External Hard Drive Recommendations

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by jon_fl, May 22, 2005.

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  1. jon_fl

    jon_fl Registered Member

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    Please, some recommendations for an external hard drive to work with TI. I'm thinking of the Maxtor OneTouch II and not using there imaging software. Any other suggestions welcomed.

    I have Windows XP with a Western Digital 80GB HD. :)
     
  2. dld

    dld Registered Member

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    An alternative to an external HD would be a slave internal HD, if you have room for it. A lot cheaper than the Maxtor USB2 OneTouch!
     
  3. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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  4. jon_fl

    jon_fl Registered Member

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    I have a Dell 4600; not sure if I have the room. Do I still need imaging software with a slave internal HD?


    Thanks Menorcaman, I'll check it out.
     
  5. dld

    dld Registered Member

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    Yes, you need imaging software with a slave drive. I have a Maxtor USB2 OneTouch external HD and TI works fine with it. The advantage I find for using a slave internal HD is that it's always connected and turned on. Try getting a bracket for it from a computer shop.
     
  6. Mars Mug

    Mars Mug Registered Member

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    I use a Lacie 150 Gb external drive with an IEEE 1394B (800) interface. It’s fast and I haven’t had any backup problems with it at all. Exploring backups is very fast.
     
  7. MiniMax

    MiniMax Registered Member

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    Not necessarily true. If you have 2 disks and have the necessary driver software to configure them as mirrored drives, then you don't need any imagining software, since either drive will be an exact image of the other.

    It will be a bit more difficult to make it work as a backup system though... I suppose you could physically disconnect the mirror-slave when you are happy with the system. To make a new backup, you re-attach the mirror-slave disk, and it will be automatically syncronized to the mirror-master. To actually use the backup, you will again have to disconnect the mirror-master, re-attach the mirror-slave, and reconfigure it as the mirror-master.

    It requires some work, but you will get the fastest imaging system possible.
     
  8. jon_fl

    jon_fl Registered Member

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    What should I do? My choices are:
    1) Maxtor one touch II using TI.
    2) Maxtor one touch II using Dantz Retospect, which it comes with.
    3) TI with a different external HD.
    3) TI with CDR, Zip etc.
     
  9. dld

    dld Registered Member

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    Jon.. Retrospect is very different from TI. For one thing, you need to have a working version of Windows on your computer in order to use Retrospect. Very few if any that I know of have been successful in creating a bootable disaster recovery disk for Retrospect. What I do is use my Dell reinstallation disk which is bootable to delete partitions, reinstall WinXP, install SP2 and the Retrospect and Maxtor software, then I can access my Retrospect Backup on my USB2 HD and restore my system.
    With TI, in case of a disaster, you boot from you Linux recovery disk, access your Backup and restore your system.
    There's nothing preventing you from using both softwares on a Maxtor USB2 OneTouch external HD which is what I do.
    In any case, browse the Dantz Retrospect forum before making a decision.
    http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=Windows
     
  10. jon_fl

    jon_fl Registered Member

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    OK, Retrospect is out. Will Maxtor one touch II recognize TI and run smoothly without any problems? Am I good to go for all my back up needs with Maxtor and TI?
     
  11. dld

    dld Registered Member

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    Jon.. On my desktop I run TI on an internal HD because it is more convenient for me. On my Maxtor USB2 external HD I run both Retrospect for my desktop and laptop, and run TI for my laptop. My Maxtor USB2 external HD is perfectly compatible with TI.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2005
  12. Chriss

    Chriss Guest

    I have no problems running TI with an external Maxtor One Touch II 200Gb external USB drive. I usually create the images I need on a local partition and then drag 'em all onto the Maxtor. I have also created images (both full and incrementally) directly onto the Maxtor, without any problems. The drive itself is sturdy, quiet, and performs well.

    And as someone else pointed out, the bundled (slimmed down) Retrospect software is not really worth considering. Note that it also requires you to install Microsoft.NET framework (just like Norton Symantec Ghost)... T.I. on the other hand works "out of the box" and can load into RAM even if your OS isn't functional anymore.

    IMO, the One Touch II + T.I. combination is an imaging/backup solution with excellent value for money.

    Hope this helps.
     
  13. tigrphan

    tigrphan Registered Member

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    Jon Fl,

    For what it's worth, I put a second larger Maxtor HD in my daughter's Dell Dimension XPS (ancient by today's standards) and upgraded her Win95 to Win2K Pro. I used Maxtor's MaxBlast to clone her new larger 80 gig hard drive from the original smaller 4 gig drive without a hitch.

    Since there are two connectors on the cable (master and slave), I set both drives to cable select, put the new large drive on the slave connection, cloned the old to the new with MaxBlast, and swapped positions. The new larger drive booted up without hesitation. I then formatted the old smaller drive in the slave position to use for storage and backups.

    While I am new to True Image, using 8.0, build 826, MaxBlast seemed much easier to use. Perhaps TI has many more features for imaging, backup, etc. which I haven't explored yet. Still, I was impressed with Maxtor's MaxBlast ease of use and support. Apples and Oranges perhaps?
     
  14. MAINERS

    MAINERS Registered Member

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    JON
    BOUGHT 3100 MAXTOR 100 DOLLARS BEST BY 80 GIG
    GOING TO USE FOR BACKUPS ONLY
    CAN UNPLUG WHEN NOT IN USE
    IMAGE IS PERFECT
    HAD TROUBLE WITH CD=RW
    CRASHED
    EJECTED DISKS
    STILL HAVENT FIGURED IT OUT
    BUT I NEEDED A BACKUP
    MAIN DISK HAD BAD SECTOR
    YOU CAN BUY A LOT OF 3100 FOR THE PRICE OF A FANCY HD
    AND YOU STILL HAVE THE SAME MEDIA
    SIMPLICITY IS WHAT MY RESEARCH SHOWS
    THATS WHY IM TRYING TI 8 826
    SO FAR IVE SPENT LESS TIME
    MAINERS
     
  15. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    Here's another viewpoint. When it comes down to disaster recovery, imho the safest backup is one on removable media (external/removable HDD or DVD are the most cost-effective options here).

    After backing up, I place my removable HDD in my file-cabinet (that has a security lock). That way, if my PC is stolen, burns-up (or whatever the disaster*), I still have an image of my working partitions in a safe place!

    * Not quite true ...if my house burns to the ground, I'm in trouble! ;)
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2005
  16. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    Just a note on the use of Retrospect for DATA backup (not the full system).

    You can set Retrospect to backup just the critical data folders on a regular basis to the external drive. If your data is important, having it backed up on a daily basis automatically may be very reassuring.

    In a disaster, use TI to restore the system and then Retrospect to restore the most recent data backup. You will have the best of both worlds.
     
  17. MiniMax

    MiniMax Registered Member

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    That is exactly what I am doing. I complement that by also using NTBackup.
     
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