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backing up data

S

stunning

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2006
Messages
317
Here is my friends dilema:


He has 2 200 gb hard drives;

1 hard drive is totally blank and ther has many important software and files he needs to have.



Well since he has 2 exactly the same harddrive he wants one drive to constantly backup the other hard drive as in making a replica of the first hard drive.


let me see if i can make this clearer:
Hard drive 1 has all the stuff he needs, harddrive 2 he wants it to be an exact copy of harddrive 1 for his backup and he wants harddrive 2 to update itself every week or so.


is this possible?
 
You could set them up in Raid 1, which is "mirroring." Everytime you write to disk 1, the exact same information will be written to disk 2, thus you have an exact replica of the original disk. This happens everytime you write to disk 1, so it's not a daily or weekly thing.

Otherwise, you may want to look at ghosting the first hard drive to the second. I'm not sure if there is a process for automating a weekly ghost/imaging process to create a replica of the first drive on the second, or not. You may have to do it manually.

I'm sure someone with more experience in the software backup field will be along soon enough to shed more light on it.
 
I would say RAID 1, as well, would be his best option for what he wants.

That being said I would also recommend backing up all data to dvd that changes at least once a week, RAID is NOT a substitute for a true backup. All harddrives can die. If his computer gets hit with a power surge he could lost both drives in 1/10000th of a second. A true backup should not be part of the computer. It should not contain motors.

I know alot of experienced users will agree with me that RAID is not a substitution for a good backup scheme, it's designed more for uptime of a computer.
 
RAID1 is fine and all, but it sounds like he already has data on it. If so, I'd buy an external enclosure for the drive. First, plug the drive into the system and clone the main drive onto the backup drive (using whatever software floats your boat... whatever software the hdd manufacturer provides in their support/download section). Once the drive has been cloned, pull it out of the system and put it into the external enclosure. Then download some free backup software and schedule weekly/daily backups. You could[/] clone the main drive to the external directly instead of plugging it directly into the system the first time, but its slower that way.
 
The only bad thing about a RAID 1 though, is if he gets a virus or accidently erases something, it will do it to BOTH copies of the data. If you setup a daily backup system where drive 1 is cloned to drive 2, this won't happen as easily.

I think Norton Ghost can do a scheduled backup like this.

-TyShoe
 
TyroneShoelaces said:
The only bad thing about a RAID 1 though, is if he gets a virus or accidently erases something, it will do it to BOTH copies of the data. If you setup a daily backup system where drive 1 is cloned to drive 2, this won't happen as easily.

I think Norton Ghost can do a scheduled backup like this.

-TyShoe
Click to expand...

If drive 2 is always in the computer or can be attached to the computer it could be infected just as easily. Which is why a good backup scheme is important to get data off of the computer. If the drive is in the computer, it is suseptible to data corruption by virii, power surges, or anything else that can go wrong with the components in a system.
 
so it would be better if he used a third party backupprogram and save it on an external harddrive or dvd disc.


Any recommended programs?
 
I personally recommend backup files to dvd as long as he takes care of the dvd's they should last a while. I just use nero at home. Though if he does alot of incremental backups there are programs, don't know the names, that handle that much better.
 
defakto said:
If drive 2 is always in the computer or can be attached to the computer it could be infected just as easily. Which is why a good backup scheme is important to get data off of the computer. If the drive is in the computer, it is suseptible to data corruption by virii, power surges, or anything else that can go wrong with the components in a system.
Click to expand...


True. I was thinking Norton Ghost to an external drive. Just forgot to type the "external" part.

I don't use a program to backup my stuff, but I just copy the files that I know will change a lot to an external that I take with me to work. The files that I know are not going to change, i will back up to DVDs.

-TyShoe
 
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