I am considering acquiring an external hard drive for backup purposes and
restoration in case my internal hard drive fails.  As a relative novice to
this business, I would like some advice on some basic questions.  I have a
Dell Dimension 4500, 60 Mb hard drive (about 20% full), and use XP Home
(ready to install SP2 but have not yet.



Some of the terminology is unclear to me.  Is there a difference between a
disk image and a backup of file systems (OS, apps, data and settings, etc.)?



How large an external hard drive should I get?  If I create an image of the
internal drive on the external does it require 60Mb or only that portion
that is used?



Should I partition the external hard drive?  One partition for the image and
a second for incremental backup of data files (with multiple versions) or
can I do this on an un-partitioned external?



Should I format the external hard drive to NTFS?



I have data files that change daily, so like to backup these files daily.
At present I am doing this to CR-RW discs with AISBackup.  I think I can use
this software to backup to an external drive.



Thank you in advance for any advice and help.




--
Ray Wright

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Here's what I do:

I have 3 internal SCSI hard drives dived into 10 logical drives with a total
capacity of about 64GB.
I use Retrospect (see www.dantz.com) to create a disk backup set on an
external USB drive.
The USB drive is 80GB so I can create a single backup set on a single disk
drive. You can use larger external drives to allow for more backup sets or
for longer periods between Recycle backups.
I alternate between using two USB drives, never having more than one drive
connected at a time to reduce chance of damage from electrical problems.

Every so often, I do a Recyle backup on one of the USB drives.
After doing the Recycle backup on one USB drive, I then do a Recycle backup
on the other USB drive,
Your needs may differ and you may wish to maintain backups further back.
And, if you wish to take the drives off site, you may wish to use more
drives.

Retrospect allows one to make a disaster recovery CD so you can restore a
system without re-installing the OS.

I use a single NTFS partition on each of the USB drives and use the drives
only for backup.

Retrospect uses an intelligent incremental backup algorithm, so you can
easily make multiple incremental backups each day.
You could also back up to CD-RW and DVD and, ugh!, tapes.

I see no point in doing "image" backups (this statement will elicit a wild
discussion, which I will ignore).

--
http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.
"raycyn.wright" <raycyn.wright@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:3zB6d.4640$3C7.644@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com...
> I am considering acquiring an external hard drive for backup purposes and
> restoration in case my internal hard drive fails.  As a relative novice to
> this business, I would like some advice on some basic questions.  I have a
> Dell Dimension 4500, 60 Mb hard drive (about 20% full), and use XP Home
> (ready to install SP2 but have not yet.
>
>
>
> Some of the terminology is unclear to me.  Is there a difference between a
> disk image and a backup of file systems (OS, apps, data and settings,
etc.)?
>
>
>
> How large an external hard drive should I get?  If I create an image of
the
> internal drive on the external does it require 60Mb or only that portion
> that is used?
>
>
>
> Should I partition the external hard drive?  One partition for the image
and
> a second for incremental backup of data files (with multiple versions) or
> can I do this on an un-partitioned external?
>
>
>
> Should I format the external hard drive to NTFS?
>
>
>
> I have data files that change daily, so like to backup these files daily.
> At present I am doing this to CR-RW discs with AISBackup.  I think I can
use
> this software to backup to an external drive.
>
>
>
> Thank you in advance for any advice and help.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ray Wright
>
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Howard,

I am just wondering how you achieved using two different USB drives.

I have Retrospect Pro 6.5 and two Maxtor 120GB USB drives.

I connect only one drive at a time.  I can set up a script which works
with the first drive, but when I swap to the other drive, Retrospect
tells me the media for the back up is not ready.  SO I create the
script again, but when I swap USB disks again (back to the first USB
drive) Retrospect tells me the drive is being used in another backup
set.

Are you using different backup scripts for each USB drive?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

David Robertson

"Howard Kaikow" <kaikow@standards.com> wrote in message news:<cjer06$sid$1@pyrite.mv.net>...
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Here's what I do:
>
> I have 3 internal SCSI hard drives dived into 10 logical drives with a tot
al
> capacity of about 64GB.
> I use Retrospect (see www.dantz.com) to create a disk backup set on an
> external USB drive.
> The USB drive is 80GB so I can create a single backup set on a single disk
> drive. You can use larger external drives to allow for more backup sets or
> for longer periods between Recycle backups.
> I alternate between using two USB drives, never having more than one drive
> connected at a time to reduce chance of damage from electrical problems.
>
> Every so often, I do a Recyle backup on one of the USB drives.
> After doing the Recycle backup on one USB drive, I then do a Recycle backu
p
> on the other USB drive,
> Your needs may differ and you may wish to maintain backups further back.
> And, if you wish to take the drives off site, you may wish to use more
> drives.
>
> Retrospect allows one to make a disaster recovery CD so you can restore a
> system without re-installing the OS.
>
> I use a single NTFS partition on each of the USB drives and use the drives
> only for backup.
>
> Retrospect uses an intelligent incremental backup algorithm, so you can
> easily make multiple incremental backups each day.
> You could also back up to CD-RW and DVD and, ugh!, tapes.
>
> I see no point in doing "image" backups (this statement will elicit a wild
> discussion, which I will ignore).
>
> --
> http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.
> "raycyn.wright" <raycyn.wright@prodigy.net> wrote in message
> news:3zB6d.4640$3C7.644@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com... 
>  etc.)? 
>  the 
>  and 
>  use 

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Yes, it works best with a different script for each drive.
I use two scripts from the Run menu.
And my MOST IMPORTANT peripheral is the Post-It note I paste to one of the
drives so I can distinguish 'tween the drives,

--
http://www.standards.com/; See Howard Kaikow's web site.
"David Robertson" <dnrobertson@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:b9859299.0410140559.f9c8c72@posting.google.com...
> Howard,
>
> I am just wondering how you achieved using two different USB drives.
>
> I have Retrospect Pro 6.5 and two Maxtor 120GB USB drives.
>
> I connect only one drive at a time.  I can set up a script which works
> with the first drive, but when I swap to the other drive, Retrospect
> tells me the media for the back up is not ready.  SO I create the
> script again, but when I swap USB disks again (back to the first USB
> drive) Retrospect tells me the drive is being used in another backup
> set.
>
> Are you using different backup scripts for each USB drive?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David Robertson
>
> "Howard Kaikow" <kaikow@standards.com> wrote in message
news:<cjer06$sid$1@pyrite.mv.net>...[vbcol=seagreen] 
total[vbcol=seagreen] 
disk[vbcol=seagreen] 
or[vbcol=seagreen] 
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drives[vbcol=seagreen] 
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and[vbcol=seagreen] 
novice to[vbcol=seagreen] 
have a[vbcol=seagreen] 
Home[vbcol=seagreen] 
between a[vbcol=seagreen] 
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or[vbcol=seagreen] 
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can[vbcol=seagreen] 

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hello,

You might also want to try Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.
See http://www.savingsdiscovery.com/specials/essentials.htm for some discoun
ts.

Joe

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]