External HD for PC complete backups

since i haven't seen a motherboard that will allow a USB drive to boot from... would a NETWORK storage drive work? can most bios's boot from a network drive?

Do these network drives also have usb/firewire option just in case you want to use it that way? I noticed some of these network storage drives are funky? in meaning they aren't NTFS? i dunno...just ran across that looking on newegg.com for one...reading other's CONS comments about the drives.

 

Have you considered fitting your USB disk or another dedicated clone one as an internal drive ?. If you put this and your main disk in caddies you would only have to swap them over in the event of a failure. A caddy would also allow you remotely archive the disk - e.g. take it home with you etc.

F.

 

yeah, caddy's are nice. Just not hot swappable...so don't pull it out while on. And also, drive letters change etc as drives are removed/installed. SO some software may be lookign for that letter and may not be there. not a problem...just letting you know.

 

I have never seen any change in drive letters when swapping hard drives. C remains as C, D is still D etc. etc. So AFAIK this does not apply to main drives. I have never had the need to exchange secondary drives but I do not envisage any drive letter problems there either.

Xpilot

 

If you are doing it this way.
Why not forget the USB or external enclosure. Just add another internal as a slave drive. Do your clone. Move it to your master position to test. Then plug back in orginal master and just leave the new internal in the PC case unplugged.

 

In this scenario removable racks would be the ideal thing to use.

 

Here's an update to my original post. Today I went looking for a 160GB Seagate external drive. Best buy had one for about $150 which is more than I can afford, so after checking Staples and Office Depot, I went into Radio Shack and found a Maxtor 160GB. I had the clerk look up the price, and it was on sale for $70. After I got it home I discovered that it's already formatted for NTFS and did a great job doing a backup. I also found out that Seagate has just acquired Maxtor, which may be why it was on sale. In case anyone's interested it's model 3200.

 

Now there's a switch ... Radio Shack being cheaper than elsewhere. . As Howie would say, "You got a great deal".

 

twl845, I was browsing through CompUSA today, and saw a 160GB Seagate SATA drive for less than $85.00. I believe that an IDE Seagate was the same price. And online, they may even be cheaper.

rayh78, the reason that I don't want to add another internal drive is, because since I'm ONLY going to use it if my primary drive fails, I'd rather not have it sitting in my machine using power, generating heat, and wearing out.

 

lesF - Thanks for the tip.

 

Another ideal situation for using removable hard drive racks.