Posted: 2/16/2009 11:48:18 AM EDT
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I lost a computer to a HDD failure two years ago.
I am looking for a product that I can copy my HDD and settings so if it ever happens again I can restore the computer exactly the way I had it. Files, programs, everything. Can I just get an external HDD and a program to copy it each time I hook it up? Someone suggested Norton Ghost a few years ago, but I never tried to restore it and I also heard that it just copies files. Now that the product does not seem to be supported anymore, what should I switch to? Is this possible or feasible? Thanks! |
| Best way to do that, IMO would be to build a raid-1. Restoring an exact duplicate from an external drive can be a pain. With a raid-1, the rebuilding of the array is seamless and will not be noticed by you. But it can also be more difficult to setup, and does require some maintenance (monitoring drives, etc). |
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Quoted:
Best way to do that, IMO would be to build a raid-1. Restoring an exact duplicate from an external drive can be a pain. With a raid-1, the rebuilding of the array is seamless and will not be noticed by you. But it can also be more difficult to setup, and does require some maintenance (monitoring drives, etc). +1 RAID 1 is what you are looking for... reads and writes two drives simultaneously. A single drive failure is a non-event, everything operates normally on the remaining drive, then replace the bad drive and then "rebuild" to copy from the good drive to the new drive, and you're back in business again. Still a good idea to make occasional backups to protect from file system problems, accidental deletion, etc. |
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So it looks like RAID 1 is not a program but seems to be what I am looking for - can it be used as a back-up?
Just hook it up once a week to maintain a current copy? If so what requirements do I need/ I run XP on 2 laptops and desktop. Can I partition a large external HDD to use on all three computers? (Sorry I'm naive about computers) Thanks for the input so far! |
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Use an external HDD and Acronis softare. Have you had any personal experience with this software? Is it fairly user friendly? Can I use it on more than one computer? I saw it for 39.99 on Newegg and the external HDDs have really come down in price! Thanks again guys! |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Use an external HDD and Acronis softare. Have you had any personal experience with this software? Is it fairly user friendly? Can I use it on more than one computer? I saw it for 39.99 on Newegg and the external HDDs have really come down in price! Thanks again guys! A friend has Acronis and really likes it... RAID-1 is great, but not a replacement for backups (program like Acronis). Problem with RAID is that there is no protection from things like accidental deletes or viruses. Problem for people with backups, is they aren't done often enough. Like you said, drives are cheap... You can cheaply do RAID-1, and have an external HDD for backups. |