What kind of External Hard Disk for back up??

Hi guys,

Im sick n tired of the problems regarding ATI "direct to DVD" problems.

So i decided to get a "external hard disk" to store my images back-up.

As i have never bought a "external hard disk" before, so i dont know which type to get...As i understand there are " 2.5" " type or " 3.5" " type.

Im planning to get "External Hard Disk 2.5" Hitachi 80GB" those that connect through USB 2.0 wire. Is this compatible wif ATI And also, i must get a CASING for it right?

Do i need to "format" my external hard disk before using?
And if so, how?

What kind of external hard disk does ATI support?
Can any kind soul here guide me on this?
What are you guys using? Which brand? Connect via USB 2.0 or what?

And i can only afford 80GB type coz its very expensive here in my country.
And i have 4 computers to back up....= (

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks in advance!

 

You will pay more for a 2.5 inch size hard drive than for a 3.5 inch one - about 5 times more. But of course the advantage of the 2.5 is that it will fit in a shirt pocket. ATI will work with just about any 3.5 inch drive and enclosure. I've bought about 8 different enclosures for myself and friends - all different types - and they all worked with ATI.
If you're in the USA, look at www.newegg.com for drives and enclosures. Two weeks ago I bought a Rosewill enclosure for $15 plus about $6 shipping from them.
You will have to format the drive before you will be able to store your backup images on it.

 

Mimijo -- you don't sound like you're overy technical with hardware, why don't you just buy an external USB drive. I just bought a 250 gb Western Digital at Newegg for 130. Plug it in and it works, then follow their instructions to convert from FAT32 to NTFS. It's a snap

 

1. If you have the space on your system drive (C), you can instruct Acronis to store your backup files temporarily on the same system drive. After backup completed and verified, you can then move/copy the backup files from the system drive onto DVD or CD. You will have to set the spanning option and size within the Acronis program (before backing up) to control file sizes to fit the selected media. After all done, then delete the backup files off the system drive--otherwise, your next backup will include them and be even larger.

2. Are you satisfied with the size of your current system drive? If no, then consider replacing the system drive with a larger one and use the old drive as an external drive--by inserting into an enclosure. Internal drives are cheaper than external drives.

3. There are any number of external drives from which to choose, this is one of several that I use.

http://206.128.27.142/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/9/t/000143.html

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2329300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145656

All of the above work well with Acronis TrueImage 9.

 

Excuse my ignorance on this subject matter. If I buy a 3.5 inch external enclosure (e.g.,
AMS VENUS DS-2316B2BK Aluminum 3.5" USB2.0 Black External Enclosure), can any 3.5 inch EIDE harddrive (say Western digital 300GB) be used with this external drive? Sarutaro

 

Sarutaro,
Basically yes. Check the enclusure info for drive capacaties. Some of the enclosures list how large(gig) you can attach.

Additional extract from earlier postings:
Recommended by SeekForever:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146019

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146017

Recommended by bVolk
Mine is an LC Power EH-35BS, USB to IDE/SATA (combo). No problem with TI seeing the disk from rescue environment, either with IDE or SATA-II drive installed. The chipset is JMicron JM20337.

 

OK guys, thanks for the advises....
I think i will get the Hitachi 2.5" external hard disk 80GB (USB 2.0) for my back ups..and i have searched through the forum....

there seems to have a particular problem with external hard disk, that is...
when using the "Rescue CD" to boot up the comp, the image back ups stored inside the 'external hard disk" is not visible to ATI...so its preventing one from recovering from the external hard disk...

For those that are using external hard disk for back up, do you....

1. image the back up "Directly" to your external hard disk

OR

2. image it onto your "Local" hard disk, then "Cut & Paste" the ".tib" onto your external hard disk?

Can anyone pls advise?

Well,

I have tried...

1. using CDs for back up = too many discs
2. using DVDs = LOTs of problems!
3. Using external hard disk = not yet tried

So, IF using external hard disk also got problems when booting with the rescure CD.....*Eg: Image stored in external hard disk not visible by Ati

I AM GOING TO THROW ALL MY ATI PRODUCTS INTO THE RUBBISH BIN!!!

If given a 2nd chance, i WONT be buying ATI again!

 

It is your choice whether you dump/buy ATI into my garbage bin or not. You sound too rude. From my experience with v. 8 and 9 in the past, ATI saved my life many times. ATI never failed me even though I am not computer savvy. I am now trying to learn how to backup using external drive.

If you are serious, try to be patient while perfecting the use of ATI. In my opinion, ATI is one of the great programs on earth (but I haven't upgraded to v. 10, thouh). Sarutaro

 

hi sarutaro,

first of all, i dont think that im rude for saying that...bcos in the 1st place,
i bought ATI in the hope of using it to back up my comps in case of system failure so that i will not need to reinstall everything again.

Well, i have a total of 4 comps at home, and having to back up them onto CDs require too much discs. So i then decided to shift to "Direct To DVD" burning with ATI using version 9.0 latest build BUT without any sucess.

And i have wasted LOTS of DVDs bcos of the KNOWN bugs that version 9.0 latest build have got. And also, on the website and its advertised that it CAN directly burn to DVDs..but til now lots of people are having troubles with using this method. The only way out for DVDs, is to use the 2 steps method...
So ATI is not performing just as its advertised...

Instead of correcting the known (DVD) bugs in version 9.0, ATI released version 10.0? Does that means that, "Oh, so you want DVD bugs fix? Purchase version 10.0."? Im just very disapointed with ATI for doing this...

And now, BEFORE i purchase a new external hard disk (80GB) which cost about $150 to $200 in my country, i posted this thread to ask for advises....

Thats it...simple...As a customer, i have the right for saying that bcos for what i have paid for, it doesnt perform what its advertised, so no point wasting my time using it again....

 

Mimijo,

The problems with DVD burning could be caused by alot of things, not necessarily TI. Are you burning the images at too high a speed?? And, believe it or not, the brand of CD's/DVD's does enter the equation too - some brands will just not work with your burner. I've had that happen to me - and it was 'trial and error' to find one that would burn properly each time.

That being said, backing up to your hard drive is the best way to go hands down. Better way would be to back up to either another internal HD or an external HD.

What i normally do is back up to 2nd internal HD file then copy to an external drive.

TI should recognize the external HD - turn it on, reboot with rescue CD and see if that helps any.


Good luck,


Ray

 

mimijo,

I'm afraid this won't improve your attitude towards TI any, but you should be aware that to use TI on 4 computers you need to buy 4 licenses to be legal.

If you are still there, I would recommend a 3.5" external enclosure/drive with its own power supply. The 2.5" enclosures that draw power over the USB cables may burn the USB port(s) if you fit them with a power-hungry drive. Besides, the 2.5" drives are usually more expensive.

Yes, you may be unlucky and choose an enclosure that will not work from rescue environment. It happened to me with the first enclosure I purchased two years ago and I had to put it aside. (The drive can be used in another enclosure, though.) But that doesn't happen often anymore and you have references above to enclosures that have been checked to work.

Anyway, it's a small risk very well worth taking. TI is a great lifesaver.

 

mimijo:

IMHO the best way to go is to get an external off the shelf with its own power supply. Unless you need portability get the 3.5". The price has come down considerably. I backup directly (no need to cut and paste or format the drive) to the external, and its worked for me with a few gitches but not because of my external HD or ATI. My external backup has saved my ass on numerous occasions. This is the only way to go even if you could write to DVD's or CD's for me anyways. But there are others who like floppy media and it works for them.......I don't get it, but each to his own. Good Luck and keep us posted

 

I use External drive(s) exclusively.
DVD's are too fickle; not related exclusively to acronis, but to the fact that they're DVD's.
I've done archiving of home DVD movies; I make two copies; I compare them to the hard drive; and then to each other, before I delete the info from the hard drive. I even used two different dvd burners, to burn copy A and copy B
Even with good DVD's, I've gotten coasters. so, I'm not going to trust DVD's as my back up source as a sole media

re: the external drives; I've use western digital, seagate, IBM; I've gotten external 3.5 inch enclosures; BE CAREFUL. I got AdsTech, they work well; other brands were not as reliable;;; again not related to ATI, but to the USB interface board of the interface box.

I also got a Western digital external (in its own box), and it works well also.

As others have noted, ATI has saved my rear end, and also enabled me to rebuild my system to better drive, etc. It isn't perfect, but not all the problems you run into are the fault if ATI.

as others have said, be patient, it has worked for many of us

Nick

 

The problems with TI 9.0 (v3633, v3677), and the DVD Burning engine are so well known now, they should appear on the front of a cereal box.

You're right about DVD media, and the Burner manufacturer can effect quality DVD burning, but however; this particular issue is with Acronis Direct Burn Plugin.
Many of us here believe Acronis' Direct Burn ...burns the .tib file to the DVD waaaaaaaay to FAST!! You simply can not burn a file that's bigger than 1gb to a DVD at MAX speed...and expect it to work. Most TI Images are much bigger than 1gb, ..so Burning ANY file this big to a DVD should be really burned at 4x or 6x to insure a quality burn. You'll have problems 9 out of 10 times when burning at MAX speed...which is usually 16x.
Acronis will most likely solve this DVD problem when they set the Burning speed down.

With v3633, and 3677....I tested on a NEC_3550, and Taiyo Yuden DVD+R's (T02), ...and still managed to waste a lot of great DVD's trying to solve this Acronis Direct Burn issue. No go!! There is NO WAY to change the Burning speed, unless...you use the "2 Step Method".

For those who still want to use DVD's....you must consider this.
Once you get so much Data on your HD, you have to use multiple DVD's (4.7gb), or start forking out money for Dual Layer. Best Buy occasionally has them on sale....$40.00 for a 20pck. That's $2 a backup.

You're far better off using a USB 2.0 External HD, or an Internal Spare HD. Formatted to NTFS....You can backup a HD with 25gb of Data on it ...into just ONE file. Now, try that on DVD!!! That would equal about 7 DVD's (4.7gb), and about 3 Daul Layer (8.5gb). Just think of the Laser in your DVD-Burner ...starting, and stopping during this process. Sounds like a lot error messages to me.

When using Externals, I think WD is the best.

 

I have had 100% success with TI8 (have not yet tried TI9 or 10) backing up to external USB 2.0 and also to firewire 400. I have done backup/restore with 40 Gig Buslink, 40 Gig Lacie (2.5 in, dual USB+firewire ), 120 Gig Maxtor, 160 Gig Hatachi in some cheap enclosure I found at CompUSA. I have also had friends use other USB 2.0 drives with TI8. All worked, every time.

I have not personally tried any USB 1.1 drive with TI8. But, being realistic, who would by one of those today?

I have also not tried firewire 800, nor USB 2.0 pen drive.

In summary, I would expect any USB 2.0 drive to function with TI.

And, I find backup to external USB to be almost as fast as to internal hard drive, if compression is used in both cases.

Note: If you format the external drive as FAT32, then the largest single file will be 4 Gig. If it is NTFS, there is no practical limit. However, even with FAT32, TI will automatically break the image into "spans" to fit the file system. I go one step further and specify the span to be 650MB, so that I can occassionally copy the backup set to CD, or DVD.

Caution: Backup to external disk is very convenient, but remember to turn it off (unplug it) when not in use. Otherwise you could have a common mode failure of the PC and the backup drive, in case of a power surge or lightening strike. Also, an unplugged drive is safe from a virus attack.

 

Yes, currently i have got 2 licences for ATI 9.0 + 2 Free licences of ATI 7.0.

i also understand that those 2.5" ones use the power over the USB.
And its safer to use those 3.5" drives that use its own power supply.

Anyway thanks for the advise....

 

External drives can suffer from overheating. Proper safety procedures dictate that the drive should only be attached during a designated use. It should not be connected when idle. Since your computer can get zapped by viruses and power outages, this means the disconnect should include the data cable. In other words, when not in actual use, the external should have no connections to the computer. Additionally, I would also suggest you copy your backup files from your external drive to DVD's. This would provide one more measure of security--should the drive fail.

If you plan to store backups from 4 computers on the 80G drive, it will fill to capactity very fast. You may want to consider a larger capacity drive. Your backup files will be compressed at approximately 50% of your current space actually consumed.

If your external drive is compatible, then it can be the direct destination for your backups. Then you must "verify" the backup files to assure the entire process is without errors. Some usb drives pass this verification procedure while others have failed. Perhaps you have read of others usb drives failing this test. This failure would be the fault of the drive or controller--not the fault of Acronis! Mine has always passed using the equipment described.

I also have a Western Digital 80Gig external drive which has worked very well--as have my other internal drives in external enclosures. I have used both versions 8 and 9 without any problems. I do not burn direct to CD/DVD as that is a waste of my time babysitting the computer waiting to insert media. I do copy my backups onto DVD as one part of my multiple backup storage procedure.

My copies of TrueImage has always performed as advertised for backups and restoring. I have restored my system drive & disk (using Acronis Recovery Boot CD) on numerous occasions from usb drives--without any failures.

ps: Some of the above is redundant, but the text was already prepared.

 

Regarding formating the external drive as FAT32 and the single file 4gb limits,
If let say, i format it to NTFS, BUT my comp is "FAT32", ATI will follow which? As in according to my comp file system (FAT32) OR the external drive NTFS?

sorry i hope you understand what i trying to ask

thanks in advance

 

Alright once again, thanks everyone for the advises regarding the external hard disk...

Yes, i think its better to purchase the 3.5" drives rather than the 2.5" ones.
Bcos of the power supply and most of you are using 3.5" drives with no problems. I will consider getting either western digital or hitachi drive.

Regards,
Joey

 

Hi, thanks alot for explaining the external drive info.

So you mean, if my external drive is compatible, i can "direct" save the image back up to my external drive right? And when you say, "Vertify" the image back up, does that means you place a "tick" in the vertify option during the backup session?

Regards, Joey

 

YES you can backup "direct" and save the image to the external drive.

YES you "vertify" (verify) your image on the external HD.

You can verify (validate) your image either by ticking in "Choose backup options" during your backup session or you can do this after you have backed up in tools on the main ATI screen and then choose your archived image to verify.

 

If doesn't matter since the TI archive is just a file or collection of files. It is the content of the file that determines what gets put back on your disk during a restore not how it is stored on the device.

So you can have an image of a FAT32 drive stored as a NTFS file on an external or internal NTFS formatted drive. You can equally have an image of a NTFS drive stored as a FAT32 file or files on an external or internal FAT32 device.

 

One important thing to avoid when choosing an external hard drive is not to go for a top of the range model which purports to do everthing for you. They are provided with some brands of backup software which will conflict with True Image.
Far better and cheaper to go for a more basic model. Or if you already have one with the extra software it is best to uninstall it so that you can use a proper backup system

Xpilot

 

Absolutely right IMHO. I would personally ensure that my external drives have as few dependencies as possible. Very often data recovery would involve accessing from a different OS and sometimes even a diifferent hardware. This is the wrong time to discover what your dependencies are.

F.

 

So u mean if I have one personal desktop and latop I will need two licenses?