[JtheComputerguy]

Hey Guys,

This is my situation:

I just had 2 hardrives die on me...had them both mirrored using windows xp. They both died at the same time. So now i have a few option on what to do.

I have 3 desktops 1 with sata the other 2 with ide. I was going to either buy 3 hard drives 160g and build a machine with server and use raid5 with parity. Next choice is to mirror the drives in 1 machine and just backup the data to another desktop with 2 drives set to extended. Or just backup to an xternal hardrive using a backup utility call akronis. Let me know what you think.

Thanks

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Hi JtheComputerguy,

Having two HD failing on you is surely a sad situation. Sorry to hear that.

I have experience with both Ghost 10 and Acronis 10. Both great backup image software which I use continually. So naturally I would advise you to use your Acronis backup software to an external HD if it is a Laptop, and if PC to an internal removable HD so when you go away you can remove it and lock it away somewhere separate from your PC.

With my PC I use Ghost. It is optioned to do incremental backups if more than 500MB of data is installed onto a Sata internal removable 160MB HD, then a complete image backup of the entire system each week on Sunday morning.

The Laptop has an external HD in a caddy by the side of the Laptop and using Acronis does a complete system backup each week on Sundays. I only connect to the external backup drive each week just before the time scheduled.

Works well for me and with both I have done dummy runs to recover both computer HD's at various times which I am happy to say works well also. Up and on my way in 36 minutes!

kind regards,

[tallin]

Hi JtheComputerguy,

Having two HD failing on you is surely a sad situation. Sorry to hear that.

I have experience with both Ghost 10 and Acronis 10. Both great backup image software which I use continually. So naturally I would advise you to use your Acronis backup software to an external HD if it is a Laptop, and if PC to an internal removable HD so when you go away you can remove it and lock it away somewhere separate from your PC.

With my PC I use Ghost. It is optioned to do incremental backups if more than 500MB of data is installed onto a Sata internal removable 160MB HD, then a complete image backup of the entire system each week on Sunday morning.

The Laptop has an external HD in a caddy by the side of the Laptop and using Acronis does a complete system backup each week on Sundays. I only connect to the external backup drive each week just before the time scheduled.

Works well for me and with both I have done dummy runs to recover both computer HD's at various times which I am happy to say works well also. Up and on my way in 36 minutes!

kind regards,

[Will_00]

I would suggest - based upon the backup - to use an online backup. There are many good one's, but it depends on your intention. Try this.

[tallin]

I would suggest - based upon the backup - to use an online backup. There are many good one's, but it depends on your intention. Try this.

Hello Will,

Need to learn here.......what happens if you HD fails and you can't get access to the internet?

kind regards,

[Will_00]

I meant for future operations sorry.

[tallin]

Hi Again Will,

Personally I don't think online backup is of any real use at all. Reason being that if you can't get to it, what use is it.? In my opinion if the OP does not want to pay for backup image software, then use the backup that comes with Windows....Winbackup and save it to an external HD for complete safely.

Image backup like Ghost or Acronis is really cheap if your HD fails. Think about it, you can be up and running in 36 minutes if you are in a hurry.

kind regards,

[Will_00]

It would work if you had a bunch of documents - or such - that were important and your computer crashed resulting in the necessary trashing of the computer. You could further simply use the online backup system to download to a new computer or otherwise now used computer.

[tallin]

Hi Will,

Personally I would not advise members to backup in that fashion at all - You are referring to a trashed computer, yet accessing online backup to recover your documents and such. The member may not have access to another computer to recover the online backup that you are I think referring to.

Actually your last post is very confusing to me, and more so to a newbie I would think who is attempting to get help to backup their system.

Tell us about your own backup system please?

kind regards,

[Ztruker]

Tallin, I think what Will_00 is saying is once you have replaced the hard drive and/or reinstalled XP, you could then download your personal data from the online backup site.

Sounds like it would work to me, but my question is, why would anyone want to trust an online site with their personal data? I surely would not.

An external hard drive and Acronis or Ghost or DriveImage XML (as you said) is much better and really is not all that expensive if your data is important to you.

[tallin]

Hi Ztruker,

Oh! is that what he is saying?
As stated earlier in my posts:

tallin wrote:
Actually your last post is very confusing to me, and more so to a newbie I would think who is attempting to get help to backup their system.

I agree as stated in my posts, that

ztruker wrote: why would anyone want to trust an online site with their personal data? I surely would not.

Image software is worth the small cost to know you can get up and running in so short a time - So Ztruker I do agree with your above quote.
We volunteeers have to be very careful what we say in our posts especially if it is related to backing up, reinstalling and repairing OS's. I am sure you agree.

thank you for replying,

kind regards,