Re: Backing up removable HDD Attn : Anna


Anna writes...
Mike:
While I'm not exactly crystal-clear on precisely what your objective(s)
is (are) and how you're pursuing those objectives, I think I have at
least a general idea...

With that in mind, i.e., I may not be understanding your present
situation, let me add a few thoughts...

As I previously suggested, couldn't you simply add another mobile rack to
your main computer (I'm assuming it's a desktop PC) and use a bootable
removable HDD to accomplish your purpose(s), i.e., experiment with
various programs, configurations, etc., using that HDD? Using your
present disk imaging program, would it not be practicable to clone the
contents of your day-to-day working HDD in that machine to the removable
HDD so that you would have another boot drive which you could use for
your purposes?

As a matter of fact, since you have three additional HDDs at your
disposal, couldn't each cloned drive be installed in a removable tray
used by the mobile rack (assuming they're not already housed that way),
and wouldn't that hardware configuration give you the flexibility you
need using a single machine?

As I've said, I may be completely misunderstanding your present situation
and your objectives here. If I am, and the above comments & queries are
not relevant to that situation, please feel free to ignore them.
Anna


"Mike G" <justme@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23ZZflHaDHHA.572@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anna.....Let me try to clarify. Situation 1. HDD in removable rack is
WinXP, it has ghost on it (or any other image program) I write an image
to the second HDD in that computer (as you suggest)...every thing is ok.
Situation 2. Hdd in removable rack is now Win2000, to accomplish the same
thing, I must install (buy) another copy of ghost to accomplish the same
thing since the one and only copy of ghost is on the WINXP disk that has
been removed. Situation 3. HDD in removable rack is now Linux....same
problem. etc. p.s. I think that I need to write an image rather than
doing a "clone". Images can be stored side by side on a single partition,
Quoting from "Jonny" next msg down "Thought Casper makes clones, not
images...The restoration of an image file may create a literal clone. The
creation of a clone will wipe an entire target hard disk of data/file
system/partition(s). An image (image file) requires formatted storage
area, does nothing to the partition/file system its stored on." ..... As
he points out, I want to make images, not clones for the reasoning that I
would then have to have a seperate HDD or a seperate partition to save
"clones" to. I hope you see the difference now, I do not want to buy 3
copies of image software. :)) Thanks for your input!!

snip


Mike:
Let me address myself to your "Situation 2"...
Up until fairly recently we worked pretty much exclusively with Symantec's
Norton Ghost 2003 program even in an XP environment. We were less than
enthusiastic with the Ghost 9 & 10 versions for a number of reasons
involving (in our view given our objectives which I'll get to shortly) undue
complexity and an awkward interface.

Our use of Ghost 2003 (and we still use it from time to time) was
exclusively for disk-to-disk cloning. We had problems with that program
involving disk imaging but our use of the program for disk-to-disk cloning
was virtually flawless.

When we used the Ghost 2003 program we always (or nearly always) used the
Ghost bootable floppy disk (or a Ghost bootable CD) to undertake the disk
cloning operation. Note the portability advantage involved in using a floppy
disk or CD to perform these operations. There would be no need for the Ghost
program to be installed on the source or destination HDDs.

We have in the past year or so worked more & more with the Acronis True
Image program. We've been especially pleased with its straightforward design
(for the most part), its speed of operation (as contrasted with Ghost 2003)
and its ability to create disk images together with the recovery process.
You can use the program with a bootable CD which you create from the
program.

So if you're chiefly or exclusively interested in creating disk images
rather than disk-to-disk cloning, you might want to look into the Acronis
program. They do have, as I believe you've been told, a 15-day trial version
available, so you may want to give it a try.

I've had such limited experience with Linux that I won't comment on any
disk-cloning or disk-imaging issues here that might impact on that OS.
Anna


.

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