Old Hippie Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Hi, I have a 30gb HD in my PC, and an external 250gb hd that does some sort of daily back up. Currently, I have about 11K photos stored on it (mostly crap) that I would like to save at all costs. Most are backed up to disks as well. I have read/heard about mirror drives, that are supposed to keep the whole system from being lost...any ideas how? Is soft ware needed? The idea as I understand it is, the 2nd hard drive keeps all the files running should you need to replace the other drive...thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-ride Posted October 31, 2005 Report Share Posted October 31, 2005 Hey OH, In order to get that kind of setup running you need either a hardware disk controller that supports mirroring (Raid 1) or an operating system that allows to do it (Windows 2000/2003 Server or Linux for instance). The usual setup for that is 2 hdds of the same capacity being seen as only 1. You get better performance with a hardware mirror than with a software one . I dont think it will work with an external hdd that's why I would suggest you to buy a 2nd 30 GB drive which prolly costs about nothing, buy an IDE controller supporting RAID 1 (maybe the one you already have onboard does, check it first) and just create a mirror array on those 2 drives. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummigut Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 joeed: Your thought was the same as mine when I first read the thread title. But what OH needs is a ghost or image of his Hard Drive (or at the very least the partition with his OS and/or Data as well). My info about this software is several years out of date (this is not new technology) so I expect someone else can give OH a more up to date answer without me having to spend 20 minutes researching it <<burp>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 As said before: to have an ontime mirror of your hard drive a system with two identical harddrives (RAID) is most convenient. But note, if your computer crashes, for what ever reason, both drives might be affected and you might loose all data. IMHO an external HD which you can switch off when not in use is more secure - plus burning the files on DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted November 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 My new plan is to up grade either the computer or the hard drive...and have some one who actually has a clue (I don't) come and set it up...ghost. partitions, mirrors, the whole thing...Mozilla, AV packages all of it... most of the serious computer guys don't use the mainstream stuf... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidflux Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 Old Hippie said: most of the serious computer guys don't use the mainstream stuf... True, but they also know how to fix things when they break Not to discourage you away from the more robust stuff, but are you prepared to deal with it if something goes wrong? The more complicated programs give you more control, but it comes at a cost, usually in the form of user friendliness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saiphon Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 Why don't you buy an external hard drive - USB connection - and just copy across your stuff every so often. They are pretty reasonably priced these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monzoon Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 TrueImage is the software you need. Easy to make images, even for a computer illiterate like me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted November 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 Saiphon, I have an external drive...trouble is getting access to my photos takes some doing...and is actually more less the primary drive for everything, so I'd prefer a bigger internal, and an external...in truth, looks like i will just replace the computer...I want to many newer features...and up grading this one would cost almost as much... Thoughts on a new model? Brand? how to set it up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saiphon Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 No time for thoughts - not computer ones anyway! I fly to BKK in a few hours!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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