Hard Drive Duplicate vs Backup (Maxtor One Touch)

[scottbergerphoto]

I just bought a Maxtor One Touch Firewire HDD for computer backup and extra storage. There are a number of options for HDD backup. The two main choices are:
1. Duplicative Copy in which you copy everything from the computer HDD except the OS to the external HDD and can then drag and drop files as needed. This can't be used in a complete system crash.

2. System Backup in which the entire computer HDD including the OS are copied to one backup file. No drag and drop of individual files. Can be used to restore a complete system failure.

My OS is Windows XP Home edition, which has System Restore.

Which option would those of you who are knowledgeable in such matters choose. I made backups both ways for the time being to have the advantages of both.
Thanks in advance,
Scott

[Scottes]

Option 1 has it's benefits in that you don't need the software used to create option 2. It's just a bunch of files - use them as you would any file. But you'll need to install software again...

Option 2 has the benefits of completely restoring the system as you said. And you may very well restore the problem that caused the crash. Option 2 also means that you'll be installing an "old" beat up, used, all-sorts-of-stuff-has-happened-to-it copy of Windows complete with all the crap collected during the life of a Windows system. So you may very well be restoring other problems, maybe annoyances, old drivers, and lots and lots of unnecessary files.

With option 1, you have to spend hours in front of the system, re-installing Windows and all your necessary programs. Option 2 will take as many hours but you probably don't have to be there for it. Push a few buttons and be up and running by morning, restoring while you sleep.


There are big plusses and big minusses to both. The most important question to ask is: How long can I afford to be down? If that answer is less than a day, then option 2 is your answer. If you can install Windows and Photoshop and be back up "enough" in a couple hours, and you like the idea of a new clean system, then option 1 is your answer.

Be warned that Option 2 will probably take longer to get a bootable system, but Option 1 will take much longer to duplicate the old system. However, duplicating an old system is very rare - I betcha that you've done and undone a lot of stuff since you got the system. (Thus leaving a lot of flotsam and jetsam on your drive. That's Windows.)


I have never ever done an Option 2 for any of my plentiful *home* sytems in 17 years. I have never ever done an option 1 for a business in the same time frame.

In any case, think about certain files that you will need to get back up and running - email maybe, software serial numbers absolutely, etc - and do an option 1 on those.

And if you can continue to do both, then by all means do so, That's the best of both worlds with choices around the short-comings of both.

[jonnyhorizon]

i have multiple external maxtors
the new 300gig is nice because they finally put a power switch on it
i keep my data on a separate drive and use the retrospect software that came with your drive to run backups to a different extername drive
keep the ststems backup separate from the data/photos
also, i ocationally take my external data drive on the road with my laptop
i have had to do restores and have NOT had to do a system rebuild for years (knock on wood)
...j

[scottbergerphoto]

Scottes, Thanks for a very detailed response. Johnny, thanks as well.

I have two more questions if you please.

1. How reliable/effective is System Restore in Windows XP and does it obviate the need for an external backup?

2. I ran a complete system backup last night. The Retrospect software backed up my HDD and the External HDD taking up 60GB. Is this normal behavior? Why does it make a backup of the external drive?

Thanks again in advance,
scott

[Scottes]

1) Sorry, I know nothing about XP. Win2K has a method where it will restore necessary files if they get deleted/damaged(?). But I don't know is XP does the same.

2) Generally a "complete" system is just that - everything. You might have to configure it specially to just do C: drive when doing a "complete" backup. Or set it to never backup the external. But if it's a drive then it will get backed up. Maybe you can configure it to ignore a particular drive? Or you might have no choice, which would be a bad thing, but not surprising for simple home-user software.

If you can work around #2, then doing you could do a complete on only your C: drive and simplying copy files from other drive - thus combining your Options 1 & 2.

[PacAce]

Scott,

As Scottes pointed out, there are pros and cons to both options you mentioned. What I do is incorporate both options in my backup strategy. I run two sets of backup, one for my system files and the other for my data files. Since my system doesn't change all that often, I don't back up my system files as often as I do my data files. I'll back up system files before and after any hardware or bios upgrades or changes and after an installation of a major program. Otherwise, they're only backed up once a month or two.

The data files, on the other hand, are backed up weekly and sometime more often if I'm doing a lot of work.

For my stategy to work, I need to have my my data files separate from my system and application files.

If you're really serious about your backup, I would recommend getting a 3rd party backup software. The one that comes with Windows is fine for recoverying individual files but I don't think system backup taken with it will do you any good. I use Veritas' BackupExec, now called BackupMyPC and distributed by Stomp Inc. I'm not sure if it's still the case with Windows XP (I think it is) but the backup/restore program that came with Windows was a subset of BackupExec, i.e. with all the bells and whistles removed except for bare essentials.

With Windows 95, it was posible to do standalone restores from the system backups taken by BackupExec. However, with Windows 2000 and on, standalone restores are no longer possible. In effect, you have to re-install the OS first and then install BackupExec. You can then restore the old system on top of this and get your full system back. However, this will ONLY WORK if the system configuration of the backup is exactly the same as the current system configuration. In other words, if you changed your hardware since the last backup, then the full system restore will likely fail. Actually, the restore will go fine. It's when you try to reboot from the restore system where you may encounter problems. Or, worse, the system may boot up fine and work for a while and then weird things start happening later down the road.

From my previous experiences with doing several full system restores, I've become a little skeptical about the usefulness of a full system backup. Yes, you have a backup of your full system, but in the event of a disk crash where you lose your OS and can't boot up you computer, how are you going to recover the system from the backup? Unless you've planned for it and know exactly how you're going to recover your system, that full system backup is not going to do you any good.

I've taken a worse case scenario approach to my backup strategy. Not only do I backup all my files (system and data) but I also keep a detailed log of all the system changes and updates that I've made to the system since day 1. That way, if I do need to recreate my system from scratch, I can refer to the log instead of trying recall everything from memory. This log and all the update file (most of which are downloads) are store in a folder that's kept on a non-system drive and backed up with the other data files. That way, if I do lose my system drive, they'll be accessible from the other drive.

[PacAce]

2. I ran a complete system backup last night. The Retrospect software backed up my HDD and the External HDD taking up 60GB. Is this normal behavior? Why does it make a backup of the external drive?


Scott, you should be able to select which drive(s) or file you want to back up. If you used the wizard and told it to do the complete system then that may explain why it backed up the external drive, too.

[Edit: Just noticed that you said "Retrospect software". Sorry, I'm not familiar with the program. I thought you were using the Backup/Restore program that came with Windows.]

[scottbergerphoto]

Scottes, Leo,
Thanks alot for the detailed and well thought out responses. I like the idea of having both backups. I guess it's to the Retropsect User Guide I go.
Regards,
Scott

[scottbergerphoto]

2. I ran a complete system backup last night. The Retrospect software backed up my HDD and the External HDD taking up 60GB. Is this normal behavior? Why does it make a backup of the external drive?


Scott, you should be able to select which drive(s) or file you want to back up. If you used the wizard and told it to do the complete system then that may explain why it backed up the external drive, too.

[Edit: Just noticed that you said "Retrospect software". Sorry, I'm not familiar with the program. I thought you were using the Backup/Restore program that came with Windows.]
I did some reading yesterday and wrote a script to back up only the local drive. It worked fine. Saved 30GB.
Thanks,
Scott

[PacAce]

I did some reading yesterday and wrote a script to back up only the local drive. It worked fine. Saved 30GB.
Thanks,
Scott

Scott, glad to hear you've gotten that squared away. Hopefully you'll never have to resort to your system backup. Good luck. :)