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Home > Archive > Backup Software > December 2005 > Which backup programs will do this?
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Which backup programs will do this?
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Excuse me if this question has been asked here before.
On a PC using Win XP, what is an inexpensive way to copy the contents
of my main 120gb drive (contains my OS, my programs and my data) onto
another drive, so that the other drive is also bootable. This way, if
the main drive fails, I can simply set the bios to boot from the
backup drive (or even physically switch the drives, so that no BIOS
changes are required)?
After doing the initial copying of all the files, I would then like
the program to automatically backup files that are changed, onto
backup drive.
My main drive is 120gb and my backup drive is only 80gb, however, I
don't anticipate that the 120gb will ever contain anything approaching
80gb of data.
I've never used an imaging program and am a bit wary of the concept.
The idea of another drive with an exact copy of the main drive's
contents strikes me as more foolproof and simpler in my (admittedly
inexperienced) view. Is there good justification for this opinion?
Budget is tight but the program needs to be effective and reliable. If
it's easy to understand and use, that would be good too.
Thank you,
Al D
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| On 29 Dec 2005 06:13:54 -0800, "GhostMan" <ghost4me@cox.net> wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
Thank you! Yes, they do indeed look interesting - and affordable now.
I saw a 2-channel ATA133 controller card for an extremely low price
with good user reviews. At the moment, I have one 120gb ATA100 drive
and one 80gb ATA133 drive. Would they work together for RAID 0+1
(Mirrored-Stripping)? Thank you...
The specs of the card I saw are as follows:
RAID Ultra ATA-133 PCI Host
Can Support HDD larger than 137GB!
Add High Performance and Reliable Ultra ATA-133 2 Channels / 4 Devices
connection and RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 on your PC system to support
all types of ATAPI, ATA/133, ATA/100, ATA/66, ATA/33, EIDE ,IDE
storage devices and HDD larger than 137GB
This PCI Host Adapter can upgrade your desktop computer to have high
performance Ultra ATA-133 RAID dual Channels for 4 connections of
ATA/ATAPI devices. It can support Low profile PCI and regular size PCI
both. The card provides 32bit, 33/66 MHz PCI interface and fully
compliant Ultra ATA-133 channels that can access all Ultra ATA
(include ATAPI, ATA/133, ATA/100, ATA/66, ATA/33, EIDE and IDE)
storage devices such as HDD, CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD-ROM. RAID 0
(Striping), RAID 1 (Mirroring) and RAID 0+1 (mirrored-stripping)
improve the data performance and provide the data redundancy.
FEATURES
* Provides 2 Brackets to Support Low profile PCI and Regular size
PCI in one card
* 48 bits LBA can Break Capacity-Limit to Support HDD larger than
137GB
* Provides RAID 0 (Stripping) to greatly increase the performance
of data transfer by simultaneously writing data to 2 drives
* Provides RAID 1 (Mirroring) to protect the data from a disk
failure by writing identical data on 2 drives
* RAID 0+1 (Mirrored-Stripping) combine both Striping and
Mirroring technologies to provide both the performance enhancements
that come from Striping and the data availability and integrity that
comes from Mirroring
* Supports two independent Ultra ATA-133 channels
* Supports full speed burst transfers on the ATA bus
* Supports software-controlled ATA bus tri-state
* Supports device specific timing registers
* Supports device read-ahead and write-ahead capability under
Virtual DMA
* Features one 256-byte FIFO (32-bit x 64 deep) per IDE channel
for host reads and writes
* Features ATA to PCI interrupt masking
* Features command buffering from the PCI to ATA
* Features Virtual DMA: Bus master transfer on the PCI bus and PIO
transfer on the ATA bus
* Features Watch Dog Timer for fault resiliency
* Compliant with PCI Specification, revision 2.2
* Integrated PCI DMA engines
* 32 bit, 33/66MHz fully compliant PCI host interface
* Completely with drivers for Windows 98, Windows Millennium,
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and XP
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| GhostMan 2005-12-29, 5:49 pm |
| The main consideration for ONLY having RAID redundant disks, as opposed
to backup, is that if you mess up your XP or get a virus or software
disaster it is instantly propagated to the other disk. And if you
accidently delete all your pictures, documents, etc. they are gone on
both.
That's why keeping several generations of backups that go back a week
or month or so, are a different kind of insurance.
There are many file backup software solutions for this.
Two popular image backup software programs (for the operating system
and hardware) are:
Acronis TrueImage
www.acronis.com
Symantec Ghost
www.symantec.com
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| I really agree with GhostMan that you need to keep several generations of
backups.
I have used both Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost, and can recommend both.
They seem to take turns being chosen "Editor's Choice" by PC Magazine. I
think I prefer Ghost, but either one is an excellent way of backing up.
Regards,
Gene
"GhostMan" <ghost4me@cox.net> wrote in message
news:1135894471.110411.134940@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> The main consideration for ONLY having RAID redundant disks, as opposed
> to backup, is that if you mess up your XP or get a virus or software
> disaster it is instantly propagated to the other disk. And if you
> accidently delete all your pictures, documents, etc. they are gone on
> both.
>
> That's why keeping several generations of backups that go back a week
> or month or so, are a different kind of insurance.
>
> There are many file backup software solutions for this.
>
> Two popular image backup software programs (for the operating system
> and hardware) are:
>
> Acronis TrueImage
> www.acronis.com
>
> Symantec Ghost
> www.symantec.com
>
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