Can i backup my HDD so that...

[spat55]

If it fails I can just use it without having to re-install my windows 7 or steam/games? I've got to RMA a hard drive as it sounds bad so am going to buy a new hard-drive to use as my main for now

Many thanks in advance.

 

[PlusOne]

I believe the best way to do that would be a Raid 1 configuration with your two hard drives, but even this is not a sure fire backup.

Basically, Raid 1 creates an exact copy of one hard drive onto another. They both run simultaneously and are written to with the same information. If somehow one fails without the other failing, then the computer just uses the functional one while you buy a new hard drive to replace the broken one.

 

[ss202sl]

There are disk imaging software(ghost and others) that can do this. Sometimes HDD's will come with something to do this.

 

[spat55]

I believe the best way to do that would be a Raid 1 configuration with your two hard drives, but even this is not a sure fire backup.

Basically, Raid 1 creates an exact copy of one hard drive onto another. They both run simultaneously and are written to with the same information. If somehow one fails without the other failing, then the computer just uses the functional one while you buy a new hard drive to replace the broken one.

That sounds good!! What are raids exactly? I've heard about them but never really took any notice. I hate the whole HDD thing, I always am worried it's gonna lose everything :lol;

 

[spat55]

There are disk imaging software(ghost and others) that can do this. Sometimes HDD's will come with something to do this.

could to that, what software would you recommend?

 

[PlusOne]

I'm probably not the best person to explain the exact details behind it, but the idea is that its like having two drives doing the exact same thing, reading and writing the exact same data. Of course you need to have two hard drives and you will only have the capacity of the smallest drive (e.g. if you had two 500GB drives, you would have 500GB of space, not 100GB).

You will have to see if your case will support two hard drives and if your motherboard supports hardware Raid 1 or whether you will need to get a program to do software Raid 1 (I think, like I said I'm not an expert).

 

[spat55]

I'm probably not the best person to explain the exact details behind it, but the idea is that its like having two drives doing the exact same thing, reading and writing the exact same data. Of course you need to have two hard drives and you will only have the capacity of the smallest drive (e.g. if you had two 500GB drives, you would have 500GB of space, not 100GB).

You will have to see if your case will support two hard drives and if your motherboard supports hardware Raid 1 or whether you will need to get a program to do software Raid 1 (I think, like I said I'm not an expert).

Yep, i will do a raid 1 i think, seems like a good idea, no need to keep backing up, just gotta research it now!

 

[PlusOne]

I would still advise you to back up. One of the serious limitations of Raid 1 is that both drives tend to fail at the same time due to something like a power surge. Also, there are write-back caching kind of issues, but you will learn about those if you research some.

Good luck!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Yep, i will do a raid 1 i think, seems like a good idea, no need to keep backing up, just gotta research it now!

You still need a backup. A virus/malware or accidental file deletion will effect you just as if this was a single drive. RAID IS NOT A BACKUP! It's for redunduncy so that if a single drive fails, the OS can continue running. RAID is used mostly in servers. I don't recommend it for desktops. Just get some decent backup software and backup regularly.