Portable Full System Backup

[Gilo]

Hi All,

I'm looking at a simple yet efficent backup system for 2 Stand-a-lone PC's at my work. I want it to be portable with seperate hard drives for each PC. Now.. I've got an ASROCK 775VM800 motherboard, which unfortunately doesn't have FireWire - only USB 2.0. It does support SATA which helps i think. As for the hard drives - well... any 2 x SATA 250Gb drives. Or Could i just make 2 partitions on a single large drive for both pc's?

CASES: 1) ViZO Uranus URA350SA
2) Vantec Nexstar3 NST-360SU
And similar External Aliminium Harddrive Cases.

Can some one please advice me whether this will work or is there something better and easier to use. It seems that if i buy the Case and the Harddrive seperate thats its the cheaper option???

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards
Gilo

[glc]

External drives and appropriate software is the best way to go. *IF* you can find a vendor in your country that sells Apricorn products, that's my recommendation. They have a external housing for SATA drives that has a eSATA connector in addition to USB 2.0 - and it even comes with a slot plate adapter to bring one of the internal SATA ports out to the back panel and a shielded eSATA cable. It comes with an OEM version of Acronis True Image.

[Gilo]

Hi glc,

I will have a look to see if someone sell's the Apricon products. I've read about the eSATA but not sure about the technology. Will read some more. So it seems i'm on the right track at least...:-) If i cant find the Apricorn products, - refering to original message - which one would be the logical best option?

Thank you for the quick responce.

[glc]

Well - I'd look for an aluminum housing that has an internal fan. If you have to buy software, Acronis True Image is as good as any. I'm hearing bad things about Vantec housings.

If you buy prebuilt drives, I think Western Digitals are as good as any and I believe they come with a slimmed down version of Retrospect software.

[Gilo]

hi glc,

Thats exactly what i wanted to know. Thank you. I've had a look at the Apricorn Aegis 160GB Portable USB 2.0 drive. Really small and compact. The price in the UK a lot cheaper than over here, so gonna ask a friend to send one over for me. Thanks again for all your help.

[Gilo]

Just found the following Backup drive: Iomega HDD 250GB, Iomega MiniMax USB2.0/FW400 Desktop Hard drive - PC & MAC with backup software and all cables. Can someone tell whether this is a good drive to use as it looks to be a really good option for me?

[glc]

Iomega software is okay. The only bad thing is you don't know what's inside that housing as far as drive brand/model goes.

[Gilo]

Hi glc,

There seems to be to many of these *&%$ drives out their and driving me insane. I've looked at so many and each time their is something wrong or missing or the software included isn't worth while. With what i've learn to date... I'm looking for 250GB space, USB2.0 and FireWire400 for PC (not Mac) and has decent software included. Would the Western Digital My Book 250GB / 500GB be a better option? I see that the WD drive only has Google software. Please help me..... Thanks once again for all your help thus far. - Gilo -

[Alaron]

Do you have any links to vendor websites we could look at? There are plenty of UK suppliers we can check if that is an option.

[glc]

You can always buy software.

[Gilo]

Hi All, Thanks for all your assistance. I've decided to buy the Iomega and give it a shot. Hopefully i'll be satisfied with it. Will send final reply on this thread once i've receive the drive and give my comments on it. Thanks once again. Cheers Gilo