How to Add a Backup Hard Drive

[Paul Tholfsen]

This is really a WinXP (Home) question, but I'm hoping the procedures are
similar.

My relatively new Dll desktop comes with a 60G C: dive. It has begun making
some noises recently which have me thinking I ought to add a backup hard
drive to retain the entire C: drive, registry, etc.. Dell sells an
identical drive, which I can install and hook it up to power, but beyond
that I have some questions. If there's a link to a web site which answers
them I'd appreciate it.

1. Do commercial HD's (Western Digital WDC699BB for example) come
pre-formatted? In the old days, (pre-Windows 95) one would run a Ds program
to do a low-level format, then run FDisk to create partitions. What's the
procedure today?

2. Once the new disk is installed, formatted, partitioned and given a new
drive ID, say M:, how is the backing up handled? That is, would I require
some special software to make a mirror image, as in a server? Or can I do
it by something equivalent to the old DOS DiskCopy program?

--
Paul Tholfsen
Bellingham, WA


Please Delete XYZ



--
Paul Tholfsen
Bellingham, WA


Please Delete XYZ

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Paul,

1. You still need to partition and format any new drive. With WinXP, you =
can right-click "My Computer" and select manage to do this once the =
drive is installed.

2. How you backup with it depends on your needs. If you want to mirror =
the drives, you would need a raid configuration (requires special =
hardware). Otherwise, I'd just store critical data there.

--=20
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x - =
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone -
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Paul Tholfsen" > wrote in message =
...
> This is really a WinXP (Home) question, but I'm hoping the procedures =
are
> similar.
>=20
> My relatively new Dll desktop comes with a 60G C: dive. It has begun =
making
> some noises recently which have me thinking I ought to add a backup =
hard
> drive to retain the entire C: drive, registry, etc.. Dell sells an
> identical drive, which I can install and hook it up to power, but =
beyond
> that I have some questions. If there's a link to a web site which =
answers
> them I'd appreciate it.
>=20
> 1. Do commercial HD's (Western Digital WDC699BB for example) come
> pre-formatted? In the old days, (pre-Windows 95) one would run a Ds =
program
> to do a low-level format, then run FDisk to create partitions. What's =
the
> procedure today?
>=20
> 2. Once the new disk is installed, formatted, partitioned and given a =
new
> drive ID, say M:, how is the backing up handled? That is, would I =
require
> some special software to make a mirror image, as in a server? Or can =
I do
> it by something equivalent to the old DOS DiskCopy program?
>=20
> --=20
> Paul Tholfsen
> Bellingham, WA
>=20
>
> Please Delete XYZ
>=20
>=20
>=20
> --=20
> Paul Tholfsen
> Bellingham, WA
>=20
>
> Please Delete XYZ
>=20
>

[Bill Martin]

> .....Once the new disk is installed, formatted, partitioned and given a new
> drive ID, say M:, how is the backing up handled?....

First, decide what you want to backup. Do you really need to backup the
entire WindowsXP code structure for example? If you machine fails, it would
probably be better to do a fresh install of XP on the new disk than to copy
over "failed" XP code anyhow. You don't really know what's good or bad on
the old disk at that point. Also, why copy over all the standard programs
you've installed over time? You're going to need to reinstall them on the
new disk anyhow if the old one fails, in order to get them registered
properly, etc.

This leaves all your valuable data files to back up. Doing it to a second
hard disk in the same machine is convenient, but not the ultimate in data
safety. If your power supply fails and spikes, for example, destroying the
first set of data it would also destroy the copy (same with various other
sources of common failure). Better to back up to a separate machine or even
better yet to some removable media where you can make multiple generations of
backup over time. (If you old hard drive fails by inches it may kill some
data files you're unaware of. If you copy that failed data over top of your
only backup, then you've trashed your only backup too. Multiple generations
of backups make it more hopeful that some older version of that data is still
secure.)

If you're convinced you want to backup to a second drive in the existing
machine, then you can just create some "xcopy /d" batch file that does the
selected subdirectories over to the second machine. Set up the system to
automatically execute the batch file on some regular basis at 2 a.m. or
whenever the machine is idle. I'd also set it up to have perhaps five
different backup areas on the second disk and let the backup go to each of
them in rotation. #1 this week, #2 next week, #3 the following week or some
such schedule.

Good luck...

Bill