duplicating hard drive

[neamer]

duplicating my hard drive and placing it in a gmail. Is this possible?
I want to have on line access to everything on my hard drive. I hope
this question makes sense as I am technologically challenged. If it is
possible, I am requesting dummy instructions as to how I should do it.
Your kind attention to this question is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jan Alter]

You can make a copy of your drive using a program called Acronis True Image
onto another drive. The preferable thing to do here is have an external
drive that you do that on. Additionally the program would allow you to make
an image of your drive right onto DVD media which would allow you to store
it off site. I'm not sure I would want to store my important data with
G-mail. What kind of assurance do they give that nothing would happen to it
or in fact that it is secure?

 

[Frobinrobin]

Forget the technical details, the fundamental problems with duplicating
your hard drive and putting it online are:

-You would need to synchronise the data back to your hard drive which
is an admin overhead and could cause confusion as to the correct
versions and be very time consuming uploading and downloading.
-You don't specify how big your hard drive is (do you realise it could
take days to upload the contents of your hard disk? even if it is just
20GB).
-You would not want to duplicate windows system files or program files
(this could account for 1GB (or more!!) of data that would not need
copying)
-You probably only want to share your documents but like point one
above - this is an admin issue.


In order to acheive access to your home PCs hard disk you would need
to:

-Leave your PC on and connected to the internet at all times you would
require access (easy if you have a broadband connection such as DSL
which is always on (i.e. connect through a router and not USB modem)
-Not mind having a slightly larger electricity bill - as you keep your
PC on.
-Configure the router AND the PC to accept incoming connections.
-Seek expert advice (i.e. from expert google members) on how to SECURE
the connection and your home network.
-Set up Remote Desktop on your home PC - this will allow you to login
to your PC at home from any PC, it can be set up to "share" (connect)
hard drives between the client and host.

I have access to several computers at my house - and I have overcome
the 'keep your PC on' issue but it requires that my web server is
always kept on.

Remote access might sound like a big deal .. but it can be VERY easy!!

It really depends on what you want to use it for - duplication is a
real headache in the long run but if its short term then sharing of
upto 50MB worth of files is probably feasible.

Regards
- FrobinRobin