Complete 1:1 backup

[bheslar]

Hello Gents,

I searched for a while and could not find an answer to this question, so if anyone knows please link it.

Anyway I want to create a 1:1 backup of my system in which every couple of days I want to plug in my external drive, get a complete copy of the system, and then unplug and put the drive back in its secure location. In theory I want a complete backup so that if my internal drive fails, I take the external drive out of the enclosure, pop it into the rig, and it is as if nothing happened.

Essentially I would like to have and external RAID 1. Any good programs for this?

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[ssddx]

i've heard of a few programs out there that can copy your current disk image to another disk drive. however, since i've never used them i dont know of their names. but this is the type of program you are looking for

that said, if you want to do an external raid 1, you "could" do it as an internal raid 1. what i mean is that if you set your system up for raid with one disk internal and the other in a sata hot-swap bay whenever you "connect" the drive and boot the machine you could run the "repair raid array" function which would act the same as the program you seek above. you could then detatch the drive when you shut down and the machine would start up normally although you might get a raid array degraded error message (since it wants to see 2 drives ) just a thought.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Hello Gents,

I searched for a while and could not find an answer to this question, so if anyone knows please link it.

Anyway I want to create a 1:1 backup of my system in which every couple of days I want to plug in my external drive, get a complete copy of the system, and then unplug and put the drive back in its secure location. In theory I want a complete backup so that if my internal drive fails, I take the external drive out of the enclosure, pop it into the rig, and it is as if nothing happened.

Essentially I would like to have and external RAID 1. Any good programs for this?

Thanks a lot guys.

I think that I can help, since I do something like this. But you probably don't want to use the same SW that I use; it's Norton Ghost 8.0 from back in 2003. I like it because I don't need to have a running OS; I can boot it from a floppy.

You could try clonezilla, EASEUS' free Disc Copy, a current version of Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, or any of a host of other programs. I personally prefer to back up my OS drive while the OS is not running, but I know from personal experience that Acronis can create a bootable image while the system is running (I have restored one and run from it).

I cannot suggest strongly enough that you have two backup drives, and alternate. Imagine the situation that you are doing a backup and your OS drive fails. Your previous backup was wiped; your current one is unusable, and you are dead in the water.

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BTW, rather than having two external drives and having to pull one out of its case in the event of an emergency, I prefer trayless removable drives. I have two of these: http://kingwin.com/products/cate/mobile/racks/kf_1000_bk.asp . And if you had to boot from a backup, you could just pop the backup into one of these and go. If you do go this route, have strong, antistatic containers for your bare drives. Or, use eSata external devices.