External USB HDD

Hi there,

Backing up systems seems the ultimate weapon when things are completely lost (particularly with hardware failure).

I'd like some advice on the following scenario: I bought an external HDD ( USB, 80 GB) and with Norton Ghost 9 I made an identical copy of my system on this drive. So as it is I use it as extra storage and as a backup if something gets damaged in terms of software.

Question: If my internal HDD fails, I won't be able to boot from my external one, will I ? Which means the only way to go would be to replace my internal drive, reinstall Windows and only then I could use my external drive as a clone of the old one... Or alternatively make a copy with Ghost from the External to the new internal drive...

I've never experienced something so extreme but I'd like to know what would be the fastest way to recover my system having Ghost and an extra HDD.

Any explanations and suggestions are greatly appreciated, thanks

 

Yes. Check out this:

http://www.cmsproducts.com/products_backup.htm

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Thanks Rmus for the link, I didn't know that external drives were used as automatic back up systems with external bootability (for 100 $ !).

Well I got a similar device(but unfortunately it cost me more than that) without any software so presumably I need to use Ghost to recover the system onto a new drive.

 

Actually, bootability from an external device is governed, not by the device, but by the capabilities of the motherboard.

 

Well according to this, http://www.cmsproducts.com/detail.aspx?ID=422

"External Bootability
The integration of BounceBack® Professional and the Serial ATA interface provides the world’s first externally bootable device for Windows® 2000/XP (Velocity Series external device only). In the event of a hard drive failure the Velocity Series Backup Systems can be automatically configured to become the boot drive. You can even protect against operating system corruption by selecting the Velocity Series as the boot device in your systems setup."

one only needs WinXP/2K, but I've also read somewhere that it depends on the BIOS. How do you know then if your computer has this capability?

 

Go into your setup at boot. Look under the section marked "boot order" (or something similar depending on the manufacturer). Look for "USB support" (again, or something similar). If your computer is 2-3 years old, it should support it with no problem. If you don't see it, you might check to see if there is a bios update available from the manufacturers website. If it has one, and helps give your system the added external support, just follow the instructions very carefully. It's quite easy, but you must follow the instructions to the "t".

As for Bounceback, it seems overhyped to me. In fact, any external device can be used to boot with an XP image. Bounceback seems to just keep it configured for just such an emergency. However, they want a lot of $$$ for something that is really easy with any external drive and an imaging program. Of course, other opinions here may vary. Good luck!

 

My computer is less than a year old, therefore it should provide this kind of capability, and i will certainly check for the 'USB support' in the Boot order.

What I can't understand is how you find 100 $ expensive for an external drive (80GB) when most backup softwares are around 50 $. Perhaps in the US, one can get real bargains for this kind of stuff. Thanks for the info.