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May 26th, 2015, 10:59 AM
#16
USB thumbdrives go bad faster than hdds. Lost quite a few myself.
I think they are better than floppy disk, but not by much.
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May 26th, 2015, 11:10 AM
#17
USB 2.0 (and slower) attached drives can be painfully slow.
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May 26th, 2015, 11:52 AM
#18
I didn't know that about thumb drives, I thought they were more reliable because they have no moving parts.
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May 26th, 2015, 12:49 PM
#19
Very recently, there was a "study" released that said solid state drives had a low storage life when sitting around unused. Many, many followup articles have been written about this and what the study may have right and what is has wrong. (One followup http://www.itworld.com/article/29210...or-a-week.html
Also, the drives in the articles aren't thumb size USB flash drives (UFDs) but the type many of us are now using in our PCs and Macs.) I mention this to point out that drives of all types can fail for any number of reasons, known and as the article mentions, new unknown types of potential failure. So what ever strategy you come up with for OS and data preservation must survive any/every possible thing that could ever happen.
I don't have tons of data but what I have, I want to keep it. Plus, if Windows pukes/dies, I don't want to reinstall everything for days on end. Thus the reason I do whole drive images, partition level images and (via separate programs), data backup. Besides the PC, I have 3 backup portable HDDs (not SSDs) and at any given time, at least 1 is always offsite. (I also use lots of UFDs for storage of misc things. And as mentioned above, they too should not be trusted too much. They're portable nature alone makes them iffy.)
As for partitioning, IMO, there is no right answer. In my case, I only run 1 (of course there are the manufacturer diagnostic and recovery partitions but I don't use them for my purposes.) The only big reasons I can think of using multiple partitions for a home user is to separate data from the OS (to give some additional options on backups) or, for multiple users, to give each user their own data storage partition. In my case, I thought an extra partition didn't make things any better as I'm the only user.
This all said, just as the others have noted, IMO, using separate partitions solely for the purposes of data preservation/protection is not something I could ever recommend. Survival plans need to be more robust.
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May 26th, 2015, 03:34 PM
#20
>Thus the reason I do whole drive images
What do you use for that? When I've had to reinstall in the past, it's taken me 12 hrs or more even when installing from an external drive, not plastic disks. I'd sure like to avoid that but I don't know the best tool to do it with. I need something that doesn't care if the new drive size is different from the old.
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May 26th, 2015, 04:14 PM
#21
As for myself, I use Acronis True Image for my image backups. It can restore the image to drives of a different size, even smaller drives assuming there is still enough space. I only image the boot drive, not data.
There are free versions for WD and Seagate drives.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/
http://www.seagate.com/support/downl...00dd04090aRCRD
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...19&wdc_lang=en
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May 26th, 2015, 04:37 PM
#22
That sounds great, is it easy to use? I need something that makes a true, bootable, bit for bit copy that can be restored, installed or whatever the word is, to a new drive of any size such that you wouldn't know the difference. I don't want an ugly surprise at the worst possible time.
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May 26th, 2015, 04:53 PM
#23
The directions vary slightly for different versions, but it's not that difficult.
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/suppor...15/#22735.html
I need something that makes a true, bootable, bit for bit copy that can be restored, installed or whatever the word is, to a new drive of any size such that you wouldn't know the difference.
That is what image backups are for. In a nutshell, you make an image of the source drive, boot from the boot disc/UFD (created from TI or whatever software you choose), and restore to the target drive. Like I said, you can restore to a smaller drive as long as it has enough room for the files.
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May 26th, 2015, 05:05 PM
#24
For Win7/8, make sure to also include the 100MB system partition with the C: drive image backup.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/16249
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May 26th, 2015, 10:28 PM
#25
Just some quick opinions/comments about imaging programs...
They can create "hot" images (created while you are in a normal Windows session) or "cold" while you are NOT in regular Windows (you've booted to either a Linux or Windows PE environment.
To get the best/fastest results, you need to back up to a hard drive (HDD) and NOT burn optical discs. You can burn discs but they take forever. And, IMO, very critical, you need at least 2 hard drives to store the images on. That way you have a minimum of 3 copies of the information. The original, 1 copy onsite and 1 you can store offsite. (Services like Carbonite are ok for offsite storage but they are NOT imaging programs. They only backup the data.)
Planning on how and when to create images is an important consideration. Hot imaging programs can make use of schedulers and since they run in Windows, they are easy to kick off at almost any time. Cold imagers can take a bit more time but they capture everything about a system (I just learned today that hot imaging can have issues with Windows System Restore. Most hot imaging programs use Microsoft's Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) to "freeze" the system to be able to make the image. VSS apparently can cause System Restore points to be unusable. Macrium Reflect feels it's serious enough they don't include System Restore points in their images.)
I make at least 1 image per month, right before I apply Windows Updates. That way, if things turn ugly, I can get back to a good place. But I also make them whenever the mood strikes (say if I install some new exotic program or something like that.)
If you restore an image, it is always performed "cold". The partition (or entire disc) being restored cannot be in use and rewritten at the same time. So whatever program(s) you decide to use, you must create some kind of recovery media. Optical boot discs used to be the standard. Now it's USB flash drives (thumb drives.)
What program do I use? Over the years, I have tried several different imaging programs. My long term favorites are Image for Windows/Image for Linux, Macrium Reflect, Active@ Disk Image, and Clonezilla. (I started with Image for DOS and ShadowProtect several years ago (they are still good) but feel the long term favs offer better value for the money or they are faster at what they do.)
If I had to pick one, it would be Image for Linux. It is a "cold" imager and is blazingly fast. I used it when I moved from a standard HDD to an SDD (solid state) drive and everything went perfect (of course I planned the move out in advance to have it work out that way.  )
I've been using imaging for several years now and after all that time and the creation of hundreds of images, I have never had to reinstall Windows. And I've had some bad things go wrong!
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May 27th, 2015, 10:22 AM
#26
 Originally Posted by Reverend
... is it easy to use? I need something that makes a true, bootable, bit for bit copy ... I don't want an ugly surprise at the worst possible time.
No computer connection or advanced computer skills required.
With the simple push of a button you can Duplicate:
- Any 2.5"/3.5" SATA hard drive/SSD,
- that contains Any operating system,
- with Any disk format and/or file type.
If the original drive was bootable, the copied drive will be bootable. Hidden files, system files, applications, license keys, everything is all copied intact.
How can this be so easy? The Cavalry "Retriever" simply makes an exact copy of every block sector of the source drive onto the target drive. If the target drive is larger than the source drive, the extra capacity can be assigned to another partition.
And, when it's not being used to duplicate drives, the Retriever can also be connected via USB 3.0 to your PC or Mac to act as a dual-bay hard drive docking station.
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May 28th, 2015, 04:42 PM
#27
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May 28th, 2015, 05:22 PM
#28
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