Looking for strategies/equipment for BACKUP

[Fruit2O]

I've been using an external USB hard drive to back up my HP laptop
system - backing up EVERYTHING incrementally on the drive (including
the OS). If I ever had a serious problem, I could rebuild my system
without having to reinstall all my software. Recently, my backup hard
drive crashed - DEAD!! Before I buy another external hard drive, I
would like to get some opinions on other backup strategies. I used to
clone my "C" drive (about once a week) in addition to the external hard
drive. But I no longer have an extra 2 1/2" drive large enough to back
up to. The cost of additional drives for backup is not an issue. I
would just like to get other opinions so I can choose one that works
for me. Suggestions for drive models and types are also welcome as
well as software. Currently, I use software from Aquarius I.S.
Consultancy for sequential backup and I cloned my "C" drive with
Acronis True Image.

 

[Fruit2O]

I'm sorry your backup drive bit the dust but I still maintain it's
currently the most reliable backup medium, statistically speaking, even
though from your perspective you may not agree.

My backup strategy is to create a disk image of my system drive on no
less than 3 separate disks (2 x external plus 1 x internal) as, from
personal experience, I no longer believe that one backup is sufficient
insurance, especially when it contains almost 10GB of treasured and
irreplaceable digital images of family & friends.

So my advice to you would be to continue using a hard disk for system
and data backup, but duplicate it to a second backup disk so they both
contain exactly the same data.

My system drive contains none of my own data. I create a disk image and
copy that image to two other separate disks. For my own data, I save it
to a second internal drive on a file-by-file basis (not a disk image) so
any file is immediately accessible, then copy those files to two
external drives. I update all three drives with new files on a regular
basis.

Call it 'overkill' if you wish, but it does give me peace of mind, and
hard disks these days are very affordable, so why rely on just one?

Thank you for your detailed response - well appreciated. What
brand/size do you recommend for the hard drives? Also, I used to
create a clone of my 'C' drive about once a week in addition to my one
hard drive backup of every file (including the operating system). I
guess this equates to the drive images you create. I don't know how to
impose an image on a hard drive onto a failed 'C' drive. If the
operating system is gone, how do you do this? This would save me from
having to create a clone drive (but, I admit, having a clone drive is
very reassuring to have). All I have to do is swap it out for the
failed 'C' drive and update any data from the hard drive backup which I
maintain every day. Any advice or instructions you may give me are
much appreciated. BTW, I was considering a LaCie 1TB hard drive for
backups - even though I used to use a 500MB drive. I intend to get
into video editing and will probably need the extra space.

 

[Fruit2O]

@Fruit2O,

Since you are looking to backup a HDD for a laptop, you are kinda
forced to use an external drive to do the back up. As far as what brand,
from personal experience over the years, I now only use Seagate, as had
many problems with WD, and Seagate gives you either a 3 or 5 yr
warranty, depending on model. Also will no longer ever buy recertified
as it was repaired at some point and have experienced dead drive
recently on daughters computer. Drive was only a year old.

Since you have Acronis, which version?

Acronis True Image 2010

you can use it to do a full

backup every so often, maybe once a month to the external drive then if
ever needed install to the new internal HDD. Make sure that at some
point you create a bootable disc and store away some where, which is
included feature with Acronis.

Thanks, I didn't know that it was a feature of Acronis.

You can go as big as you need on the hard

drive, but personally I keep all the video on seperate HDDs to reduce
wear and tear on the hdd that the OS uses and programs that I use on a
regular basis.

I was considering placing all my photos and videoa on the external hard
drive I am going to use for my differential backups. Is that
advisable?

That is one of the tradeoffs with a laptop versuses a

desktop. What I look at is the big picture for backup, instead of
convience. If you want to use a bigger drive and clone everything from a
smaller drive onto it, you can use Seagate disc wizard availible from
their site.

Thanks. If my 'C' drive fails and my 'C' drive image is on the
external hard drive, what is the procedure for restoring the 'C' drive
(assuming it's restorable)? If I have to get a new 'C' drive, I assume
the restore process (placing the image from the hard drive to the new 2
1/2" drive) is the same - but I have never done that. Sounds like I
would use the bootable disk - but then what?

Thanks for your help.......

 

[Fruit2O]

@Fruit2O,

I use True Image Home 2009; Under back up and restore ou have
options to create an image of the entire disk or partition; specify
files, system state, etc. This is also where you schedule your backups
to occur or can do an unscheduled backup. Just yesterday I had to go
back to a restore point on the 6th because I was unable to uninstall a
downloaded 3rd party app. Did lose a couple of word documents but back
to running normally.
Under manage and restore you can select the backup to restore. In your
case you will be restoring "C" drive which is on "D" drive to the new
"C" drive.
Under manage tasks and logs you can see both your scheduled and
unscheduled backups and to see if they were succesful.
Under protection state you can see if you have created a bootable
rescue disc and startup recovery manager. Under Protection tools, If
when you are booting up you will see the screen hesitate and advising to
press F11 if you want to go into recovery. Also is where you can view
the secure zone; a hidden partition for storing backups.
Try and decide is if you want to try an app before doing a permanent
install. Bootable disk allows you to as the name implies boot. then you
can restore the image to the new "C" drive.
As far as using the external drive for video or what not, no problem,
but unless you have usb 3.0 it will be slower than an internal unit.
What I am saying is that to directly view video from external thru
computer could result in hestitation. But storing it would be absolutley
no problem. Advantages are able to take with you and able to connect to
another computer or media center, easily. Lose your computer, still
have the video.

Thanks again. BTW, I am waiting for USB3 to come out before I get into
video. Seems like we're on the same page.