Backup Software - backup entire harddrive ?

Author

backup entire harddrive ?

Andrew

2006-10-25, 1:23 pm

Hello,

Just wonering if there is any software out there which will back up
(clone) my existing PC hard drive to another hard drive ?.

I have a hard drive in my PC at the moment which clicks a lot, it works
fine for the time being, but i'm a bit worried it might give in shortly.
I have backed up all my pictures and mp3's etc to a backup hard drive,
but is there any software out there which will allow me to completely
clone the HD which is currently in my PC and copy it to a USB Backup
Hard Drive so that if this one does fail i could just take it out and
put the backed up one in as a straight swap and everything work as
before ?? i.e. not just a backup of certain files, but a complete clone
including Operating System etc etc ?

Kind Regards,
Andrew

beenthere

2006-10-25, 7:12 pm

"Andrew" <nospam@invalid> wrote in message
news:buXu62OCdIrdJzR9nospam@invalid...
> Hello,
>
> Just wonering if there is any software out there which will back up
> (clone) my existing PC hard drive to another hard drive ?.
>
> I have a hard drive in my PC at the moment which clicks a lot, it works
> fine for the time being, but i'm a bit worried it might give in shortly.
> I have backed up all my pictures and mp3's etc to a backup hard drive,
> but is there any software out there which will allow me to completely
> clone the HD which is currently in my PC and copy it to a USB Backup
> Hard Drive so that if this one does fail i could just take it out and
> put the backed up one in as a straight swap and everything work as
> before ?? i.e. not just a backup of certain files, but a complete clone
> including Operating System etc etc ?
>
>
Acronis True Image will do everything you need. It`s worth its
weight in gold.
This is the Euro version.
http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

You first install it on your HD, then Create a CD, which you use if
your HD falls over (after you`ve done your BU\Image, of course).
HTH.

Andrew

2006-10-27, 1:12 pm

beenthere:
> "Andrew" <nospam@invalid> wrote in message
> news:buXu62OCdIrdJzR9nospam@invalid...
works[vbcol=seagreen]
shortly.[vbcol=seagreen]
drive,[vbcol=seagreen]
completely[vbcol=seagreen]
and[vbcol=seagreen]
clone[vbcol=seagreen]
> Acronis True Image will do everything you need. It`s worth its
> weight in gold.
> This is the Euro version.
> http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
>
> You first install it on your HD, then Create a CD, which you use if
> your HD falls over (after you`ve done your BU\Image, of course).
> HTH.

How does that work then ?. Say i have backed up my entire HD, i imagine
this would span over 6 or 7 DVDs as it's about 40GB full at the moment.
If my HD breaks (or i change to a new HD), i start up the new HD with
the first DVD in and will the system pick up from there ?? - i.e. if
there's no OS on the Hard Drive, can it still install from the set of
backed up DVD's ??

Cheers
Andrew

Andrew

2006-10-28, 1:18 pm

beenthere:
> "Andrew" <nospam@invalid> wrote in message
> news:Ut1mVkHdkEvTfSf2nospam@invalid...
up[vbcol=seagreen]
> Snipped some
imagine[vbcol=seagreen]
moment.[vbcol=seagreen]
with[vbcol=seagreen]
of[vbcol=seagreen]
> You said you had a USB hard drive, so...
> You install Acronis (then create the CD).
> Now use Acronis on your machine to BackUp (create an Image),
> to your USB.
> You could use this Image to re-create your HD if it falls over.
>
> The other method is to Install your new HD as a Slave.
> Partition and format it
> Then using this drive as a Master, you use the Acronis CD,
> to boot your machine, and Clone the Image to the HD.
> HTH.

I'm just a novice ! - it sounds quite complicated. I was hoping that i
could just create a backup onto several DVDs and then put the first (of,
say 6 DVD's) in with the new HD and that it would boot from the DVD
drive and install it onto the new HD (without first installing WinXP).
Is that not the way it works ?

Regards,
Andrew