External HD backups

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by pepegot1, Feb 22, 2005.

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  1. pepegot1

    pepegot1 Registered Member

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    The person who purchased a computer for my condo association was computer ignorant. A Dell computer, with a maximum Hard disk capacity of one drive, was purchased. It has a CD-ROM drive though. Therefore, an external HD drive seems plausible. In the event of a major disk failure (cannot boot), can I recover, from an external drive, the back up image that it contains using the CD ROM drive? Does not the external drive require its own drivers in order to work? I would think so. Is this possible, please explain? I would hate to have a grave situation occur, only to find out that I cannot restore the drive.
     
  2. bobbyjak

    bobbyjak Registered Member

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    That's exactly how I save & restore my system, to a USB2 external HD..The
    rescue cd (Linux base) comes with usb drivers..Works like a charm for me..
     
  3. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    You are absolutely on the right track. Buy an external USB 2.0 or Firewire hard drive and use TrueImage to create Full System Backups to that external drive of the entire internal hard drive on the Dell. You will find that it has two or three partitions although only the C partition is visible in Windows.

    If the system is corrupted by a virus or if the hard drive fails, you can boot form the TrueImage CD and restore an image on the external drive because the TrueImage CD has drivers to recognize the external drive. After you restore the image of all the partitions, you will have a system that is exactly what it was when the image was made, and it will run perfectly.

    Make your images on a regular basis, perhaps every week or two weeks so that if an emergency arises, you won't lose much data. If the external drive starts to fill up, delete some of the older backups to make more room.

    The old saying is that if you carry an umbrella, it won't rain. If you do your backups, you will probably never need them, but if you do, they will be there.
     
  4. pepegot1

    pepegot1 Registered Member

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    Thank you for your response. You have confirmed what I thought. The reason I asked is because I heard some bad things about External Disk backups and had no practical experience with them. What Hard drives mfgs' do you suggest, as the driver issue could be a problem with some? I would tend to stay away from the Maxtor One Touch as it maybe too proprietary. I need to know something that works absolutely. Please advise.
     
  5. Impel GD

    Impel GD Registered Member

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    I use a Maxtor Onetouch 200GB drive; it works fine with both the Windows and boot CD True Image applications. :)

    Happened to visit their website today, and I see they've got some new products out; the Onetouch II and some sort of network storage/print server thing - looks like it could be useful for a small network like mine actually.
     
  6. bobbyjak

    bobbyjak Registered Member

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    I have a Maxtor 60gb mounted in a Generic USB 2.0 case..No problems with
    XP Pro or TI 8..I only turn it on when I want to back up by C & D drives..One
    drive partition into drive C & D...Restores from TI 8 has worked flawlessly for
    me..
     
  7. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    Well, absolutely isn't really possible. :) However, I'd buy a drive already installed in a USB 2.0 external case as the simplest approach. Western Digital makes these as well as others. The Maxtor One Touch drives are more expensive because they come with software. You don't need that since you have TrueImage, so just pick up a drive. You could also buy a USB 2.0 case (get one that is metal for better cooling) and install a drive of your choice. However that may cost a bit more.

    When you have the drive, backup to it and check the first few images just to confirm that there are no problems.
     
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