Beginners Backup Question

[stephenm1]

Hey guys,

I want to perform a backup of the files on my computer. I have a secondary hard disk which i won in a competition, i have not found a use for it yet so it's just lying in the cupboard. Do i simply have to connect it up to my rig via a SATA-II cable and go to control panel > Back-up and restore and take it from there or am i going to have to do stuff to the disk first(i.e partition it)?
Secondarily, this may seem a moronic question, but after i do perform the backup am i to remove the disk from my rig and store elsewhere, then reconnect each time i want to sequentially backup?

Thanks for your time,
Stephen

 

[Ubrales]

For backups, it is best to have an external device, consisting of a drive in an enclosure. Hope the drive you have is at least 500 GB; 1 TB would be great! External devices are preferred because you want to be able to backup the entire computer; and this is not possible if the backup HDD is part of the computer - it cannot backup to itself. The way around this is to choose 'Selective Backup'.

By choosing selective backup, you can backup just the drives you want (OS and data), onto a different drive installed on the computer. The downside to doing this is what happens in the case of fire or theft? Your computer along with the backups are gone! This the the primary reason to store backups in a different location.

Now, let's look at external backups. You already have a SATA hard drive. You will need an enclosure like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042
I have two of these for backup purposes in use for over a year.
Install your HDD into this (or similar) enclosure, connect it to your computer using a USB cable. Now open Control Panel ---> Administrative Tools ---> Computer Management ---> Storage ---> Disk Management. Right click the newly connected external hard disk. Perform an NTFS format.
Your new external enclosure is ready to use.

To do a backup, open Control Panel ---> Backup & Restore, and select the Backup option. Now backup the entire computer OR just the drive containing the OS, and the drives containing data. Also, create a 'System Repair Disk'.

I do a complete backup weekly.

 

[stephenm1]

For backups, it is best to have an external device, consisting of a drive in an enclosure. Hope the drive you have is at least 500 GB; 1 TB would be great! External devices are preferred because you want to be able to backup the entire computer; and this is not possible if the backup HDD is part of the computer - it cannot backup to itself. The way around this is to choose 'Selective Backup'.

By choosing selective backup, you can backup just the drives you want (OS and data), onto a different drive installed on the computer. The downside to doing this is what happens in the case of fire or theft? Your computer along with the backups are gone! This the the primary reason to store backups in a different location.

Now, let's look at external backups. You already have a SATA hard drive. You will need an enclosure like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042
I have two of these for backup purposes in use for over a year.
Install your HDD into this (or similar) enclosure, connect it to your computer using a USB cable. Now open Control Panel ---> Administrative Tools ---> Computer Management ---> Storage ---> Disk Management. Right click the newly connected external hard disk. Perform an NTFS format.
Your new external enclosure is ready to use.

To do a backup, open Control Panel ---> Backup & Restore, and select the Backup option. Now backup the entire computer OR just the drive containing the OS, and the drives containing data. Also, create a 'System Repair Disk'.

I do a complete backup weekly.

Thank you very much for your reply. I will begin looking for deals on a HDD enclosure soon.
very much appreciated for the time you took to reply to my post;
thanks for the help,
Stephen

 

[Ubrales]

Thank you very much for your reply. I will begin looking for deals on a HDD enclosure soon.
very much appreciated for the time you took to reply to my post;
thanks for the help,
Stephen

The enclosure I linked has a built-in 80mm fan. I like this feature, and the enclosure is rock solid; literally! Currently at $34, usually on-sale around $30, and I have seen them as low as $25 during Black Friday. Cables included in package.