The end is Nigh for your Data

[Philgo]

No apologies I'm at it again.

Loads of posts about hard drive failures and no backups, so don't let it happen to you.

Backup today, before it's too late.

[Train]

You have that right.

[thelordglen]

Hell yeah to that!! i lost 5 gigs worth of family photos and home vids it was painfull let me tell you all those late nights transfering our vhs tapes onto the computer

Remeber do regular backups because you think it won't happen but it will!!!

[DrMDJ]

Given all the backup options available today and the speed and ease with which backing up can be done there's really no excuse not to follow some sort of backup regiment. Unless of course everyhing one has on their computer is just unnecessary/useless clutter.

[photolady]

Unless of course everyhing one has on their computer is just unnecessary/useless clutter.

Doc, that is usually the case in most computers users.

I hate to admit it, but I've never done a back up and usually, or should I say thankfully, never had a crash.....well, unless you call having a brand new Seagate that wouldn't boot to XP Pro, a crash. But I've got Norton's Ghost 2003 (with tutorial) now and plan on doing my first ever backup this week.

Any suggestions before I start this project?

[DrMDJ]

There is always "some" files one has that they don't want to go bye-bye it would seem. And even if not, people may have customizations, tweaks, whatever. It is far quicker to restore an image with a snapshot of what ya had then to go through a reinstall and recustonization. Heck, even if ya don't have a hard drive crash or the like, having a viable backup can help one more quickly overcome a bad software install/change, recover something accidentally deleted/changed, etc.

But of course its always up to the individual as to whether they want to be bothered or what they want to be bothered with.

[photolady]

Ok one question has me wondering. When I get this started and then at the point in time, I want to restore the backup to the computer, does this mean I can do so without having to reinstall all my programs? That's the reason my daughter gives in my reinstalling the o/s when she has computer problems. If I ghosted her computer I could restore without having to reinstall all programs and drivers?

[ski]

If you back up a mirror image of a HD, incl. the MBR, then I believe that you should be able to restore it without having to reinstall anything(applications, drivers, etc.) if the HD which receives the mirror image is assigned the same letter as the previous HD.

[Philgo]

Photolady, whenever I build a machine for anybody I always partition their HDD into at least two partitions, one of these I keep FAT32 and name it Restore.
Once the install of XP is perfect with all the correct drivers etc I then image the C partition into a folder on the Restore partition.
This means if they completely stuff their machine it can be put back to how I gave it to them, in 10 mins.

So the image file is an exact copy of that partition at the time you done the image.

----------------------

My backup method

My computer is setup with two removable HDD caddies and an external USB 2 HDD caddy; this means that any of my HDD’s are able to go in any of three slots.

I do a perfect install of Windows, I then use Norton Ghost and make an image of my C: drive into a folder on another partition D:\Restore, that image remains there and is also copied to my USB external Hard Drive and to DVD.

Periodically I'll take further images of the C drive which is kept on my USB external Hard Drive and DVD’s if important enough.

Everything that I create myself I keep in folders on my D: drive, this includes my e-mails and copies of my address book etc. Then about once a week, I create a folder and name it with that days date. I then copy all my creations to that folder and burn the whole folder to CDR and also copy it to my USB external Hard Drive. Of course once burnt to CDR the folder with today’s date can be deleted, as the originals are still in their positions on the D: drive.

If disaster strikes my C: drive I would simply restore my computer with my ghost image from D: and carry on working or playing as all my own creations are also stored on D:

If the Hard Drive dies and has to be replaced I would then restore from my USB external Hard Drive or CDR backups.

It's also a very good idea to keep your backups away from the computer. HDD failure is not your only problem it could be stolen or in a fire, then the backups go with it.

It works for me.

[photolady]

Thanks Phil. I guess I should start this process asap, for with all things, what can go wrong, will........in my situation. But provided I follow your suggestions, then what goes wrong can be fixed.

My present drive is a 20gb WD; however, next week I'm installing a new Seagate 80gb. How hard is it to partition a drive? I've never done this either. Well, my drives have always been kind of small in gb's, so I saw no need to partition them.

[dneilson]

You don't mention just how you're going to do the backup--to another hard drive? That is the method I use and highly recommend. It couldn't be easier and it backs up EVERYTHING exactly as it is at the time of the backup. You have an exact duplicate of your main drive. If something goes wrong or you suddenly have a problem you can't solve simply ghost the backup drive to the main drive and you're exactly where you were a the time of the backup. Also, if you have a hard drive crash and have to replace the main drive you simply install the new hard drive and ghost the backup and you're back in business in minimal time. I've recommended this to method to family and friends and have gotten thanks many times. It can really save you lots of time and aggrevation. If you want to make major changes or experiment with your system simply do a ghost backup prior to messing around and if you foul up big time just ghost back and there ya go. Once you set this up you'll wonder how you lived without it.

Good luck!

[Philgo]

It's very east to partition with FDISK and a complete doddle with partition magic, there's plenty of tutorials around, any problems I'll find one for you.

If you don't want to go down the partition route you could install your O/S on your new HDD and use the old one for backups, as long as they don't get too big.

[photolady]

dneilson, probably on DVD since I just got a new burner and I'm dying to try it. So far, I've only watched movies with it.

Phil, thanks, I think I'll just keep the larger drive unpartitioned and use the smaller one for backups. Since getting the DVD burner will be used to store photos and such, I won't need the 20gb for that anyway. I get most confused when it comes to clusters.

[Philgo]

Originally posted by Philgo


I do a perfect install of Windows, I then use Norton Ghost and make an image of my C: drive into a folder on another partition D:\Restore, that image remains there and is also copied to my USB external Hard Drive and to DVD.

dneilson, as I said above I copy the image to an external HDD and to DVD, having another HDD is great except you're not covered so well for fire or theft.

[dneilson]

Philgo--Agreed, your method is excellent. Any method that has your complete system backed up is the way to go.

photolady--You may be missing an important point. You might want to reread my post and give it some thought. Suppose right after reading this your computer irretrievably crashed. You wouldn't even be able to look at those great photos on DVD until your system was up and running again. I don't know what all you have on your system but I'm sure we're talking at least many hours and possibly days to get it back to where you are right now. With a ghosted back up of the entire drive it's a matter of minutes. Not trying to give you a hard time---just trying to make a very important point.