at once.

Actually, that's exactly what I'm wanting to do. My post here is to get
advice on what backup program to use, that will work the way I want it to.

Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost will create images of the drive, which
can then be restored. But that's different from simply having all the files
copied and available (including the OS files) on the 2nd hard drive.

Traditional back-up programs will copy files, but won't really allow OS
files to be copied since they're in use.

Are there backup type programs that will effectively make the 2nd HD a full
duplicate of the primary HD, so that if the primary HD fails, I can just
plug it in where the failed drive was, boot from it, and be back to work
right away? (I would then purchase/install a replacement HD.)

Don

 

[Curious]

Acronis or Ghost are your best bets but I don't think there is any why to
schedule them on a regular basis. At least you could depend on restore
points if you perform a backup manually weekly or so. I use live one care
to as network drive but I am aware that the entire drive is not backed up.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Are there backup type programs that will effectively make the 2nd HD a full
duplicate of the primary HD, so that if the primary HD fails, I can just
plug it in where the failed drive was, boot from it, and be back to work
right away? (I would then purchase/install a replacement HD.)

Casper 5.0 - I use it daily to clone my system drive another internal
drive that is second in boot order in the BIOS should my system drive
physically fail.

It will clone WHILE YOU ARE IN WINDOWS.

 

[Don Cohen]

Casper 5.0 - I use it daily to clone my system drive another internal
drive that is second in boot order in the BIOS should my system drive
physically fail.

It will clone WHILE YOU ARE IN WINDOWS.

*Very* interesting, Paul. Many thanks. I'll be checking this out right
away!

Best,

Don

 

[Paul Montgomery]

*Very* interesting, Paul. Many thanks. I'll be checking this out right
away!

BTW... and it does "incremental" clones too! When you clone your
drive, you can save the operation to a desktop/quick-launch shortcut.

Click it and do the "incremental" clone - it will check one drive
against the other and make the changes that are necessary from the
last time Casper was run.

Priceless, if you don't want to always leave Windows to do your work.

 

[Don Cohen]

BTW... and it does "incremental" clones too! When you clone your

drive, you can save the operation to a desktop/quick-launch shortcut.

Click it and do the "incremental" clone - it will check one drive
against the other and make the changes that are necessary from the
last time Casper was run.

Priceless, if you don't want to always leave Windows to do your work.

This looks incredibly good, Paul. It does *precisely* what I was wanting.
And the price is extremely reasonable. Almost sounds too good to be true!

I've been looking for reviews and customer experience - haven't found much
at all, which is a little bothersome, but everything I've found has been
quite positive. This looks like such a useful tool that I'm surprised that
it isn't extremely popular and widely known.

Don

 

[Paul Montgomery]

This looks incredibly good, Paul. It does *precisely* what I was wanting.
And the price is extremely reasonable. Almost sounds too good to be true!

I've been looking for reviews and customer experience - haven't found much
at all, which is a little bothersome, but everything I've found has been
quite positive. This looks like such a useful tool that I'm surprised that
it isn't extremely popular and widely known.

I learned about it quite some time ago in the XP groups.

It doesn't get wide coverage because it ONLY clones a disk, whereas
programs such as ATI do that and a whole lot more.

 

[Wandering]

True Image at least will also "clone" a disk. Creating a bootable copy of
the original on a second disk. The problem comes when you leave it in and
reboot. You have to remove the clone before rebooting, and then exchange
drives when you want to run the clone. But it is just a drive swap, and
there is no "restore" involved.

Maybe this will help. Good luck.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

True Image at least will also "clone" a disk. Creating a bootable copy of
the original on a second disk. The problem comes when you leave it in and
reboot.

What problem would that be?

You have to remove the clone before rebooting, and then exchange
drives when you want to run the clone.

Not necessarily. I have my system disk and the cloned disk connected
at all times. Again, what is the problem you talk about?