Best use of a portable drive?

[Lou]

So I found a good buy on an 80 gig portable USB hard drive from Western
Digital. Its still in the package.
Since my regular drive is only 40 gig I can easily backup the whole
drive (about twice!). BUT I am looking for advice on what to do and
program(s) to use.
Since any backups will run at night speed is not an issue.

TIA

Lou

 

[The Six Million Dollar Man]

So I found a good buy on an 80 gig portable USB hard drive from Western
Digital. Its still in the package.
Since my regular drive is only 40 gig I can easily backup the whole
drive (about twice!). BUT I am looking for advice on what to do and
program(s) to use.
Since any backups will run at night speed is not an issue.

TIA

Lou

For backups Karen's Replicator is excellent.
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

 

[Gerard Bok]

So I found a good buy on an 80 gig portable USB hard drive from Western
Digital. Its still in the package.
Since my regular drive is only 40 gig I can easily backup the whole
drive (about twice!). BUT I am looking for advice on what to do and
program(s) to use.

The best advice would be: don't rely on the drive as your only
backup !

As to software: Make an image of your system (Acronis, Ghost).
You'll need it to restore anything.

Then, use for instance Karen's replicator (www.karenware.com)

Make a full copy once (you can even wipe this if you already have
an image). Let Replicator run differential runs each night.
Save them under yyyymmdd directories. You probably can store an
entire year on a single drive

 

[Juzme]

So I found a good buy on an 80 gig portable USB hard drive from Western
Digital. Its still in the package.
Since my regular drive is only 40 gig I can easily backup the whole
drive (about twice!). BUT I am looking for advice on what to do and
program(s) to use.
Since any backups will run at night speed is not an issue.

TIA

Lou

Partition Saving is pricelessware:
http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/telechargement.html

 

[Pelo]

Cobian Backup Free

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

I am using version 6 and like it.

 

[Lou]

Cobian Backup Free

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

I am using version 6 and like it.

Thanks to all that replied

Lou

 

[Larry Sabo]

Cobian Backup Free

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

I am using version 6 and like it.

[snip]

I use Cobian 7 and like it, too. However, be sure to set the program
to automatically send yourself an e-mail of the log when an error
occurs, or you might assume the backup took place, when it didn't.

With removable flash drives, the destination drive letter can change
when you insert/remove a drive and the backup simply doesn't happen.
There is no alert to this, other than an entry in the log and a
flashing log tab in the program--something not seen if you run the
application on a timed schedule. I've suggested to Cobian that an
immediate alert that requires user confirmation be incorporated into
the program, but he seems unwilling to consider it. Other than that,
it really is a terrific program

Cheers,
Larry