Looking for backup configuration options between my hard drives

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jwreeddesign

jwreeddesign

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Hi everybody,
I'm going to be changing my drives around on my computer, and I was hoping for some input. I have never had a good backup system in place and I want to change that with this new configuration change. I have a new 3TB drive that I am adding, and looking for suggestions on partition/drive arrangements for backing up my OS (preferable a bootable backup), and still utilizing the bulk of the 3TB for storage going forward. I have some old drives which I can certainly utilize in any configuration as well (parts listed below).

In the past I have always gotten by with spreading files across my drives and cloud sharing, until my C: drive crashed and I have to reinstall everything (which is problematic itself due to the nature of many of the programs I use). All the crashed drives have been removed from my system.

I would like a backup that creates a redundant system on my storage drive that I could boot to in case my C: drive ever failed again.

I believe that I would like to partition my storage drive to accommodate this (500gb, same as C: drive) and then somehow slave the new partition to copy and write everything from the C: drive to the new partition while keeping it inactive until such a time when I might wish to boot from it instead, with all programs intact.

How to accomplish this I really don't know. Is it even possible? Is this the best way to go about it? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

I have:
500GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO (C: Drive)
3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD ( brand new - storage)
500GB Hatachi HHD (old storage drive, half full, can certainly utilize in someway too)
64GB OCZ SSD (not being used yet: should I make it a scratch drive? additional boot drive? etc?)

What would you do with this?
Thanks for your help!
- Joe
 
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You might want to consider disk-cloning operations to create & maintain comprehensive backups of your entire system, along the following lines. (If you decide to go this route I'll give you my recommendation re an appropriate disk-cloning program to consider.)

With respect to your specific situation...

1. You would use the 3 TB HDD (currently serving for storage) as the "destination" drive for the cloned contents of your 500 GB Samsung SSD boot drive together with the contents of the 500 GB Hitachi HDD.

2. I'm presuming, of course, that the available disk-space on the 3 TB aside from its current data contents, would be sufficient to house the data contents from the two 500 GB disks in addition to the data contents presently on that...
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fredfinks

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is the ocz SSD the one that crashed? 'well theres your problem!' Throw it away. i wouldnt trust it with anything. i wouldnt piss on it if it was on fire. Id dance around it whilst singing sea shanties.

Unless youre a hardcore business user that absolutely cannot have any downtime i wouldnt bother with an elaborate setup.

The chances of the 500gb samsung failing are very slim. It doesnt take that long to reinstall the o/s. A better way would be just to have data saved to the right spot so if, heaven forbid, it happens again you can quickly reinstall the o/s & programs and put data back in the right place.

Acronis is a good backup software. you can schedule it to do backups of your important data (differential, incremental etc) onto the barracuda drive however often youd like.

Also, after fresh install and relevant programs, using Ghost to image the setup is the quickest way to recover HD loss.
 
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ArtPog

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You might want to consider disk-cloning operations to create & maintain comprehensive backups of your entire system, along the following lines. (If you decide to go this route I'll give you my recommendation re an appropriate disk-cloning program to consider.)

With respect to your specific situation...

1. You would use the 3 TB HDD (currently serving for storage) as the "destination" drive for the cloned contents of your 500 GB Samsung SSD boot drive together with the contents of the 500 GB Hitachi HDD.

2. I'm presuming, of course, that the available disk-space on the 3 TB aside from its current data contents, would be sufficient to house the data contents from the two 500 GB disks in addition to the data contents presently on that disk.

3. You would multi-partition the 3 TB HDD with three partitions, sizing each to ensure they're large enough to contain the present data contents on the 3 TB disk, and two others to contain the contents of the two "source" drives.

4. So you would have a single "destination" drive containing the total data contents of your entire system.

5. Bear in mind the partition containing the contents of your SSD boot drive would result in the 3 TB HDD being a bootable device in itself. So if & when the time came that you had to resurrect your system because the 500 GB boot SSD became dysfunctional due to system corruption and/or a defective disk, it would be a relatively simple & painless task to return the system to a functional state with the assurance that none of your precious data was lost.

6. Now the negatives of this approach would be that whatever data/storage contents reside in the partition earmarked to contain those contents would not routinely be backed up. If that aspect is important or crucial to you then the approach I suggest isn't really feasible.

7. As to the 64 GB SSD, I really don't have any suggestions as to how you could utilize it. I suppose you could treat it like a flash drive for on-the-fly backups, using it as a USB device.

Now as to a disk-cloning program should you be interested in this approach...
For about the past 15 years or so we've been using virtually exclusively the Casper disk-cloning program - http://www.fssdev.com - as the basic program for undertaking comprehensive backup operations of our PCs. I've never found a program its equal.

Casper is not a "freebie". It's a commercial program that sells for $49.95. (A trial version, somewhat crippled, is available on the developer's website.)

While there are many other disk-cloning programs - some of which are freely available - that can perform disk-cloning operations, Casper has a rather extraordinary ability to create "incremental clones", using what Casper refers to as its "SmartClone" technology.

Understand that the "incremental clone" thus created is a *complete* clone of the source disk; it is *not* an "incremental file". The result of this incremental clone process is that it takes the user only a fraction of the time to create subsequent clones of the source HDD/SSD than it would otherwise take using typical disk-cloning methodology. Together with its reliability & ease-of-use, it's this speed capability of Casper which gives it a unique
character in our experience.

Keep in mind that the program is designed to used on a routine/frequent basis in order to create & maintain up-to-date backups of a user's entire PC system. We backup our systems quite regularly - either daily or one or more times per week depending upon PC usage. So it takes us only a relatively few short minutes in most cases (in many cases less than a minute) to comprehensively backup our entire system. A scheduling capability is also built-in to the
program.
 
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jwreeddesign

jwreeddesign

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Thanks for the response Frank! The OCZ is not the one that crashed (I have two - the other is scrapped).

I indeed do not want an elaborate system either, but I thought with the extra space on the 3TB drive, I could do some sort of easy imaging/copying of the C: drive, which might be bootable (and thus copy-able) if I ever found myself in the same predicament. I never thought the other drive would fail either, let alone two of them.

I am going to have to wipe things clean and do this all again so I thought I ought to set it up right from the start.




Thanks ArtPod for your reply! I believe disk-cloning is the solution I am looking for.

In response:
1. Yes, I would use the 3TB HDD as the destination on the clones. This drive is empty and un-partitioned. I planned on making a 500GB partition in this drive for the clone of the C: drive (Samsung SSD), and then use the remainder as storage.

The Hitachi HDD is kind of extra at this point. I could have the clones go there, but I feel the 3TB Seagate is more stable. I could have it be redundant (if nothing else). I could have a scratch drive, extra non-important storage, I don't know. At this point I do not see needing to clone it as well, but that could change depending on how it is implemented.

2, 3, & 4. Yes. The 3TB HDD it is empty and un-partitioned. As mentioned above I do not believe I'll need to clone the Hitachi HDD, so I anticipate a 500GB partition to be sufficient.

5. This is exactly what I was hoping for.

6. Are you saying that the 3TB drive would not be backed up in this scenario, or just the partition with the clone? I believe an additional external drive, or ISO's of this drive put onto the Hatachi from time-to-time, could be suitable backup solutions for the 3TB drive.

7. If nothing else, I'll try using it as a scratch drive for Photoshop, CAD, video editing, etc.

And thank you for the tip on Casper! I will definitely look into it as it seems to be exactly the kind of program I'm looking for to create this system.
 
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ArtPog

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With respect to the 6. item where I indicated that the data CURRENTLY residing on the 3 TB HDD would not be backed up under my basic suggestion for using that HDD as the destination drive for the total contents of both your 500 GB source drives, i.e., your 500 GB SSD boot drive & the 500 GB Hitachi HDD...

Understand that you would be cloning the contents of those two 500 GB disks to maintain a reasonably up-to-date backup of your system ONLY WITH RESPECT TO THOSE TWO DRIVES. The data currently residing on the 3 TB destination HDD would continue to be the same (subject, of course, to any changes you make from time-to-time). But unlike the data on the two 500 GB drives, the other data on that 3 TB HDD (you referred to it as "storage data") would not be backed up. Where would it go? Obviously if you desired that data backed up via a disk-cloning operation you would need another disk large enough to serve as the recipient of that "storage data". I trust you understand this.

Alternatively, if you desired a SINGLE disk to be the recipient of the total contents of your system, i.e. the two 500 GB disks PLUS the data contents of the 3 TB HDD, you would need a disk large enough to accommodate those total contents.

There is another option I might suggest but it depends on the volume of data residing on your 3 TB HDD. I'm assuming that it's well above 500 GB, yes?
 
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jwreeddesign

jwreeddesign

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Hi ArtPog, sorry for the delayed response.

The short answer is: No, there isn't anything of consequence on the 3TB drive. I installed it new for this setup.

As it stands now (as I'm still putting things back together, file/drive wise) I have my OS and programs on the Samsung 500 SSD, and just old files and zips on the Hitachi 500 HDD. The 3TB is now split into 500GB and 2.5TB partitions, with a clone of the Samsung SSD on the 500GB partition, and just ISO backups of everything on the other one just in case I screw things up.

If you have another option I would love to hear it! Thank you!
 
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ArtPog

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Well, your present arrangement re your partitioning scheme on the 3 TB HDD is frankly puzzling to me.

As I understand it, the first partition of 500 GB on that "destination" disk will contain the cloned contents of your 500 GB Hitachi HDD which you previously indicated as "an old storage drive". The second partition of 2.5 TB you created contains "ISO backups of everything on the other one just in case I screw things up."

I'm a bit lost here. The "other one" is your 500 GB Samsung SSD serving as your boot drive, is it not? Why would you not create a 500 GB partition on the 3 TB HDD to house the cloned contents of your boot drive? That's the crucial disk in your configuration, is it not? (I would guess the need for a 500 GB partition to house the contents of your Hitachi HDD is minimal at best.)

I also don't understand the need for "ISO backups". Presumably this has backup potential for your 500 GB boot drive? Why this complication when a simple disk-cloning operation would mirror the precise contents of your boot drive and have the added value that all data flowing from that boot disk housed on the destination disk would be immediately accessible and you would have a bootable disk besides. What is the negative in this approach?

Perhaps I misunderstand you, however it probably would prove useful if you would re:read our previous comments & suggestions.
 
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jwreeddesign

jwreeddesign

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Hey ArtPog, I think the solutions are getting lost in the details. I'm sorry if I am being confusing. Please allow me to ask my question in a simpler way (sorry for redundancy):

- I am basically starting with a fresh computer
- My last computer crashed and I had to reinstall everything
- I am searching for a backup system/configuration that would ALSO prevent downtime reinstalling OS and programs when drives fail in the future.
- I currently have ISO's of all my data and OS so I can switch things around in any way.
- I have a Samsung 500GB SSD (lets call it the Samsung)
- I have a Hitachi 500GB HDD (lets call it the Hitachi)
- I have a Seagate 3TB HDD (lets call it the Seagate)
- I also have a OCZ 60GB SSD (lets call it the OCZ) which probably has little use anymore, but I am curious for suggestions

How would you arrange these drives (or partition the 3TB) to achieve a good back up system, which will also prevent having to reinstall everything from scratch on to a new drive in case the old drive fails?

In case it matters, this computer is my main workhorse for my design company. I mainly use CAD programs, Photoshop/Iluustrator/InDesign, rendering programs, and MS Office. Most of my current work files are on Dropbox, however much of my personal files and data, older work files, and records are stored on the drives which need to be backed up.

Thanks a lot!
 
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ArtPog

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I really don't have any substantive modifications to the previous suggestions I offered re using your 3 TB HDD as the destination drive for the cloned contents of both your 500 GB drives.

Just to recapitulate...

Your 500 GB Samsung SSD serves as your boot drive and your Hitachi 500 GB contains "old storage data". Your "brand-new" 3 TB Seagate HDD is either void of data or (I assume) contains very little at this point-in-time.

So why not simply create two 500 GB partitions on the 3 TB destination drive to contain the cloned contents of both your 500 GB disks. Presumably the created partition for the Hitachi could be considerably less than 500 GB depending upon the volume of data currently on that HDD and what you expect for the future.

A third partition would be created on the 3 TB HDD encompassing the remainder of disk-space available on that disk where presumably you would store other data of your choosing.

So from time-to-time depending how often you would prefer to backup your system you would clone the contents of the Samsung to the first partition on the 3 TB HDD. Ditto for the Hitachi to the second partition - the frequency of which would depend upon what changes, if any, have been made to the data contents of the Hitachi. (For all I know the Hitachi serves as a "static" drive in that few, if any, modifications of data are made on that disk.)

Now as I previously indicated there could be a problem re backing up changes made to the data contents residing in the 3 TB HDD's third partition. Again, I have no idea as to the volume of data you're working with here. Perhaps you could use the 60 GB SSD you have as a destination drive in the event you clone the data contents of that third partition should you desire backup of those contents.

As to your ISOs, perhaps they can serve as some sort of archived backup at this time.
 
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