Hard Drive Backup From Another Computer

[JodyWood]

When working on a variety of computers, I have a need to backup the hard drive for the computer I am working on prior to doing any diagnostics, troubleshooting, and repairs. The systems can range from using Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home & Pro), etc. The drives vary from FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc. What is the best way to backup a hard drive from another computer?

Thanks,
Jody Wood

[Train]

It really depends on the OS as 95 does not allow for usb, But burning stuff to cd works with a external burner.

I also jump in a hdd and copy to it.

[Byan]

if you are going to be doing that, as in your going to need to back them up on a daily basis, then I bet the speed would be your greatest concern.., so I think it would be best not to use an external device...



I would just buy a huge and reliable HDD and whenever you need to back an HDD up, open up the case and plug the HDD in..

you might consider getting a stand or something cause whenever I do this, I am too lazy to mount it in the case, and the cables are rarely long enough to allow the HDD to rest at the button, so I either let it hanging by the cables, or put it on a stack of something, like cd cases...
could get an extra long cable just for the drive as well...


I hope this helps,
Byan

[bistro]

Sounds like you need a USB external hard drive like this Seagate or one just as reliable.

[JodyWood]

What I am looking to do is to pull the hard drive from system X and plug into system Y. System Y will do the backup. What I am struggling with is finding the best method of doing this with minimal work and reduced time for completing the work.

What I have done in the past was to pull the drive from system X and plug into system Y. From there, I would copy the files from system X to system Y. Then on system Y, I would backup the files to multiple CDs. In doing this, I would run into a few different issues at times concerning file names being too long, etc. In general, I would just remove those trouble files from the final backup. At times, this can be a very lengthy process.

Recently, I have run into drive type issues for dealing with my backup method. My system Y (backup system) currently has Windows 98 SE and the drive I need to backup is for XP using NTFS. As a result, I can't use this method to backup the drive from system X.

I have used my current method due to costs. However, I am now researching for a new, better, and more efficient method. Any suggestions?

On my backup system, I am looking to upgrade to XP Pro, add a DVD/CD burner, and add an external hard drive. I was also thinking of adding a removable drive bay for quick and easy swapping of the drive needing to be backed up. I know XP has issues when adding / removing hardware after a given amount of occurrences over a period of time. How should I deal with these XP issues? Will a removable drive bay help this? Also, any suggestions about a removable drive bay, as I have heard at times they can be unreliable?

Also, any suggestions on what software to use for the backup to improve the process?

As a note, many times the drive that is being backed up is in the mode of failing for one reason or another. Thus, the need to do a backup of the drive before performing any other steps on it.

Another consideration is the restore method. It would be extremely efficient if there was a method of backing up the files from system X and then restoring those backed up files to another hard drive so system X could get back on its feet quickly without having to rebuild the OS and reinstall other needed drivers and software, plus data files.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions and tips.
Jody Wood

[Byan]

a removable bay would indeed come in handy...

What I have done in the past was to pull the drive from system X and plug into system Y. From there, I would copy the files from system X to system Y. Then on system Y, I would backup the files to multiple CDs. In doing this, I would run into a few different issues at times concerning file names being too long, etc. In general, I would just remove those trouble files from the final backup. At times, this can be a very lengthy process.

for those lengthy files names, you can add some of them into zip or rar files.., even if you dont choose to compress them, it will keep them in one file, and you will have the files in the end...

Recently, I have run into drive type issues for dealing with my backup method. My system Y (backup system) currently has Windows 98 SE and the drive I need to backup is for XP using NTFS. As a result, I can't use this method to backup the drive from system X.

if you want a cheap fix, you could try puting linux on the sytem Y, it can read off of NTFS...

Another consideration is the restore method. It would be extremely efficient if there was a method of backing up the files from system X and then restoring those backed up files to another hard drive so system X could get back on its feet quickly without having to rebuild the OS and reinstall other needed drivers and software, plus data files.

I know that there are programs that make drive images, you so can easily restore your computer if something were to happen.., I never do this however, cause I think that if something happends, I minds well just do a fresh install, cause it only happends every 6 months or so..


I am just curious what would you do if a person had 60gigs of used space.., like I do.., wow.., when did it get so high..., not to mention my linux partiton

would you actually have to back all of that up..., heh, I have files on here that are bigger then 700megs...