Do youself a favor and read this post

[JTG51]

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I'm far from an expert and so shouldn't really be making recommendations--but here's my take. I want to back up not only my data, but all the software (shareware, pirated, a tiny bit even purchased) I installed too. if my HD ever fails, I want all my data, all my programs and config--and I want to be able to boot right into that. so what I went after was a bootable clone of my HD. you got your ghost and your acronis and your casper and all that. well most of that makes a back up that you have to extract onto a disk. so you still need some other way to boot, and then you have to do that extraction. most of those products can do clones, ie make an exact working copy of your disk--but in win xp they tend not to be bootable.

there is a solution. the maker of xxcopy, which is an advanced dos based utility made a new product specifically for what I want: XXCLONE. it makes a bootable clone of your win xp HD. all data, programs, and operating system. now, if my HD fails. I pull it out. toss it in the trash and boot from my second HD in the modular laptop bay without missing a beat (and I'll physically switch that one over to the primary HD bay). it's like $40. it specifially makes the clone bootable. and it does incremental back ups. (also, it doesn't clone sector by sector or whatever, it defrags the files.)

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by far the best way to do it is RAID1. buy a RAID controller, or many motherboards come with a RAID controller installed by default. just put two hard drives of equal size on a RAID 1 array and the two will be mirroring each other constantly. it's super easy to set up and by far the most secure way to backup your data.

p.s. here's an IDE controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104214

and here's an SATA controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104219

both $20 or under shipped.

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Thanks for the links, I'll definitely be buying one soon.

Will the card come with all of the instructions I need to set everything up? I'm comfortable working inside my PC, but I don't really know anything about RAID.

Also, is equal size the only thing I have to concern myself with when I buy the second hard drive?

[mosta]

is RAID1 not an effective solution for a laptop? It seems to be exactly what I've wanted (continual, not just backing up periodically).

[CORed]

I have a bootable linux flash drive. I use dd to copy partition images to a USB hard drive. I can also copy the partition image back to the internal hard drive (same one or a new one).

[o0mr_bill0o]

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I'm far from an expert and so shouldn't really be making recommendations--but here's my take. I want to back up not only my data, but all the software (shareware, pirated, a tiny bit even purchased) I installed too. if my HD ever fails, I want all my data, all my programs and config--and I want to be able to boot right into that. so what I went after was a bootable clone of my HD. you got your ghost and your acronis and your casper and all that. well most of that makes a back up that you have to extract onto a disk. so you still need some other way to boot, and then you have to do that extraction. most of those products can do clones, ie make an exact working copy of your disk--but in win xp they tend not to be bootable.

there is a solution. the maker of xxcopy, which is an advanced dos based utility made a new product specifically for what I want: XXCLONE. it makes a bootable clone of your win xp HD. all data, programs, and operating system. now, if my HD fails. I pull it out. toss it in the trash and boot from my second HD in the modular laptop bay without missing a beat (and I'll physically switch that one over to the primary HD bay). it's like $40. it specifially makes the clone bootable. and it does incremental back ups. (also, it doesn't clone sector by sector or whatever, it defrags the files.)

[/ QUOTE ]

by far the best way to do it is RAID1. buy a RAID controller, or many motherboards come with a RAID controller installed by default. just put two hard drives of equal size on a RAID 1 array and the two will be mirroring each other constantly. it's super easy to set up and by far the most secure way to backup your data.

p.s. here's an IDE controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104214

and here's an SATA controller: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104219

both $20 or under shipped.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the links, I'll definitely be buying one soon.

Will the card come with all of the instructions I need to set everything up? I'm comfortable working inside my PC, but I don't really know anything about RAID.

Also, is equal size the only thing I have to concern myself with when I buy the second hard drive?

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I don't have those particular cards, they're just the first ones that popped up when i searched Newegg. However, I would have to imagine that they'll come up with instructions. When you get a second hard drive for a RAID array you just need to understand that the system will only perform as well as the slowest and smallest of the hard drives. so if you have a 40 gig 5400 rpm drive and an 80 gig 7200 rpm drive, you'll be wasting 40 gigs of space and you won't get the added speed of 7200 rpms.

[o0mr_bill0o]

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is RAID1 not an effective solution for a laptop? It seems to be exactly what I've wanted (continual, not just backing up periodically).

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hmmm... I know that there are some laptops which have a RAID controller, however I've never seen it as something that you can add on later. you might want to google around, but my bet is that you can't do it unless your computer is already capable. if it's a desktop replacement type laptop (think performance rather than ultra-portable), it might already have a controller. check your instruction manual.

[BigDave]

"And how do you backup 400GB data?"

500GB Hard Drive for $300

I read this thread when it was first posted. However, I failed to listen to OP and did not back up my data. My harddrive crashed the other day, so I wanted to bump this to the first page in the hope that others would heed the advice. Please backup your data and save yourself a headache.

[Synergistic Explosions]

Maybe it's always best to have two similar computers side by side to not only back up between eachother, but to have a spare if one goes down.

Puters are so cheap now, might make sense.

[Spota]

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And how do you backup 400GB data?

Just don't have your data on the same HD as your OS and you will be fine if you don't drop a magnet on the HD.


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Uh yea, unless your data drive is the one that fails.

I lost everything about 3 months ago and I have learned my lesson. Since then I run a nightly backup to another internal drive and a weekly backup to an external drive which is never attached unless I am performing the backup.

FWIW, I have a RAID 0 configuration for my primary data. This is backed up to a secondary (3rd really) SATA drive. The SATA drive is backed up to a internal 300 GB IDE drive enclosed in the external Adaptec housing so I can use it as an external drive. I have about 150GB of data.

I use robocopy to perform the backup so it only takes a few minutes.

[gildwulf]

I just got a phantom 120 gig for 100 bucks at newegg and it works like a charm.