Recommended external USB/Firewire hard drives

hey tachyon 42.........i'm a relative newbie........lots of new terms and advice are thrown out......and i appreiciate it........but i didn't know where to start first........as I became educated I took a systematic approach as things became clear and logical to me....I've now done every suggestion you and others have been good enough to give me.........the last thing, outstanding, until there is another post is to do a mem test. I work for a living and have been learning all this new stuff over the last month or so. New terms new language......and not to minimize your help....i can't do it all in the order you think is logical.........I learnt something and then implemented that test. A month ago I didn't know what a checksum or a mem test I didn't know the difference twixt a differential and incremental backup the difference twixt a clone and a full backup, the differencce twixt fat 32 and NTFS etc etc.......so please understand I'm disabled by my computer illiteracy. It seems obvious to you but I'm just starting to learn.

Once again thanks for your help and try to be patient.

PS
I just went to the site menorcaman suggested for the mem test download.........holy ****......have to understand this........very confusing which one to download.......but I'll learn and do it........obvious to you no doubt!!!!!

 

Hi Max0071,
If I've been unjustly a little testy in my recent replies I apologise.
It's just that sometimes it's a bit hard to distinguish a genuine call for help from a troll who jumps all over the place asking similar questions, never seems to follow suggestions and generally wastes everyone's time.

I can understand that the memtest86+ website is somewhat daunting.
Anyhow, assuming your laptop has a floppy disk drive (another rash assumption on my part?) here's a summary of what to do:
In the section Download (Pre-built & ISOs) under the heading Memtest86+ V1.65 (10/01/2005) click on the link Download - Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS - Win) . Once the file is downloaded unzip it (you'll need a third party unzip utility, like WinZip) and read the readme.txt file.This will explain further (and will give info on burning a bootable CD if you don't have a floppy drive).
Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for your response Tachyon42. I don't have a floppy drive but will try to burn the CD as you suggested.........won't get to it till this weekend.... I will keep you and anyone else interested posted on how things go.

It's been a ride......all I signed up for was a backup/imaging program. It has now almost become a full time job........the hours I've spent learning the technotalk and new terms have become more than I anticipated. But these kind of things help you learn.

If I didn't think ATI is a great backup/imaging program, from the research I've done, I would have packed it in and written off my $$$ a long time ago. I don't think I've had to do so much work in my rather limited computer life.

Additionally there have been numerous people here, who have added help and support in my ordeal to learn how to use ATI properly on my laptop and I thank them.

I appreciate your invaluable knowledge and your willingness and patience to share it with the rest of us.

 

Hi:

Ok downloaded memtest and unzipped it. The question is how do I image, not copy, as per the instructions from memtest, from my HD to my cd-rw disk?? What program can I use to burn the image so I have a bootable memtest disk.

I tried windows media player and Intervideo WinDVD and I have a folder on my cd that is called "memtest86+-1.55.1.floppy" but this did not boot my notebook on startup. Yes, I adjusted bios to read the cd drive first on bootup.

On opening my CD drive d: I get:

"Windows cannot read from this disk. The disk might be corrupted, or it could be using a format that is not compatible with Windows."

I presume I did not burn an image to the cd and it is not bootable even though it has the above noted folder. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Hi max0071,

Extracted from the Acronis Support sticky titled Please Read Before You Post:

Regards

 

You've downloaded the floppy version. Download the ISO version and unzip the file to some folder on your machine. http://www.memtest.org/download/1.65/memtest86 -1.65.iso.zip
Use Nero or other burning software to create a bootable CD from the ISO and then boot from that. Read the instructions that come with your burning software to learn how to do this.

 

Thanks..........running memtest.......what a trip!!!!! BTW I did download the "floppy" version thomasjk and thanks to your post I went back and downloaded the ISO version and used the links menorcaman gave me to download a program (ISO Recorder Power Toy (Freeware) http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm) to copy the ISO image to cd and finally got my notebook to boot into memcheck........only took me three hours to get it all worked out........I'm exhausted.

Ok now, I presume under Pass, Errors and ECC Errs, I should get zeroes if my memory is working properly........am I correct?? Anything else I should be looking for?? And once again thanks.

 

If you get any errors you have defective memory. Zero errors is the objective. Let it run for a couple of hours.

 

Not for "Pass", max0071. That's the number of passes (whole memory checks) completed. That figure will slowly grow as you let Memtest run.

For the Errors (any kind), yes, their amount should be zero.

 

Ran memcheck for about 7 hrs..............O errors. So I've done everything I can and I can only presume my chipset on my notebook is the culprit. Tomorrow I go out and purchase a PC card with USB ports. The concensus here is that I should get the NEC chipset on the card. Anyone else got any suggestions. I've done it all. What an education!!!

Thanks for everyones guidance and help.

 

Please let us know what happens.

 

I'm living in Bizarro world. I just tried another full backup........AND IT VALIDATED......... I don't believe it.

I tried at least 30 full backups and they all told me my image is corrupt. I went thru all of the above in this thread, and now someone is playing with my mind.

Does this validation mean that I finally have a valid image or won't I know till I try to recover. My fear is that once you start the recovery process it erases your c: and then tells you that you may have a corrupt image which leaves you in nowhere land. I'm afraid to test this valid image.

Is there any way other than recovering to truly determine if your image is valid??

Any suggestions?? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

Ok so here I am racking my brain trying to figure out WHY

I'm thinking. I just, coincidentally, added, RAM to my laptop just yesterday 512 to 1 gig. Could this have any bearing on the fact that now I get validated images??

I read in these posts some time ago that ATI really stresses the RAM and perhaps that is the reason that I previously got corrupt images?

I just ran another full backup and it validated this one as well!!!!!!!!

That's two in a row!! I'm gonna go and get drunk.

I dunno I'm just guessing, I look to the gurus from some theoretical answers

 

That's fairly typical when you have a machine which has problems with TrueImage.
Even if the image creation says it is successful, it may not be.
Validation may or may not fail even if the image is infact correct.
So right now you don't know if the image is correct or not.
Anyway keep it just in case it is OK.

Not really.
You could mount the image and compare the files.
You could copy the image to another machine where you know TrueImage works correctly and validate it on that machine.
If you do a recovery then do it to another partition (preferably on another disk), don't try to recover to the source partition otherwise you may lose/corrupt it.

 

I have an older Dell Desktop (4550) running Windows XP with USB 2.0 ports.

Does anyone know if I would have any problems using a WD Passport 80 GB portable(2.5" format) USB drive to clone my internal hard drive to?

I would assume that all USB 2.0 ports would have the necessary power to run the external drive, but I don't know that for sure.

Regards

 

Changing anything in a computer will affect the processing so theoretically that's possible.
However, I haven't heard anyone else say that adding extra RAM has fixed their corrupted image problem.
Generally, replacing the memory might fix the problem if there were a subtle faulty memory issue.
Try taking out the old memory and just use the new memory to see what effect it has.

 

tachyon42..........I have 512 mb built in and I added 512 mb.....so I can't just use the new memory.........how bout taking out the new ram and trying a full backup and validation with the built in 512 mb and then again with the 1 gig Ram memory........just thinking

 

I've no idea whether it applies in Max0071's case but sometimes adding an extra module of RAM allows the motherboard to operate in dual channel interleaved memory mode. This places less stress on the memory and gives it more breathing space with regards to memory timing.

Regards

 

tachyon42..........I have 512 mb built in and I added 512 mb.....so I can't just use the new memory.........how bout taking out the new ram and trying to do a full backup and validation with the built in 512 mb and then again with the 1 gig Ram memory........just thinking

 

Tachyon42.......are u suggesting to copy and paste from my external usb to my desktop pc nothwithstanding this full backup was created on my laptop and then validating this laptop created full backup on my pc??

How bout copying and pasting and doing a checksum on the the external drive and doing a checksum on the transfered file to my pc?

Will this give me additional comfort that in fact I have a restorable full backup??

 

Dual channel had occurred to me too.
Also just having the extra memory (without dual channel) will allow more data to be processed by the CPU whilst other things like disk I/O are happening - all having some effect on the final result (i.e. the image creation)

 

Yes.
I believe you previously said that the external USB drive works OK on the PC.
If this image validates OK on the PC then you can be reasonably confident the image is valid. I'd keep it as a backup but would hestitate to use it for recovery (probably just me being ultra cautious).
Of course, even if it is valid you still may have problems if you try to restore it from the external USB to the laptop. Getting the USB PC card discussed earlier should improve your chances of making a successful restore once you've proven you can consistently create valid images.

 

tachyon42..how bout the checksum scenario??

 

Are you sure the original 512MB is permanently built in and can't be removed?
That sounds very odd!
What model Toshiba Satellite do you have?

Doesn't seem worthwhile although don't let me dissuade you from further testing that you feel might be useful.

 

Yes the 512 that came with the notebook is "built in"........I added 512 just yesterday.......that "added" 512 is removable!!!!!!!

Its a Toshiba A70 Satellite