Posted on 11/04/2006 3:23:33 AM PST by don-o
Soliciting advice and instructions on what is the best way to backup a PC. I have two computers and two hard drives on each.Yes, I have done a Google, but I would like the advice from Freepers who have helped many of us with out computer questions over the years.
Is there a way to make an exact copy of my OS, including programs and all data, and "paste" it onto the other hard drive? I read about backing up data; what about backing up everyting?
Apologizing in advance for asking a stupid question. But, the weekend is when I try to do simples maintaince; I have had too many experiences of HD crashes and need to finally do the right thing.
Do you use it in conjunction with something like Active Directory/SMS Server, or Novell Directory Services/Zenworks?
Wow - FreeRepublic is a pretty amazing resource.
Glad I went with the Utah company [Host Monster] - granted, there's no guarantee that they aren't flaming libs as well, but Utah is about the most conservative state in the nation.
I have a small business and use MS Frontpage as my website software. With all the talk about MS preventing their software to be copied to other computers, I'm relunctant as I may not be abnle to get my MS software operating again.
I recently updated both hard drives in my two new Dell computers. I did a mirror imaging of both with the included software included with the new drives. Worked perfectly. I took out the old hard drives and put them into my bedroom dresser drawer for that rainy day. I use a flash drive to save my data files. The new hard drives booted up normally and have worked fine for the past three months. Piece of cake.
I only keep one hard drive in my computers and have a single connection cable in order to improve the air flow since each are the IDE cables. The new SATA drives wouldn't be a problem. And it also puts less strain on the power supply.
Just for the record. Microsoft regards the motherboard as the "real" computer, not the hard drives. The hard drive is married to the motherboard. You can't just stick a hard drive in one computer from another computer and expect it to work properly. I learned this myself when the hard drive would not work in my wife's Dell 2400 from my 4600, and vice versa. Yet both have the exact same model hard drive. So the mirror imaging will have to be done for each individual computer. Takes a couple of hours or so.
If the motherboard would ever fail or need to be replaced I would have to talk Microsoft into allowing me to transfer the operating system and software as it came preconfigured on each Dell which is why I purchased them being cheaper buying both computer and software together.
Another vote for Acronis True Image. It's a life saver.
Tier your backups. Use the Acronis scheduler to perform a rolling 7 day backup on an external hard drive. Then, say, once a month, archive the Acronis backup of your choice off onto DVDs. Acronis will segment any of its backup file into CD- or DVD-sized chunks. Vary this scheme to suit your situation, but it pays to have a semi-permanent archive of your backups.
bookmarked - thanks!
I second this. Acronis Trueimage has worked better than anything else I have tried, particularly for making bootable exact copies of disk drives. You need to bear in mind that not all computers will boot from a USB drive unless your Bios has a setting for a usb drive boot.
Also, only the first partition or drive on a USB drive can be used as a boot file. However, Acronis can also make a bootable CD that will install a workable copy of TrueImage back on to a crashed computer that will then enable you to recopy a "USB drive copy" back on to a non functioning computer.
Yes, to an extent.
Wow - FreeRepublic is a pretty amazing resource.
Glad I went with the Utah company [Host Monster] - granted, there's no guarantee that they aren't flaming libs as well, but Utah is about the most conservative state in the nation.
I did not intend to malign the company in this statement. They have incredible technical assets and the skills to utilize them well. "Skew to the left" does not imply flaming liberalism!
You need all the original MS Office disks. If you got a machine with MS Office pre installed, you should have gotten the disks as well.
The procedure of reformatting a drive, reinstalling the Windows OS and all your apps, is not for the faint of heart. I learned most of it out of necessity, after a series of semi-catastropes
I use it all the time to make snaps and clones of all my data on several machines onto an external USB hard drive. Very easy and very handy.
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