1 TB WD External Hard drive and backup questions

[Onkel Neal]

Yay, these things are amazing. I ran out of space on my two internal drives (75GB and 114GB), so I picked up a 500GB Hitachi external drive last summer. Man, didn't take long to load it up with home movies :( I need to finish that project, then I can wipe it clean again.

Meanwhile, I started getting odd error messages that made me suspect my main hard drive could be failing (it is six years old and runs 24/7). What to do? Well, I picked a WD 1TB My Book. It uses USB 2, it's silent, and I should be able to completely back up both my internal drives.

Question: The Hitachi came with ArcSoft backup (I never used it) and the WD has a trial version of Memeo. So, any suggestions on back up software? Is it worth getting the full version of Memeo? Should I just use ArcSoft for both drives (is it any good)? Why not just drag all the files from C: to a folder in the 1TB drive? Do backup solutuons compress? What do you use?

thanks!
Neal

[Reece]

The best system backup is Ghost, if your main drive dies you just put in a new drive regardless of size, it partitions , formats & restores to whatever the ghost backup was, so if you had a 200gb drive & put in a new 500gb drive just restore & roughly 20 mins later your new 500gb drive is ready & bootable as before, nothing else needed.:up:
What I have is the Main C drive and a large backup D drive that I ghost the images to, can also select "none, fast, or high" compression!:yep:

[TarJak]

Yep Ghost is probably the best, but it costs. I've got two WD MyBooks and I run two backups one of the C: and D: drives from my desktop and one of the C: drive of my laptop, plus any large video and game files. I use Syncback but don't bother with trying to backup the XP and Vista or the registry. Just the data. The reason? I figure it is just as easy to reinstall what I need as I need it which allows me to reoganise my HDD if ever I need to do a restore and basically it is the data I need to back up not the software.

I've thought about putting a cheap SAN in to handle media and or software backups as you can get them for about AU$400 now and then it's online all the time. The MyBooks were such a good buy though I couldn't go past em.

[JScones]

Question: The Hitachi came with ArcSoft backup (I never used it) and the WD has a trial version of Memeo. So, any suggestions on back up software? Is it worth getting the full version of Memeo? Should I just use ArcSoft for both drives (is it any good)? Why not just drag all the files from C: to a folder in the 1TB drive? Do backup solutuons compress? What do you use? I chose not to be a slave to any proprietary file formats and the like so I wrote my own backup application. Does exactly what I want. One click operation. Couldn't be easier. :yeah:

FWIW I recommend straight copying from source to destination. No need to worry about proprietary compression/file formats then (remember, you must have the proprietary software installed on all machines that you wish to connect the HDD to *plus* with some proprietary formats if one part of the backup file(s) gets corrupted then you can kiss the whole file(s) goodbye). I can take my external HDD and plug it into *any* computer without having to worry about whether it has the appropriate software to read my backups. I turn the drive on, and my files are there ready for me to use "direct".

Doing it this way may take up more space (unless you 7z/FLAC etc everything yourself, which for the most part I do, again making any backup software that compresses redundant), but the convenience and lack of reliance on any specific software more than makes up for it. Plus, with the new (cheap) 1 and 2 TB drives it's not hard to daisy-chain via FireWire.

Another thing to keep in mind, the first thing you *MUST* do if using Windows is reformat the drive to NTFS. I bought a 1TB WD Home Edition today, and this is the first thing I did, and in the process I blew away all the pre-added bloatware cr@p that came with it. :up: But YMMV...

[McBeck]

Hi Neal

If you need software to take and image of your drive, so you can load it on a new disk, GHOST is really good.

If you want a free piece of software to backup folders and files I recommend Robocopy. It will syncronise and is fast. I use it to keep backup of app 150Gb of data to a network disk.
Bad things: You have to run a script with options to backup (unless you can get Windows to schedule a script?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

[Skybird]

Using old version Acronis 8 since years to backup my internal HD on an external one. Use to restore a clean system 1-2 times per year. Never a problem, always worked like a charm, always reliable, never any loss.

[CaptainHaplo]

Applications like Ghost are excellent. Ghost itself is the leader of the pack.

The problem with a simply file copy is that it doesnt work out all the time. Since you have the room - don't sweat compression and stuff. Besides - you have been running this thing forever - copy all the data files you want to keep and then when you stick in the drive clean rebuild it. Sure it takes time - but you normally get better performance when you do it.

Course - if your happy with the way it is - ghost is the way to go!

[longam]

Acronis True Image would be my vote, and I was a ghost user for a long time. I also use their Server version at work, really fast.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/?ClickID=atas5pytszznsst59np9wa599ysnrt0aora

[Onkel Neal]

Applications like Ghost are excellent. Ghost itself is the leader of the pack.

The problem with a simply file copy is that it doesnt work out all the time. Since you have the room - don't sweat compression and stuff. Besides - you have been running this thing forever - copy all the data files you want to keep and then when you stick in the drive clean rebuild it. Sure it takes time - but you normally get better performance when you do it.

Course - if your happy with the way it is - ghost is the way to go!

So, you're saying just copy the copy of the C: drive to the new external HD? Can that much be copied with a simple drag and drop?

I chose not to be a slave to any proprietary file formats and the like so I wrote my own backup application. Does exactly what I want. One click operation. Couldn't be easier.

Why must you be so cruel! :O:



The best system backup is Ghost, if your main drive dies you just put in a new drive regardless of size, it partitions , formats & restores to whatever the ghost backup was, so if you had a 200gb drive & put in a new 500gb drive just restore & roughly 20 mins later your new 500gb drive is ready & bootable as before, nothing else needed.:up:
What I have is the Main C drive and a large backup D drive that I ghost the images to, can also select "none, fast, or high" compression

Very well, sounds like Ghost is pretty popular, I am going to check it out. I do want some kind of backup system that checks for changed files daily and backs them up on the 1TB drive (gawd, I love saying that: 1TB, 1TB, 1TB, 1TB, 1TB!!:up: ), will Ghost do that? Appears so... (http://reviews.cnet.com/backup-and-recovery/norton-ghost-10/4505-3682_7-31473745.html) :)

thanks for the feedback, all.
Neal

[AVGWarhawk]

Neal,

Copy and paste will work if I'm reading you correctly. For instance. I had a failing hard drive. I added a new hard drive and let windows detect the new drive. I simply copied and pasted the old drive to the new drive. Everything moved over. Renamed it C drive and dumped the dead drive. Sure, it took a few hours to transfer but it worked all the same.

[darius359au]

Neal

You could also checkout "Acronis True copy" for about $50us , a mate of mine who's a sysadmin with the Education Department recommended it, after my last HDD died and I bought a Western Digital Elements external to backup my system.All the reviews Ive read on it have been good -Im just waiting to get some spare cash to get it (it's amazing how fast money disappears when you've got 2 boys eating everything in sight:03:).

[Reece]

I do want some kind of backup system that checks for changed files daily and backs them upGhost is not suited for daily backups of individual files, it just backups the whole drive in case of HDD crash, damaged sys files, virus's etc, you can however use ghost explorer to restore individual files or folders from the backed up image.:yeah: However I use an old 2003 version, it may differ now.:hmmm:

[NeonSamurai]

Ghost (and other drive backup programs) is basically a drive backup. It creates an image file of what ever drive you select (or portions of the drive) including formatting and everything. This lets you do a complete restore of the drive (and os if you backed up that drive) in one shot (and way faster).


Personally i use a program like Norton ghost in the following way. I will do a clean format and reinstall of my os, then i will install all drivers, os patches and fixes, and applications/utilities i always use (no games though). Then i will create a "ghost" (other image type in my case, i dont use ghost) image of that drive.

Once that is done i can restore the ghost at will and have a clean new install on that system in about 30 minutes or more (depending on the speed of the drives, where it is stored etc). Otherwise such a reinstall by hand talkes 1-2 days.


These programs can also usualy do incremental/differential backing up, and work ok at it too, but your better off setting up a separate image specificly for that kind of backing up and only back up specific areas (like my documents etc). They also often come with scheduler programs so you can specify to back up when your asleep (if you leave the computer running 24/7)

[longam]

For data file replication I use second copy.

[Digital_Trucker]

Just to throw something else at ya, I use PING (http://ping.windowsdream.com/). It's CD (Linux) based, so there's no software to install and the cost is perfect ($0,000,000,000.00). It'll backup to a local or network hard drive, CD or DVD and will back up BIOS information as well.

[Onkel Neal]

Man, I've been reading up on Ghost, True Image, Second Copy,,, cannot make up my mind. :doh:

True Image sounded great and I almost ordered it, until I read this review (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336020,00.asp). :dead:

Norton Ghost 14, it has almost as many terrible user ratings as excellent. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16832108346) :o Quite a few people there recommend an earlier version, Ghost 2003.

I am also reading up on NTI Shadow 3.7.1 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276267,00.asp), Genie Backup Manager Pro 8.0 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276199,00.asp), and Second Copy 7 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2274837,00.asp) (readers give this one high marks).

There does not seem to be a clear choice. I guess I will go with Ghost.

[NeonSamurai]

Ya i haven't gotten ghost since 2003 (good edition). Never heard of the other ones but that doesn't mean they arent worth a look.

Paragon drive backup is also pretty good, other then it only will back up full drives and partitions (it can at least update those backups though).

This one also sounds like it might be good, shadowprotect desktop 3.1 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2254465,00.asp

Btw got me one of those my book drives yesterday, 1tb also.. nice drive though its taken almost 16 hours to transfer over 400gb from my other drive, and a new laptop which will replace my desktop.

[Reece]

Yes I have to admit that the 2003 edition is great, just shove a floppy in to create an image and the same to restore an image!!:up:
Must find out how to put a bootable system on a CD one day, would be even better than a floppy!!:yep: I have (Genuine copy) of Norton Ghost 12 but never used it, easy enough to create an image but not sure on restoring.:hmmm:

[NeonSamurai]

The only problem with the 2003 version is it can be a pain getting USB external drives (and other modern stuff) to work since it's a dos boot up. That is why some people prefer shadowprotect which uses a pre boot version vista as its boot environment (which supports everything vista does), other programs use Linux which can be a pain as well.

Doing it over a network is generally easier though that too can be very finicky at times. If you have 2 computers its often just easier to hook up the USB drive to the second computer and network it rather then trying to get it to work in dos or Linux.

The easiest of all is of course a second internal hard drive.

Oh and Reece this link should offer some insight http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/bootcdintro.html

[Onkel Neal]

OK, guys, thanks for all the help. I went to Best Buy and bought Norton Ghost 14. Installed and used it to make full backups of my main hard drives onto my 1TB drive. I feel so safe now! :salute:

[Zachstar]

I have a question.

Does ghost have the abilty to burn to DVDs? My guess is likely no due to copyright issues but I want to ask anyway.

[bookworm_020]

I just picked up a WD 1TB drive myself.:D Makes a difference compared to the old drive that was just 40 GB!

[NeonSamurai]

Most of them have that ability, though from what I've read ghost 14 can have trouble with spanning multiple dvds.

There are no copyright issues. You are legally allowed to make as many backups as you like of a piece of software as long as you are only running the software on as many computers as you have licenses for.

This is also why there are still websites on US/Canadian soil that offer ways to get around various forms of copy protection (other then written forms like a serial or key). They exist in a legal grey area (right to make backups vs terms of use of software). So far none of the legal groups for the gaming/software industry has dared try to force the issue to shut down those kind of sites.

[Onkel Neal]

I have a question.

Does ghost have the abilty to burn to DVDs? My guess is likely no due to copyright issues but I want to ask anyway.

I think so. I haven't tried it yet.