Is there an backup external drive for restoration?

Is there an external hard drive on the market that makes the
restoration process easy (especially when considering I have 2
internal hard drives, but only one that has programs installed)? I
would rather not have to burn a boot disc each time, and the less
steps the better.

Ideally, the backup drive would backup data from both my internal
drives knowing which data came from which drive, and know which drive
has the programs that need to be restored in case of failure. Can't
this be done in one simple process? I do not have firewire, so I think
I would need to attach via USB.

I currently own a Maxtor 250GB External Drive that backs up files
easily but I can never remember the complex process needed to make a
CD that will restore the system to how it was (e.g. all programs are
reinstalled etc.) after my internal hard drive(s) fail. The manual is
absurdly confusing due to equivocal terminology. From what I've read,
Norton Ghost is confusing too.

The more complex this method is, the less I trust that I did it right.
The process is made even more complex by the fact that I have 2
internal hard drives with more than 250GB worth of data so I have to
tell it to only backup and restore part of my system.

Thanks,
Kerry

"Kerry" <kbrownk@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e90ce289-ca25-4d80-bb1d-319fbaa5d796@d62g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Is there an external hard drive on the market that makes the
> restoration process easy (especially when considering I have 2
> internal hard drives, but only one that has programs installed)? I
> would rather not have to burn a boot disc each time, and the less
> steps the better.
>
> Ideally, the backup drive would backup data from both my internal
> drives knowing which data came from which drive, and know which drive
> has the programs that need to be restored in case of failure. Can't
> this be done in one simple process? I do not have firewire, so I think
> I would need to attach via USB.
>
> I currently own a Maxtor 250GB External Drive that backs up files
> easily but I can never remember the complex process needed to make a
> CD that will restore the system to how it was (e.g. all programs are
> reinstalled etc.) after my internal hard drive(s) fail. The manual is
> absurdly confusing due to equivocal terminology. From what I've read,
> Norton Ghost is confusing too.
>
> The more complex this method is, the less I trust that I did it right.
> The process is made even more complex by the fact that I have 2
> internal hard drives with more than 250GB worth of data so I have to
> tell it to only backup and restore part of my system.
>
> Thanks,
> Kerry


You may want to look at Acronis True Image
you may find it more "user friendly" than "Ghost"

They have a free 30 day trial

"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:e_Odneh5N4A43GzanZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@athenet.net...
>
> "Kerry" <kbrownk@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e90ce289-ca25-4d80-bb1d-319fbaa5d796@d62g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>> Is there an external hard drive on the market that makes the
>> restoration process easy (especially when considering I have 2
>> internal hard drives, but only one that has programs installed)? I
>> would rather not have to burn a boot disc each time, and the less
>> steps the better.

>> I currently own a Maxtor 250GB External Drive that backs up files
>> easily but I can never remember the complex process needed to make a
>> CD that will restore the system to how it was (e.g. all programs are
>> reinstalled etc.) after my internal hard drive(s) fail. The manual is
>> absurdly confusing due to equivocal terminology. From what I've read,
>> Norton Ghost is confusing too.

> You may want to look at Acronis True Image
> you may find it more "user friendly" than "Ghost"

I also vote for Acronis True Image... It can do a system image without
having to shut down Windows. You can also schedule backups to occur
automatically.

What size are the drives in your PC? You might find it adventageous to
remove the 250gig from the Maxtor enclosure and install a 500gig in it's
place. Once you've done that, you can use the 250gig for your system.
Depending on how old your current drives are, you might see a nice speed
boost.

On Mar 31, 6:30 pm, Kerry <kbrownk@gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there an external hard drive on the market that makes the
> restoration process easy (especially when considering I have 2
> internal hard drives, but only one that has programs installed)? I
> would rather not have to burn a boot disc each time, and the less
> steps the better.
>
> Ideally, the backup drive would backup data from both my internal
> drives knowing which data came from which drive, and know which drive
> has the programs that need to be restored in case of failure. Can't
> this be done in one simple process? I do not have firewire, so I think
> I would need to attach via USB.
>
> I currently own a Maxtor 250GB External Drive that backs up files
> easily but I can never remember the complex process needed to make a
> CD that will restore the system to how it was (e.g. all programs are
> reinstalled etc.) after my internal hard drive(s) fail. The manual is
> absurdly confusing due to equivocal terminology. From what I've read,
> Norton Ghost is confusing too.
>
> The more complex this method is, the less I trust that I did it right.
> The process is made even more complex by the fact that I have 2
> internal hard drives with more than 250GB worth of data so I have to
> tell it to only backup and restore part of my system.
>
> Thanks,
> Kerry

E-mail on the way, Kerry.

On Mar 31, 9:25 pm, "Calab" <mys...@csd.ca> wrote:
> "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote in message
>
> news:e_Odneh5N4A43GzanZ2dnUVZ_u-unZ2d@athenet.net...
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Kerry" <kbro...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:e90ce289-ca25-4d80-bb1d-319fbaa5d796@d62g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> >> Is there an external hard drive on the market that makes the
> >> restoration process easy (especially when considering I have 2
> >> internal hard drives, but only one that has programs installed)? I
> >> would rather not have to burn a boot disc each time, and the less
> >> steps the better.
> >> I currently own a Maxtor 250GB External Drive that backs up files
> >> easily but I can never remember the complex process needed to make a
> >> CD that will restore the system to how it was (e.g. all programs are
> >> reinstalled etc.) after my internal hard drive(s) fail. The manual is
> >> absurdly confusing due to equivocal terminology. From what I've read,
> >> Norton Ghost is confusing too.
> > You may want to look at Acronis True Image
> > you may find it more "user friendly" than "Ghost"
>
> I also vote for Acronis True Image... It can do a system image without
> having to shut down Windows. You can also schedule backups to occur
> automatically.
>
> What size are the drives in your PC? You might find it adventageous to
> remove the 250gig from the Maxtor enclosure and install a 500gig in it's
> place. Once you've done that, you can use the 250gig for your system.
> Depending on how old your current drives are, you might see a nice speed
> boost.

I didn't consider that my external drive may have a replaceable
internal drive inside it. My C and D drives are 150 (the one w/ all my
programs) and 250GB respectively, so this idea may work. Are you
proposing the following:

Get a new 500GB Maxtor backup, put the image from my current 150GB C
drive on it, replace the 150GB w/ my old Maxtor 250GB backup, and then
"recover" my C image onto the new 250GB C Drive.

Sounds risky!

| > I also vote for Acronis True Image... It can do a system image without
| > having to shut down Windows. You can also schedule backups to occur
| > automatically.
| >
| > What size are the drives in your PC? You might find it adventageous to
| > remove the 250gig from the Maxtor enclosure and install a 500gig in it's
| > place. Once you've done that, you can use the 250gig for your system.
| > Depending on how old your current drives are, you might see a nice speed
| > boost.
|
| I didn't consider that my external drive may have a replaceable
| internal drive inside it. My C and D drives are 150 (the one w/ all my
| programs) and 250GB respectively, so this idea may work. Are you
| proposing the following:
|
| Get a new 500GB Maxtor backup, put the image from my current 150GB C
| drive on it, replace the 150GB w/ my old Maxtor 250GB backup, and then
| "recover" my C image onto the new 250GB C Drive.

Yes... except you don't need to replace the whole external unit. You just
need to swap out the drive inside.

| Sounds risky!

Why? Once you're done you'd still have your 150gig drive intact to go back
to if something goes wrong.

On Tue, 1 Apr 2008 12:27:39 -0700 (PDT), Kerry
<kbrownk@gmail.com> wrote:


>I didn't consider that my external drive may have a replaceable
>internal drive inside it. My C and D drives are 150 (the one w/ all my
>programs) and 250GB respectively, so this idea may work. Are you
>proposing the following:
>
>Get a new 500GB Maxtor backup, put the image from my current 150GB C
>drive on it, replace the 150GB w/ my old Maxtor 250GB backup, and then
>"recover" my C image onto the new 250GB C Drive.
>
>Sounds risky!

Your external drive definitely has a standard HDD inside,
but some external enclosures aren't so easy to open and
doing so would certainly void the warranty if any of it's
term remains.

You could replace the 250GB drive with a 500GB, or buy a
whole new enclosure with 500GB inside. Either way, you'd
then make the full backup to the 500GB external, then put
the 250GB drive in the system, duplicate whichever old drive
it's to replace, to it, then pull out the old drive it
replaces... or of course leave all 3 drives in the system if
you want this addt'l capacity, and/or pull out any of the
three and put in a 2nd external enclosure if you want a
redundant backup (external enclosures aren't quite
foolproof, as consumer devices they are built to a price
point and have certain weaknesses like hard drive heating up
and the inexpensive switching PSU that powers it more prone
to failure.