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Home > Archive > Backup Software > April 2006 > Question on Backups to External Hard Drive
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Question on Backups to External Hard Drive
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| Sam Bench 2006-04-08, 7:14 pm |
| I have two PCs and a laptop on my home network. I have Casper XP on each
machine. I am thinking of buying an external hard drive. My question is as
follows: Can I partition the external HD into 3 partitions and then clone
each of my three computers into a specific partition? If so, could I then
choose the partition to boot from if I get a crash on my master HD on one of
the machines? I use Win XP on each machine. I think you get the idea. I
would have a single external HD that would serve as the backup for all 3 of
my machines. Would the BIOS recognize a specific partition of the external
HD?
Thanks for any advice.
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| Gerard Bok 2006-04-08, 7:14 pm |
| On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:29:25 -0400, "Sam Bench"
<roykoch@comcast.net> wrote:
>I have two PCs and a laptop on my home network. I have Casper XP on each
>machine. I am thinking of buying an external hard drive. My question is as
>follows: Can I partition the external HD into 3 partitions and then clone
>each of my three computers into a specific partition? If so, could I then
>choose the partition to boot from if I get a crash on my master HD on one of
>the machines? I use Win XP on each machine. I think you get the idea. I
>would have a single external HD that would serve as the backup for all 3 of
>my machines. Would the BIOS recognize a specific partition of the external
>HD?
XP won't boot / run from an external harddisk.
That's by design.
And although there are ways to get around this limitation, its
not smart, not even to try.
There is an easier and much more reliable way to get what you
want. Use an image program like Symantec Ghost or Acronis True
Image.
You can then store 'snapshots' of all you PC's, and even
different versions, if you like, on your removable drive.
--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok
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| Sam Bench 2006-04-08, 7:14 pm |
| Thanks for the advice, Gerald. Let's say I had a external drive with 3
partitions and I used True Image (note: I HATE Ghost!!) to make a snapshot
of each computer's master HD on a partition. Now I would have all three of
my computers backed up on a single external drive. Now let's say the
computer backed up on partition #2 has a fatal hard drive crash and I buy a
new hard drive to replace the bad one. How would I go about restoring
partition #2 on the external drive to the brand new internal drive? If I
did the restore would the newly restored internal drive boot?
Thanks for any input.
"Gerard Bok" <bok118@zonnet.nl> wrote in message
news:44379cec.5963700@News.Individual.NET...
> On Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:29:25 -0400, "Sam Bench"
> <roykoch@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> XP won't boot / run from an external harddisk.
> That's by design.
> And although there are ways to get around this limitation, its
> not smart, not even to try.
>
> There is an easier and much more reliable way to get what you
> want. Use an image program like Symantec Ghost or Acronis True
> Image.
> You can then store 'snapshots' of all you PC's, and even
> different versions, if you like, on your removable drive.
>
> --
> Kind regards,
> Gerard Bok
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| Gerard Bok 2006-04-08, 7:14 pm |
| On Sat, 8 Apr 2006 10:28:22 -0400, "Sam Bench"
<roykoch@comcast.net> wrote:
>Thanks for the advice, Gerald. Let's say I had a external drive with 3
>partitions and I used True Image (note: I HATE Ghost!!) to make a snapshot
>of each computer's master HD on a partition. Now I would have all three of
>my computers backed up on a single external drive. Now let's say the
>computer backed up on partition #2 has a fatal hard drive crash and I buy a
>new hard drive to replace the bad one. How would I go about restoring
>partition #2 on the external drive to the brand new internal drive? If I
>did the restore would the newly restored internal drive boot?
I would boot from
- diskette
- CDrom
- USB stick
- removable harddisk
In that order :-)
It doesn't matter how and from where you boot.
Note, that there is no need at all to create 3 partitions.
It would just waste storage area on your removable drive.
(Like: 3 times 9 GB empty, and no space to place a single 10 GB
image :-)
Just make sure that your images carry a sensible filename.
And use the option to add a meaningful description when you store
the image.
If you ever need to restore, you can choose the proper image from
the filename.
And verify from the description, that you are indeed restoring
the image you intent to restore.
Also, I would instruct Acronis to create images in 650 MB chunks.
(It can do that, but you have to tell it to.) It hardly makes any
difference for storage on a harddisk, but it allows you to burn
your backup on a CDR or DVD as well.
--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok
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