backing up HD...

[KlumpDud]

What's the best, cheapest way to back up an 80 gig hard drive? What's the deal with tape drives?

[not important]

Back it up to CD, asuming you have a CDRW.

[calmius]

If money were available I would say get another internal or one external harddrive and save everything there. Simply copy everything. I suspect you got much more than a few cds would keep. is that right?

[reboot]

FYI, a 30 gig partition will use about 50 CDRW's to backup.
It's much easier to purchase a second hard drive and ghost it.

[doctorgonzo]

For a hard drive that big, getting a second hard drive is really the only good way to do it, aside from burning the drive onto DVDs. But that assumes you have a DVD drive.

You may want to rethink how you have your hard drive set up. One 80 GB partition is not very much fun to work with, as you are experiencing. It is much easier to put multiple partitions on your HD, with each one fulfilling one purpose. One partition can be for Windows, another can be for programs, another can be for games, another can be for data, and so on. That way, when you need to backup your important data, you only have to deal with the 5 GB data partition instead of the entire 80 GB drive. I partitioned my drive in this way, and it has made things a lot easier.

[KlumpDud]

I'm sorry, I should have elaborated:

I have 2 HD's. I keep windows and all my programs on the 20 gig.

I keep all the stuff I want to back up on the 80 gig. They're both internal, both IDE, both 7200 rpms.

Does that make a difference?

[KlumpDud]

Having 2 HD's, is there any way that my storage one would get messed up if the windows one crashed? What I'm saying is, do I need to even back up the 80 gig?

[doctorgonzo]

Sure, you need to backup the 80 GB one, if there is stuff on it that you need. The one you probaby don't need to backup is the HD with Windows and your programs on it. If that drive crashes, it's a pain, but you can re-install Windows and your programs and only lose some time. You won't lose any data because it is on the other HD. If, however, your 80 GB drive crashes with all your data, and you don't have a backup, then you are screwed.

[bigdog92]

well you have a couple option you can go get a second hardrive and make it a mirror assuming you have the correct os to do this. Second you could buy a dvd writter and dvd's and put all on dvd's. Lastly and most expensive you can get a dlt tape drive which i believe come usualy as a scsi probally some are ide but they are $$$$$

[KlumpDud]

CD's would take waaay too many CD's. Also, I don't have a DVD burner.

[bigdog92]

We didnt expect you to have any of the methods we suggested but those are your options. For what you are wanting to do will cost you some money with that size of a hd . i would personally just back up files that you know you cant lose everything else i wouldnt worry about cause you are looking at an exspensive solution no matter what. Just so you know to mirror your hd size must equal out or be bigger.

[Tuf]

I think the best, cheapest, fastest, most dependable way to back up a big drive is to Ghost it to another drive. Files I don't need to view and am saving only for recoeds I burn to disc to try to keep my documents partition from growing too large.

[KlumpDud]

Ghosting?

Tuff, please elaborate.

[reboot]

"Ghosting", is a loose term, that refers to making an exact copy of one drive/partition onto another drive/partition. The best software for this is a program from Norton's, called (duh!) Ghost.
I ghost my boot partition onto another hard drive, and if I ever get a major crash, I can use the copy I made to ghost the main hard drive, and be back running in a few minutes, with minimal loss of any settings/data/etc.
Sort of like a System Restore.

[David_Jones]

From what you've said, you could consider the following:

Backup the data from the 80Gb HDD to CDs as appropriate, depending on how important it is, and how easily you could get it back from other sources.

For example, if 75Gb of that 80Gb is MP3 files that you could download from the net again, and / or you have burnt to CD already, then perhaps you don't need to back them up.

If the other 5Gb was, say, work info, then you might want to back that up regularly onto CDs (max about 8 /9 CDs would do around 5Gb).


If you have enough free space on the 80Gb HDD, then I suggest you ghost the 20Gb (Windows / Applications) onto the 80Gb so that you can restore the system setup in a matter of minutes if it ever crashes.

There is no major need to backup that ghost file on the 80Gb, since the chances of both HDDs getting trashed, AND you not having the Windows / Apps install disks are remote.

HTH,

David.

[KlumpDud]

Yeah, I'm more concerned about losing my files on the 80 gig, and less worried about the 20 gig crashing (cause I can just reinstall everything from the original disks.

I think I'm going to get a Peerless: http://www.compuplus.com/insidepage....k=searchViewed

I just have one question: How much faster is firewire than USB?
I'd need to buy a firewire controller which I've seen on pricewatch for about $15.00 Is it worth it?

[David_Jones]

Have you assessed how much data on the 80Gb HDD you actually need to back up?

What sort of figure are you really looking at?

Hate to think that you go to a lot of hassle when an easier option might have been available.

Remember that you can also use any free space on the 20Gb disk to back up critical data from the 80Gb HDD.

HTH,

David.