Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
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Very nice description of cloning and a very very good argument for removable
hard drives.
Until I can afford your solution I will continue to "image" my hard drives.
Using a dual boot system with ME on an IDE as C and XP on a SATA drive as D
I find imaging works very well for me.I use another SATA HD with Acronis
Secure Zone and the time I just spend restoring the D drive is really
nothing compared to the time I would have spend restoring without the image.
But I will be looking at purchasing a removable hard drive tray and another
HD in the very near future.
thank you
peterk
--
It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about
the problem
"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message
news:%23jVH6rwhFHA.3012@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>
> "Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
> news:HJOdnZrg2s09_07fRVn-rQ@comcast.com...
>> "peterk" wrote:
>>> Each person has their favorite way/program to backup
>>> I use Acronis True Image.....it images your while HD onto another HD or
>>> CD/DVD(more than one).
>>> It lets you perform incremental backup.It creates a TrueImage Boot disk
>>> that lets you access that image and restore it.
>>> A one shot back...no piece by piece.........and it works.I just restored
>>> an image Last Saturday when I was not watching too carefully and deleted
>>> a file XP needed to boot...........40min later I was back up and
>>> running.
>
>
> "Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
> news:HJOdnZrg2s09_07fRVn-rQ@comcast.com...
>> Why did you even have to take 40 minutes - for doing what?
>> If you had a clone of the system on another HD, just connect
>> up that HD as a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) HD and boot it up. (You
>> will have to put it 1st in the boot order in the BIOS, though.)
>> Then drag 'n drop the needed file back to the system partition
>> (which will be seen as just another Local Disk in the system)
>> on the primary HD. That's the beauty of a bootable clone -
>> you don't have to copy it back or "restore an image" - you just
>> boot it up to have a working system again in a couple minutes.
>>
>> I keep several clones of my system partitions on large capacity
>> IDE disks mounted in a removable trays, and each clone is bootable.
>> It really makes for quick recoveries. You do need to know the syntax
>> of a boot.ini file, though.
>>
>> *TimDaniels*
>
>
> I would hope that the OP and those reading this thread who are interested
> in creating & maintaining a relatively simple & effective means for
> backing up their systems will pay special heed to Timothy's recommendation
> as it applies to equipping one's desktop computer with removable hard
> drives and using that hardware configuration in a disk-to-disk "cloning"
> environment. Let me add my thoughts on the subject...
>
> One of the most frequent topics on any newsgroup dealing with operating
> systems like this one is what's the best strategy for backing up one's
> hard drive. There's not a day that goes by where you don't come across
> literally dozens, if not scores, of postings on this and similar
> newsgroups relating to this subject. The queries (and responses)
> frequently focus on the problems the user has encountered in using this or
> that software backup program - either some third-party program or whatever
> built-in backup program is included with the user's operating system.
>
> In my opinion, the best backup system for the average home user and even
> small business owner in most cases is having his or her desktop computer
> equipped with two removable hard drives and using a disk imaging program
> such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to "clone" the
> contents of their working hard drive to another removable hard drive.
> There are other advantages in having two removable hard drives on one's
> desktop computer but the most significant one is providing a near
> fail-safe backup system. The speed, flexibility and peace of mind you get
> with this arrangement far outweighs (for most users) the relatively small
> additional cost of equipping one's desktop computer with this hardware
> configuration. Note that the removable hard drive mobile racks we are
> discussing are designed to be installed in desktop computers and not
> laptop or notebook computers. The size, weight, and design considerations
> of laptops/notebooks do not allow for this hardware configuration.
>
> Using this setup, backing up your hard drive is simple, straightforward,
> fast, and most important of all -- effective. By easily and relatively
> quickly making a clone of your hard drive, using a software program like
> Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image, programs which are
> specifically designed for this purpose, you get, what seems to me, the
> ultimate backup solution given the present state of personal desktop
> computer technology. Unlike backup programs that merely back up your data
> files - that is, the files you've created in the various programs and
> applications you use - by cloning your hard drive, you're backing up your
> operating system, your registry, all your programs and applications, your
> configuration settings, your data files - in short, everything on the hard
> drive from which you're making (for all practical purposes) a bit for bit
> copy.
>
>
> And you're doing all this in one fell swoop, the result of which is the
> creation of an exact duplicate of your working hard drive. And for *added*
> safety you can remove this newly-cloned hard drive from the premises, not
> to mention making *another* clone, if desired, for near-absolute security.
>
> While it is true that backup software programs can backup the files you
> have created in your various programs, they are unable to backup your
> operating system and (for the most part) the programs installed on your
> computer. As Bruce Chambers has pointed out a number of times, many, if
> not most, computer users have invested substantial time and effort in
> customizing Windows and configuring their applications to work the way
> they want to and putting all of that back the way it was can be a
> difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming effort.
>
> So when the day comes - as it *surely* will - that your hard drive fails
> because of some mechanical or electrical defect, it's a wonderful feeling
> to know that you have a perfectly good copy of that failed hard drive that
> you
> simply shove in the computer, boot up, and you're off and running. Or if
> you ever get some miserable computer virus that plays havoc with your
> system, or for some unknown reason this or that system file is missing or
> becomes
> corrupt resulting in an inoperable computer, isn't it nice to know that
> you have at hand a perfectly good virus-free clone of your hard drive? And
> then simply clone that "good" previously cloned hard drive to the
> virus-infected
> one so that once again you now have two perfectly good hard drives. And in
> the case where the hard drive is kaput because of some
> mechanical/electronic failure, you purchase a new hard drive, simply
> remove the defective drive from the removable tray, plop in the new one,
> make two simple connections, shove it in the computer and then clone your
> good hard drive to the new one. And the added beauty of this arrangement
> is that you do all this from the comfort of your computer chair. There's
> no need to open your computer case and get into the "guts" of your
> computer to make complicated cable disconnects/connects. Everything is
> done outside of your computer because each hard drive resides in a tray
> (caddy) that you simply slide into the computer's mobile rack.
>
> There's *no* need to partition and format the new drive; *no* need to
> reinstall your operating system on the new drive; *no* need to reinstall
> your programs and data files. None of this is necessary. By simply cloning
> the
> previously-cloned hard drive to the new drive you once again have two
> functioning hard drives at your disposal.
>
>
> As previously indicated, these mobile rack devices are two-part affairs -
> the rack itself and the inner tray (caddy) in which the hard drive resides
> that slides into the rack. They come in all-aluminum models or a
> combination of aluminum-plastic ranging in price from about $15 to $50.
> Naturally, your desktop computer case will need two 5¼" bays that are
> available to house the mobile racks. Mobile racks come in various
> versions, depending upon whether the hard drive to be housed is an
> IDE/ATA, SATA, or SCSI device. A Google search for "removable hard drive
> mobile racks" will result in a wealth of information on these products and
> their vendors. I'm aware of many users who have been using inexpensive
> plastic mobile racks without any problems whatsoever. Unfortunately, there
> is no industry standard involving the design and construction of the racks
> nor the inner trays that contain the hard drive.Consequently, there is
> (usually) no interchangeability of these trays among the various
> manufacturers of mobile racks. Indeed, there is frequently no
> interchangeability of the inner trays among different models from the same
> manufacturer. This lack of interchangeability may not be an issue if the
> user will be purchasing a particular model of mobile rack for a single
> computer, however, if the user will have access to other computers, he or
> she may want to settle on a specific brand and model of mobile rack that
> will provide for tray interchangeability amongst different computers.
>
> As I've previously indicated, the cloning process itself is easy and
> relatively fast. Using Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 cloning program as an
> example, with the two removable hard drives connected to the computer, you
> simply boot up your desktop computer with the bootable floppy disk that
> contains the Ghost program and after a few key clicks the cloning process
> begins. The cloning process is practically automatic and you need not be
> in attendance during the actual cloning operation. The size (disk
> capacity) or make/model of your hard drives need not be identical; all
> that matters is that your destination drive contains sufficient capacity
> to receive the contents of your source drive. Incidentally, I've recently
> been experimenting with the Acronis True Image program because of the many
> favorable reports I've come across about this program. Using a bootable
> ATI CD, I find the cloning speed of this program is considerably faster
> than that of Ghost. And so far I've run into no problems with the cloning
> process itself. Depending upon the speed of your processor and hard drives
> you should get cloning speeds of somewhere between 700 MB to 1.5+ GB per
> minute (less if cloning to a USB/Firewire external hard drive).
>
>
> I can virtually guarantee that once you begin working with two removable
> hard drives, you'll have but one regret and only one regret. And that is
> you didn't have this arrangement on your previous computer or computers.
> While the additional cost involved in configuring your desktop computer
> with two mobile racks together with the additional hard drive and disk
> imaging software is not negligible, I can assure you it's money well
> spent. Frankly, when you consider the enormous advantages of having two
> removable hard drives on your desktop computer, the additional cost of so
> equipping your computer in this fashion practically pales into
> insignificance.
>
>
>
> Timothy mentions that in using the disk-to-disk cloning process, "You do
> need to know the syntax of a boot.ini file, though". Insofar as the
> cloning process that I've described above is concerned, there is *no* need
> that I'm aware of to manipulate boot.ini syntax. A clone is a clone is a
> clone. When you clone the contents of your working drive to the
> destination drive (bearing in mind we're talking about removable internal
> drives in their mobile racks), the destination drive, being for all
> practical purposes an exact duplicate of the source drive, is bootable and
> there's no need to edit its boot.ini file. If, however, I've misunderstood
> the thrust of Timothy's statement, I trust he will amplify his comment.
>
> Anna
>
>
>
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