Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

[Guest patetc]

I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

 

Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

well as on the laptop?

 

Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

"Backup"?

 

Pat

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

patetc wrote:

> I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

> the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>

> Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

> well as on the laptop?

>

> Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

> "Backup"?

>

> Pat

Use software like Acronis True Image to make an *image* of your laptop.

This can then be restored later and will reset everything back to the

way it was the day you made the backup.

 

A "copy" of files is not a backup (so to say), better than nothing but

not what you think. Great, you'll be able to restore individual files,

but that's about it.

[Guest patetc]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

If I copy everything on the laptop to an external drive, why isn't it

a true backup?

 

If I create the "image", can I add to it as I add documents, pictures,

etc?

 

Pat

 

Big_Al wrote:

> patetc wrote:

> > I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

> > the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

> >

> > Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

> > well as on the laptop?

> >

> > Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

> > "Backup"?

> >

> > Pat

> Use software like Acronis True Image to make an *image* of your laptop.

> This can then be restored later and will reset everything back to the

> way it was the day you made the backup.

>

> A "copy" of files is not a backup (so to say), better than nothing but

> not what you think. Great, you'll be able to restore individual files,

> but that's about it.

[Guest Tim Slattery]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

patetc <PatETC@gmail.com> wrote:

>I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

>the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>

>Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

>well as on the laptop?

 

No. The bootup sequence in your computer goes to a certain place

(almost always on the C: drive) to boot the installed version of

Windows. Once booted up, it knows where it was booted from. It will

not be confused by another "Windows" directory on another partition.

>Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

>"Backup"?

 

Name it whatever you want.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

[Guest Timothy Daniels]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

"patetc" wrote:

> If I copy everything on the laptop to an external drive, why isn't it

> a true backup?

>

> If I create the "image", can I add to it as I add documents, pictures,

> etc?

 

Most "backup" utilities offer "incremental" backups wherein

only the changes made since the last backup are recorded along

with the original backup. These usually involve incremental changes

to the files comprising an "image" of the backed-up files, although

Casper also offers incremental backups for clones (which are

sector-for-sector copies of an entire partition or of the entire

hard drive). For Casper, see http://www.fssdev.com/ .

 

*TimDaniels*

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

patetc wrote:

> If I copy everything on the laptop to an external drive, why isn't it

> a true backup?

>

> If I create the "image", can I add to it as I add documents, pictures,

> etc?

>

> Pat

>

> Big_Al wrote:

>> patetc wrote:

>>> I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

>>> the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>>>

>>> Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

>>> well as on the laptop?

>>>

>>> Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

>>> "Backup"?

>>>

>>> Pat

>> Use software like Acronis True Image to make an *image* of your laptop.

>> This can then be restored later and will reset everything back to the

>> way it was the day you made the backup.

>>

>> A "copy" of files is not a backup (so to say), better than nothing but

>> not what you think. Great, you'll be able to restore individual files,

>> but that's about it.

 

When I say its not a true backup, what I mean is: If your C: drive

dies, you won't be able to restore the entire drive from that backup.

As I said, you can copy files back, like your wallpaper etc, but you

can't get minor settings or the OS. I guess the word "true backup"

needed to be quantified. Acronis and other backup programs allow for

incremental changes to be written to a second file. And you can restore

single files.

 

If you are looking for a copy of files, look at things like second copy,

allway, goodsync, synctoy and other file copy/backup programs. I use

allway to make copies of my "tools" folder that has all my downloads.

[Guest Anna]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

 

"patetc" <PatETC@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:8387b403-5bd8-49bc-9d0a-351246c4c793@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

>I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

> the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>

> Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

> well as on the laptop?

>

> Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

> "Backup"?

>

> Pat

 

 

Pat:

I see you've rec'd a number of responses to your query and I hope they've

been helpful to you in determining a course of action to meet your needs.

 

Let me add just a few thoughts which may be nothing more than a reiteration

of the info you've already rec'd, but perhaps it may help to clarify things

for you...

 

First of all, when you say you want to "backup the entire hard drive on my

laptop for security purposes", I assume that when you use the phrase

"security purposes", you mean that you desire to have a backup of your

entire system, including the XP operating system, your programs &

applications, your user-created data - in short, *everything* that's on your

laptop's HDD. So that in the event your system becomes dysfunctional for one

reason or another, e.g., a defective HDD or a corrupted OS, etc., you will

have the means to restore your laptop to a bootable, functional system in a

relatively easy way. Furthermore, you would plan to maintain this "backup"

in a routine way so that you would always have at hand a reasonably

"up-to-date" backup of your system at all times. That's what your goal is,

right?

 

If it is, one of the ways you can achieve your objective is to use a program

to "clone" the contents of your internal laptop's HDD to your USB (I assume

it's a USB device) external HDD and do so on a routine basis. In Tim

Daniel's response to your query he mentioned the Casper program. That

program is our favorite disk-to-disk cloning program as well. There are

other disk-cloning (and disk-imaging) programs available of course, but the

Casper program is one that we strongly recommend. A trial version of the

program is available at http://www.fssdev.com . I believe some other

responders to your query mentioned the Acronis True Image program. A trial

version of that program is also available at the Acronis site.

Anna

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

"patetc" <PatETC@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:a004ee9d-52b0-4c7a-8954-22e796d3dcc9@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

> If I copy everything on the laptop to an external drive, why isn't it

> a true backup?

 

In the first instance, it's a waste of time and space.

 

Suppose your existing drive fails and you need to use that backup, and you

copy all the files back to the new replacement drive.

 

Surprise! You still have to reinstall Windows and all the applications.

 

Simply copying the files back to the new drive *will not work*, the drive

will not be bootable and you will not have a running Windows install with

installed applications. You have just wasted perhaps a full day, and

aggravated yourself in the process.

 

An image, on the other hand, can be restored to the new bare drive and you

can be up and running again in under an hour.

> If I create the "image", can I add to it as I add documents, pictures,

> etc?

 

Sort of. The imaging software allows for incremental images, just the

changed files, which can be restored as needed.

 

A better idea is to make an image of the complete drive as it is, then use

the imaging software to back up the files you use - documents, mail, etc.

Refresh the drive image if you install new applications.

 

At first look, doing a straight file copy sounds like a good idea, but when

you look at the implications and use, it rapidly loses lustre.

 

Finally, it's never a good idea to have only one backup set. You should

make an extra copy on some other media, such as DVD, and preferably store a

copy offsite. Many places I've set up use a separate DVD for each day of

the week, set to do incremental backups of working files. Once a week, a

copy goes home with somebody.

 

HTH

-pk

 

> Pat

>

> Big_Al wrote:

>> patetc wrote:

>> > I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

>> > the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>> >

>> > Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

>> > well as on the laptop?

>> >

>> > Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

>> > "Backup"?

>> >

>> > Pat

>> Use software like Acronis True Image to make an *image* of your laptop.

>> This can then be restored later and will reset everything back to the

>> way it was the day you made the backup.

>>

>> A "copy" of files is not a backup (so to say), better than nothing but

>> not what you think. Great, you'll be able to restore individual files,

>> but that's about it.

[Guest Frank-FL]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

It will not copy any files that are in use. Most quality backup software

will copy from a different environment from windows.

 

"patetc" <PatETC@gmail.com> wrote in message news:a004ee9d-52b0-4c7a-8954-22e796d3dcc9@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

> If I copy everything on the laptop to an external drive, why isn't it

> a true backup?

>

> If I create the "image", can I add to it as I add documents, pictures,

> etc?

>

> Pat

>

> Big_Al wrote:

>> patetc wrote:

>> > I have purchase a very large external hard drive and want to backup

>> > the entire hard drive on my laptop for security purposes.

>> >

>> > Will this cause a conflict if I have Windows on the external HD as

>> > well as on the laptop?

>> >

>> > Should I put everything into a new directory on the external called

>> > "Backup"?

>> >

>> > Pat

>> Use software like Acronis True Image to make an *image* of your laptop.

>> This can then be restored later and will reset everything back to the

>> way it was the day you made the backup.

>>

>> A "copy" of files is not a backup (so to say), better than nothing but

>> not what you think. Great, you'll be able to restore individual files,

>> but that's about it.

[Guest ShadowTek]

Re: Question About Backing Up Hard Drive

 

>>Surprise! You still have to reinstall Windows and all the applications.

>>

>>Simply copying the files back to the new drive *will not work*, the drive

>>will not be bootable and you will not have a running Windows install with

>>installed applications.

 

Why will you have to reinstall anything? Exactly what doesn't get

copied when you manually copy files?

 

>>It will not copy any files that are in use. Most quality backup software

>>will copy from a different environment from windows.

 

Is this the only reason that causes you to say that manual backups are

not successful? Or are there other reasons?