Running Backup images

[sierrareal1]

I just purchased a Toshiba Satellite S870, 64-bit Windows 7 Pro laptop Intel i7 with 8GB ram for a client.

I want to use this as an emergency backup system for a small assortment of systems (Windows XP Professional 32 bit, and one [ugh!] Vista Pro 32) at the client location.

I have three external HDD's for system backups.

What I'm looking for is suggestions on the best way to accomplish this.

My thinking is; if I backup a system with (for instance) Macrium Reflect; I should be able to restore the image to a partition on either the Toshiba's HDD, or, perhaps, an external HDD.

Does this make sense?

Are there any known issues with doing this? Does anyone have a better way to run a system image (cost being a significant factor) so that I can basically duplicate one user's system on the laptop while I perform maintenance on their Desktop system?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[price_th]

The only big issue you will have with external HDD as the OS is if you plan to run it that way over USB. Very slow for the OS to run that way. Thing you need to remember is you can't really take someone's desktop image and run it on a Laptop because the hardware is very much different. What kind of service are you trying to offer this client. (zero down time)? Not realistic without having duplicate hardware on standby.

 

[sierrareal1]

The only big issue you will have with external HDD as the OS is if you plan to run it that way over USB. Very slow for the OS to run that way. Thing you need to remember is you can't really take someone's desktop image and run it on a Laptop because the hardware is very much different. What kind of service are you trying to offer this client. (zero down time)? Not realistic without having duplicate hardware on standby.

Tom,

Thanks for the input. I realize that running off the HDD is going to be much slower than off the internal, but, short of repartitioning the internal and restoring the image to the new partition (something I'm considering) I'm not sure how else to manage it. That would give me a dual boot for the time that I need to keep the backup on the laptop, and that may be one way to go.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "you can't really take someones desktop image and run it on a laptop because. . .". There are differences, of course, but isn't the OS fairly capable of figuring out that it isn't on the HDD that the image originally was on? And I don't see how the OS would have too much difficulty configuring for the display, keyboard, mouse, etc.

Isn't that kind of the point behind PnP devices?

I'm not trying to be a smarta$$. Serious question.