Backups versus Images?

XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Teflon wrote:
XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't
copy/paste the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a
syncronization program take care of this? Or is this where
incremental backups come to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP
backup program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the
C: drive? Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting
there, but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things
are not understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Imaging a drive that is nothing but data seems pretty much a lesson in
futility to me. Anything you could just setup a scheduled task to do (copy
all the files from the hard drive to another drive, even compressed if you
so desired) - I personally wouldn't bother imaging.

Your system drive is another matter - as you cannot copy all the files on it
while it is in use by normal means. A good occassional image would ensure
the fastest path back to full functionality along with system state backups
and other backups for favorites, documents, etc that you might store on the
system drive.

Imaging - useful for a quick return to the eact same state it was when the
image was taken. Think of it like a photograph except that you can actually
return to the state everything was in when the photograph was taken when
applying it to computing terms.

Using some backup utility or even just XCOPY with a few command line
switches as a scheduled task or even some compression utility like 7-ZIP and
command line switches in a scheduled task would be a quick and simple way to
start backing up the *data* that is important to you.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"Teflon" wrote in message
...
XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Being the same age, I quite understand your problem.
Backups are good, but Images are essential for your
Drive C, the most critical item in your PC!
I recommend you look on Google for Macrium Reflect
and DriveImageXML.
Both are freeware and can quickly and easily make
images of your Drive C. Being a little paranoid (after
a big problem!), I image mine weekly on Drive Image,
and at intervals during the week on Macrium Reflect .
You should spread such images between your
external HDDs for added security.
As regards using the 1TB to backup data on your other
external Drives, the backup utility supplied with XP is
not very good. I suggest you try Syncback, also
freeware, which can exactly synchronise the data from
your other three externals on to the 1TB. the program
can make incremental backups, which is what you will
need. Good luck,

Jim.

"Jim Cladingboel" wrote in message
...
"Teflon" wrote in message
...
XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Being the same age, I quite understand your problem.
Backups are good, but Images are essential for your
Drive C, the most critical item in your PC!
I recommend you look on Google for Macrium Reflect
and DriveImageXML.
Both are freeware and can quickly and easily make
images of your Drive C. Being a little paranoid (after
a big problem!), I image mine weekly on Drive Image,
and at intervals during the week on Macrium Reflect .
You should spread such images between your
external HDDs for added security.
As regards using the 1TB to backup data on your other
external Drives, the backup utility supplied with XP is
not very good. I suggest you try Syncback, also
freeware, which can exactly synchronise the data from
your other three externals on to the 1TB. the program
can make incremental backups, which is what you will
need. Good luck,

Jim.


Jim,
Have you tried to restore an image with Drive Image? I have a notebook with
a 320GB HDD, and I image it to a 500GB external drive. For grins and
giggles, I tried to restore my image (which is about 60GB) to another 320GB
HDD I had, and kept getting the error message that the "destination drive
must be as large or larger than the image." The drive had been
re-partitioned, so there's nothing on it, so it's not that. According to DI,
it doesn't need to be formatted, but I even tried that after the first
failure. Since it's the free version, there is no support from DI (I tried).
Any ideas on why this happens?

SC Tom (63 YO and counting )

P.S. Before any one else reminds me that this is not an XP question, I
realize that, but there isn't a newsgroup or forum for Drive Image that I
could find.

On Sep 22, 6:22*am, "Jim Cladingboel" wrote:
"Teflon" wrote in message

...

XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. *The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. *Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. *There's got to be a better way. *Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? *Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? *What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? *Would a syncronization
program take care of this? *Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. *I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Being the same age, I quite understand your problem.
Backups are good, but Images are essential for your
Drive C, the most critical item in your PC!
I recommend you look on Google for Macrium Reflect
and DriveImageXML.
Both are freeware and can quickly and easily make
images of your Drive C. *Being a little paranoid (after
a big problem!), I image mine weekly on Drive Image,
and at intervals during the week on Macrium Reflect .
You should spread such images between your
external HDDs for added security.
As regards using the 1TB to backup data on your other
external Drives, the backup utility supplied with XP is
not very good. I suggest you try Syncback, also
freeware, which can exactly synchronise the data from
your other three externals on to the 1TB. the program
can make incremental backups, which is what you will
need. * Good luck,

Jim.

Image is extremely difficult to restore. Backups can let you restore
files selectively but as for Images, you restore the entire drive or
nothing.

snipped

smlunatick wrote:
Image is extremely difficult to restore. Backups can let you
restore files selectively but as for Images, you restore the entire
drive or nothing.

Except that most imaging utilities come with applications that allow you to
copy files from within inside the image individually. ;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:10:36 -0700 (PDT), Teflon
wrote:

XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?



To backup just data drives, almost any way of doing it is sufficient.
There's no advantage to imaging and you don't even need the XP backup
program. You can simply copy the files almost any way--copy and paste,
drag and drop, copy command, etc.

However, that is not true of the C: drive, where the operating system
is. If you want to backup that, you need a more sophisticate method,
and imaging is a very good way to do it.


Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?


There are numbers of ways to do this, and one of them, as you suggest,
is simply recopying everything. Yes it will take a little longer, but
so what? Do it at night and it will be done when you wake up in the
morning.


I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.


You're just a little over three years older than I am. Don't belittle
yourself because of your age.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"smlunatick" wrote in message
...
On Sep 22, 6:22 am, "Jim Cladingboel" wrote:
"Teflon" wrote in message

...

XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Being the same age, I quite understand your problem.
Backups are good, but Images are essential for your
Drive C, the most critical item in your PC!
I recommend you look on Google for Macrium Reflect
and DriveImageXML.
Both are freeware and can quickly and easily make
images of your Drive C. Being a little paranoid (after
a big problem!), I image mine weekly on Drive Image,
and at intervals during the week on Macrium Reflect .
You should spread such images between your
external HDDs for added security.
As regards using the 1TB to backup data on your other
external Drives, the backup utility supplied with XP is
not very good. I suggest you try Syncback, also
freeware, which can exactly synchronise the data from
your other three externals on to the 1TB. the program
can make incremental backups, which is what you will
need. Good luck,

Jim.

Image is extremely difficult to restore. Backups can let you restore
files selectively but as for Images, you restore the entire drive or
nothing.

============

This is definitely not true for the images created with current software
such as TrueImage. Simply mount the image, and copy the files you need.
It's extremely easy to do.

-pk

On Sep 22, 7:49*am, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:10:36 -0700 (PDT), Teflon

You're just a little over three years older than I am. Don't belittle
yourself because of your age.

Ken, you write like a much younger man, I enjoy reading your posts,
always learn something new. And I'm not belittling, just accepting
things the way they are becoming. Still believe in the old saying, "I
may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

Too bad there aren't some industry standards in defining terms. All
of this 'clone', 'image', 'backup', etc. confusion reminds me of the
ever changing nomenclature (with suitable Acronyms) IBM used to use in
reference to 'new' functionality. Actually, the underlying basics
were always the same, I contend they just changed the words describing
them to confuse the customers and make their sales folks sound like
experts. When the customers got educated, the glib IBM salesman was
lost. Long live the SE.

Anyway, thanks to all for responding. I will look at the utilities
suggested. May be back if something doesn't work.

(BTW - I was one of those glib IBM salesmen, the SE's saved my bacon.)

Teflon wrote:
Ken, you write like a much younger man, I enjoy reading your posts,
always learn something new. And I'm not belittling, just accepting
things the way they are becoming. Still believe in the old saying,
"I may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever
was."

"You won't learn any younger than you are right now."
"When you stop learning, you're dead."

;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:44:55 -0700 (PDT), Teflon
wrote:

On Sep 22, 7:49*am, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:10:36 -0700 (PDT), Teflon

You're just a little over three years older than I am. Don't belittle
yourself because of your age.

Ken, you write like a much younger man,


If that's a compliment, thanks very much. ;-)


I enjoy reading your posts,
always learn something new.



And thanks for that too.


And I'm not belittling, just accepting
things the way they are becoming. Still believe in the old saying, "I
may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

Too bad there aren't some industry standards in defining terms. All
of this 'clone', 'image', 'backup', etc. confusion reminds me of the
ever changing nomenclature (with suitable Acronyms) IBM used to use in
reference to 'new' functionality. Actually, the underlying basics
were always the same, I contend they just changed the words describing
them to confuse the customers and make their sales folks sound like
experts. When the customers got educated, the glib IBM salesman was
lost. Long live the SE.

Anyway, thanks to all for responding. I will look at the utilities
suggested. May be back if something doesn't work.

(BTW - I was one of those glib IBM salesmen, the SE's saved my bacon.)




--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Didn't the CE's ever save your 'bacon'?
"Teflon" wrote in message
...
On Sep 22, 7:49 am, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:
On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:10:36 -0700 (PDT), Teflon

You're just a little over three years older than I am. Don't belittle
yourself because of your age.

Ken, you write like a much younger man, I enjoy reading your posts,
always learn something new. And I'm not belittling, just accepting
things the way they are becoming. Still believe in the old saying, "I
may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

Too bad there aren't some industry standards in defining terms. All
of this 'clone', 'image', 'backup', etc. confusion reminds me of the
ever changing nomenclature (with suitable Acronyms) IBM used to use in
reference to 'new' functionality. Actually, the underlying basics
were always the same, I contend they just changed the words describing
them to confuse the customers and make their sales folks sound like
experts. When the customers got educated, the glib IBM salesman was
lost. Long live the SE.

Anyway, thanks to all for responding. I will look at the utilities
suggested. May be back if something doesn't work.

(BTW - I was one of those glib IBM salesmen, the SE's saved my bacon.)

"Teflon" wrote in message
...
XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.


If your external drive or one of your internals is a Western-Digital (or
Seagate, from what I hear now), you can download Acronis True Image for
WD/Seagate. I have an external WD I use for backups, and had a real problem
doing a restore from Drive Image XML (the freebie). I downloaded True Image
today, created the boot CD, backed up my C: drive, replaced the C: with
another hard drive, and restored it, all in about 2-1/2 hours. The
replacement drive booted up with absolutely no problems, even though the new
drive is half the size of the original. Amazing! True Image is my new best
friend, and it's free!! I highly recommend it.

SC Tom

"SC Tom" wrote in message
...


"Jim Cladingboel" wrote in message
...
"Teflon" wrote in message
...
XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Snip


Jim,
Have you tried to restore an image with Drive Image? I have a notebook
with a 320GB HDD, and I image it to a 500GB external drive. For grins and
giggles, I tried to restore my image (which is about 60GB) to another
320GB HDD I had, and kept getting the error message that the "destination
drive must be as large or larger than the image." The drive had been
re-partitioned, so there's nothing on it, so it's not that. According to
DI, it doesn't need to be formatted, but I even tried that after the first
failure. Since it's the free version, there is no support from DI (I
tried). Any ideas on why this happens?

SC Tom (63 YO and counting )

P.S. Before any one else reminds me that this is not an XP question, I
realize that, but there isn't a newsgroup or forum for Drive Image that I
could find.

Good point, Tom, but why is your Drive C around 60GB? Mine is
a 15GB partition on a 250 GB HDD and WinXPHome/SP3 occupies
just 5.7GB of that. I can't say why your experiment failed and it's
just possible there could be a problem with DriveImageXML. But
that's why I also use Macrium Reflect - belt & braces (or should that
be belt & suspenders?).
However, both programs clone as XMLs meaning that their images
can be opened to give access to the individual files cloned within
them.

Jim.
"Two countries divided by a common language".

"Jim Cladingboel" wrote in message
...
"SC Tom" wrote in message
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"Jim Cladingboel" wrote in message
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"Teflon" wrote in message
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XP Pro Sp2

I bought a 1TB USB HDD to be nothing more than the media for backing
up 3 external HDDs, (2 - 250GB USB HDDs, plus a 160GB USB HDD), and
the 40GB internal HDD that is C:

The 2 - 250GB HDD's contain media libraries; Music, Video and
pictures, which are fairly static, though I do add to each of them
occasionally. The 160GB HDD contains all application data, some of
which changes daily, depending on which apps I use. Of course the
40GB C: drive changes with updates, etc.

I used Windows Explorer's 'Copy/Paste' function to create a backup
copy of these 3 external drives on the 1TB drive, but it took
forever. There's got to be a better way. Plus, I couldn't copy/paste
the C: drive.

My question is this, do I 'just' backup all of these drives, or do I
image them? Or, do I back up the external HDD's and image the
internal C: drive?

If backup is the answer for the external drives, would the simple
backup utility supplied with XP be sufficient? What would be the
advantage of using a more sophisticated backup program?

Next, after several months, during which I may make some media
additions to the external drives, how would I go about updating the
backups with out re-copying the entire drive? Would a syncronization
program take care of this? Or is this where incremental backups come
to fore?

I realize I don't want to 'clone' the C: drive, but will the XP backup
program do all I need to create a refreshable backup of the C: drive?
Or, do I need to Image C:?

Thank you in advance for your advice and patience. I'm getting there,
but at 75, its taking me longer than it used to and things are not
understood quite as quickly as they once were.

Snip


Jim,
Have you tried to restore an image with Drive Image? I have a notebook
with a 320GB HDD, and I image it to a 500GB external drive. For grins and
giggles, I tried to restore my image (which is about 60GB) to another
320GB HDD I had, and kept getting the error message that the "destination
drive must be as large or larger than the image." The drive had been
re-partitioned, so there's nothing on it, so it's not that. According to
DI, it doesn't need to be formatted, but I even tried that after the
first
failure. Since it's the free version, there is no support from DI (I
tried). Any ideas on why this happens?

SC Tom (63 YO and counting )

P.S. Before any one else reminds me that this is not an XP question, I
realize that, but there isn't a newsgroup or forum for Drive Image that I
could find.

Good point, Tom, but why is your Drive C around 60GB? Mine is
a 15GB partition on a 250 GB HDD and WinXPHome/SP3 occupies
just 5.7GB of that. I can't say why your experiment failed and it's
just possible there could be a problem with DriveImageXML. But
that's why I also use Macrium Reflect - belt & braces (or should that
be belt & suspenders?).
However, both programs clone as XMLs meaning that their images
can be opened to give access to the individual files cloned within
them.

Jim.
"Two countries divided by a common language".



I have only the one partition, and that's the entire drive. The image was a
data/system image, not a sector-by-sector image since that would have
occupied most of my external drive's 500GB. And looking back at the image,
it was more like 40GB and not 60GB as I had originally stated (the 60GB
image was from my desktop PC). I don't know if DriveImage was looking at the
total size of my external drive where the image was and comparing it to the
size of the drive I was restoring to and figuring it that way or what, but
nothing I did would get it to restore 60GB to 320GB. Things that make ya go
huh
I have since found a much better solution using Acronis TrueImage for
Western Digital. I have another post in this thread about the success I had
with it.

Thanks for your reply,
SC Tom