hard drive backup

B

bk3000

I've got a Dell laptop running XP, and after running a diagnostic test, got
error code 0146 that hard drive was corrupted. Dell is sending me a new one,
which I'll have to self-install.

I can't remember backing up my entire system ever, so my question is, how
should I go about saving all my settings and programs on the current hard
drive? I've got a backup drive of 20gb, so I'm guessing I should put it all
there, and also a few flash drives, but what method should I use? Should I go
to the C:/ drive system properties and select the backup option or do stuff
manually?
 
M

Mark Adams

bk3000 said:
I've got a Dell laptop running XP, and after running a diagnostic test, got
error code 0146 that hard drive was corrupted. Dell is sending me a new one,
which I'll have to self-install.

I can't remember backing up my entire system ever, so my question is, how
should I go about saving all my settings and programs on the current hard
drive? I've got a backup drive of 20gb, so I'm guessing I should put it all
there, and also a few flash drives, but what method should I use? Should I go
to the C:/ drive system properties and select the backup option or do stuff
manually?
Click to expand...

If the machine still runs, Go out and buy Acronis True Image and a 1 TB USB
hard drive. Boot the machine to the Acronis disk and make an image of your
computer to the USB drive. When the new drive arrives from Dell, restore that
image to the new drive. It might cost a little more to do it this way, but it
is so much easier than reinstalling everything, it's worth it.
 
A

Alias

Mark said:
If the machine still runs, Go out and buy Acronis True Image and a 1 TB USB
hard drive. Boot the machine to the Acronis disk and make an image of your
computer to the USB drive. When the new drive arrives from Dell, restore that
image to the new drive. It might cost a little more to do it this way, but it
is so much easier than reinstalling everything, it's worth it.
Click to expand...

You can also do the same thing for free with the CD you can download
from Seagate, Western Digital, etc.
 
B

Big_Al

M

Mark Adams

Alias said:
You can also do the same thing for free with the CD you can download
from Seagate, Western Digital, etc.
Click to expand...

Alias, Bob.

It's been awhile since I've used these utilities. Since I've gotten Acronis
I've not had to use them. I know they can clone drives, but can they make an
image? The OP has a laptop and since two hard drives cannot be installed at
the same time, a USB enclosure would be needed to clone to the new drive.
This would also eliminate the necessity of purchasing the external hard
drive. But, by buying Acronis and the USB drive, the OP could replace the
failing drive and also have a reliable backup system. Costs more, but now he
can backup everything all in one shot.
 
A

Alias

Mark said:
Alias, Bob.

It's been awhile since I've used these utilities. Since I've gotten Acronis
I've not had to use them. I know they can clone drives, but can they make an
image? The OP has a laptop and since two hard drives cannot be installed at
the same time, a USB enclosure would be needed to clone to the new drive.
This would also eliminate the necessity of purchasing the external hard
drive. But, by buying Acronis and the USB drive, the OP could replace the
failing drive and also have a reliable backup system. Costs more, but now he
can backup everything all in one shot.
Click to expand...

The one from Seagate will do an image. It's even powered by Acronis. I
don't have a Western Digital but I assume it's the same with them.
 
B

bk3000

Machine is still running, though theoretically it could irreparably crash at
any second, I've been told. It seemed close yesterday, in fact. Was
considering spending the $ for a USB or external hard drive; I have a few
flash drives but they won't be enough for the whole operation.

How about my internal backup HD? Would it be smart to backup anything
(documents, for instance) on there or even possible to use that as a
mirror/image location of some sort?

Also curious about commenter Db at the bottom of the thread making the point
about any bad sectors being recreated in any of these scenarios.
 
B

Bob

bk3000 said:
Machine is still running, though theoretically it could irreparably crash
at
any second, I've been told. It seemed close yesterday, in fact. Was
considering spending the $ for a USB or external hard drive; I have a few
flash drives but they won't be enough for the whole operation.

How about my internal backup HD? Would it be smart to backup anything
(documents, for instance) on there
Click to expand...


***No.

or even possible to use that as a
 
M

Mark Adams

bk3000 said:
Machine is still running, though theoretically it could irreparably crash at
any second, I've been told. It seemed close yesterday, in fact. Was
considering spending the $ for a USB or external hard drive; I have a few
flash drives but they won't be enough for the whole operation.

How about my internal backup HD?
Click to expand...


You said this was a laptop. Laptops only have one hard drive. You certainly
don't want to save anything to a separate partition of a hard drive that you
already know is failing.

Would it be smart to backup anything
(documents, for instance) on there or even possible to use that as a
mirror/image location of some sort?
Click to expand...

Backup images are saved as one large file. The flash drives would have to be
big enough to hold the whole file, or it won't work. You could manually copy
your documents, pictures, music, and export your email and browser bookmarks
to the flash drives if you have enough of them (I doubt it.) Cheaper to get a
USB hard drive. Alias says Seagate's utility will make an image; I assume it
can restore one to a new hard drive also. If so, you won't need the Acronis.
Also curious about commenter Db at the bottom of the thread making the point
about any bad sectors being recreated in any of these scenarios.
Click to expand...

The bad sectors won't be recreated on the new drive, but any data on those
sectors is probably lost and won't copy to the new drive. This could include
critical operating system files and could crash or cause instability to the
OS.
 
P

Percival P. Cassidy

I've got a Dell laptop running XP, and after running a diagnostic test, got
error code 0146 that hard drive was corrupted. Dell is sending me a new one,
which I'll have to self-install.

I can't remember backing up my entire system ever, so my question is, how
should I go about saving all my settings and programs on the current hard
drive? I've got a backup drive of 20gb, so I'm guessing I should put it all
there, and also a few flash drives, but what method should I use? Should I go
to the C:/ drive system properties and select the backup option or do stuff
manually?
Click to expand...

Others have recommended Acronis True Image. I have used the free version
of Macrium Reflect, which seems to work well. The paid version does
more, but the free version is fine for most people.

Perce
 
A

Alias

Mark said:
You said this was a laptop. Laptops only have one hard drive. You certainly
don't want to save anything to a separate partition of a hard drive that you
already know is failing.



Backup images are saved as one large file. The flash drives would have to be
big enough to hold the whole file, or it won't work. You could manually copy
your documents, pictures, music, and export your email and browser bookmarks
to the flash drives if you have enough of them (I doubt it.) Cheaper to get a
USB hard drive. Alias says Seagate's utility will make an image; I assume it
can restore one to a new hard drive also. If so, you won't need the Acronis.


The bad sectors won't be recreated on the new drive, but any data on those
sectors is probably lost and won't copy to the new drive. This could include
critical operating system files and could crash or cause instability to the
OS.
Click to expand...

Sounds like his best bet would be to back up his data to external media
and reinstall XP when the new hard drive arrives. Course if all he has
is a recovery partition, he should ask the folks at Dell to provide him
with a CD/DVD.
 
B

bk3000

Mark, Alias, et al -

Really appreciate the feedback. I like the idea of having an at-the-ready
backup with an external hd, but it appears I could simply use the
Acronis-powered free download/trial version utility from WD or Seagate to
image the current hd and restore it to the new drive upon its' arrival. I'll
definitely take a peek at the current going rate for external hds, also
Acronis itself if I can't access the free version. I'm really not even going
to inquire further about cloning, which seems to be a more intensive
alternative/for different purposes than the imaging...?

My apologies about the mistaken identification of my separate PARTITION of
the hd as a second drive - confusing it with my older desktop, though I had
always thought they weren't part of the same hardware piece. Thanks for
catching it.

- Brian
 
N

Newman

First things first...

Go here:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Buy SpinRite6. Download the ISO, and burn a bootable CD.

Boot your laptop, and run SPinRite6. Let it do its magic.

It *will* identify all bad sectors and, if at all possible, recover
information. This is all done underneath Windoze, so there will be no
interference from Micro$haft. SpinRite6 will also detect secors which
hare about to go bad, but which have not yet gone bad! :)

Since some files may be damaged beyond repair, I highly recommend that
you to a clean install on your new hard drive.

Since your drive is not in good shape, once the diagnostic is
completed, be aware that other sectors may go bad. Failure is measured
as MTBF - mean time between failure. So... the more power-up hours,
the greater the probability of failure. In non-vulcan English - don't
run this drive unless you absolutely have to! It's condition is likely
to deteriorate. Run it to correct existing errors, to copy data off
of, and to wipe clean.


Once your clean install is up and running, buy one of these:

http://www.a-power.com/product-9403-817-1

or something similar.

Plug it in, and copy your data directly onto your new hard drive from
your old hard drive.

Once you have everything, and you are sure all is well, I would use
the drive manufacturers utility and zero-fill the drive to erase all
your personal files. THEN return the drive to Dell. Remember, you have
to return the old drive or they will bill you for the new drive.

When all is again running properly, you can buy a regular 5 inch drive
for cheap, likely 1.5 TB for less than $150) and you can plug it in to
the usb adapter. You can then use all manner of freeware to create
back-up images galore so that the next time this happens, you wont be
between a rock and a hard data bit.

Good luck.
 
N

Newman

You can download a program from the Dell web site which allows you to
re-create the diagnostic partition.

Talk to Dell, they will walk you through it.

:)
 
S

SC Tom

The ATI versions from WD and Seagate are not trial versions; they are
working versions to create and restore images with no time or file size
restrictions. They do NOT have all the features of the retail version such
as incremental backups, and I don't believe they have scheduling either. I
have used the free WD version a few times now on my desktop and different
notebooks with no problems at all. I create an image, at the least, once a
month, and it has saved me personally twice- once on my desktop, and once on
my notebook after it took an uncontrolled flight off the end table. I've
tried two other imaging programs, and was not nearly as satisfied with them
as I am with Acronis. Of course, that's just me, but I love simple, easy,
and free :)
 
M

Mark Adams

bk3000 said:
Mark, Alias, et al -

Really appreciate the feedback. I like the idea of having an at-the-ready
backup with an external hd, but it appears I could simply use the
Acronis-powered free download/trial version utility from WD or Seagate to
image the current hd and restore it to the new drive upon its' arrival. I'll
definitely take a peek at the current going rate for external hds, also
Acronis itself if I can't access the free version. I'm really not even going
to inquire further about cloning, which seems to be a more intensive
alternative/for different purposes than the imaging...?
Click to expand...


If you do not buy the external hard drive, you will have to clone the old
hard drive to the new one. You will have to buy a 2.5 inch USB hard drive
enclosure to do this. Download the utility from the website of the maker of
the new drive to your desktop machine and burn a bootable CD from the
download file. Put the new hard drive in the USB enclosure and connect to the
laptop. Boot the laptop to the CD you just made and clone the old drive to
the new one. When done, remove the CD from the drive and shut the laptop
down. Remove the old hard drive from the laptop and replace it with the new
one, and you should be good to go. Keep the old drive for awhile until you
are satisfied that all is well with the new installation.

If you do buy the external drive, use the bootable disk to save an image of
the old drive to the external drive. Then, put the new hard drive into the
laptop and use the CD to restore the image to the new drive. You will now
have a backup image safely stored on the external drive, and the laptop
should be good to go.

Acronis can do both of these functions and can also be installed to your
machine and make incrimental backups to the USB drive while Windows is
running. You can schedule those backups to be made at night while you are
asleep. A very useful program.
 
R

Roy Smith

One comment that bears mentioning about these free backup programs from
Seagate/Maxtor and Western Digital... these programs have one stipulation
in that you are required to have a drive from the respective manufacturer,
or the program won't run. The program is basically Acronis True Image Home
with several of the retail features removed such as incremental backups,
scheduling, and the ability to mount a backup archive as a drive to name a
few. The programs are available at:

Maxtor:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD
Seagate:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD
Western Digital:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

(The Maxtor and Seagate lines may be word-wrapped)
 

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