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midranger4 · 11-25-2003, 08:41 PM

Originally posted by feldon27
Once you get all your programs and everything set up, maybe you want to use Norton Ghost or DriveImage or something like that to take a snapshot and copy it to another hard drive?

Hard drives are so cheap now, I'd just keep one in a drawer with my programs on it.

I agree fully Feldon and would offer the following from a post in a technical forum I frequent.

The solution offered is one I thought about from many perspectives before choosing it over a RAID protected system.

My primary concern is HD failure and can surely relate to Jim's plight as it pertains to reloading third party software, entering license keys, and bringing these apps back up to current revs. A format/reload is good for a user that doesn't *live* on their PC. In my case so much critical data and programs reside on my system I went with the solution described below.

I hope my perspective offers some direction for some folks. I would simply encourage everyone to implement ANY type of solution because flying without a net is surely a risky proposition.

Jim, I hope your back where you need to be in quick fashion.

There are a number of ways to approach disaster recovery and it surely depends on your individual situation.

I went with a software based solution that combines Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/) with Second Copy (http://www.centered.com/) and I’m quite happy with the functionality and level of protection I enjoy. Basically Ghost creates an image of my primary hard drive to image files only it can read. These image files are created on my second hard drive. Should my primary hard drive fail I can use Ghost to restore the image off the second drive to a newly installed primary drive and have the system restored to the exact state it was in when the image was created. Problem with this approach however is you can’t be creating image files every hour because they take about 45 minutes to create (in my case) so I was still at risk of losing data that was changing between the times I created an image file (which I do about once a month).

This is where second copy comes in and this is likely my most cherished little utility. This gem of a program monitors folders I define for ANY changes and shoots a copy of the changed object over to the second hard drive. Now because my second hard drive is not a RAID drive I can use it not only for my Ghost images but for backup copies of changing data from the primary drive. So if my primary hard drive craps out I restore the Ghost image to a new drive then copy the backup folders second copy maintains on the secondary drive back to the primary and viola I’m back in the saddle.

Another major plus to second copy is 3 copies of monitored objects are available at any given time. The live version, the second copy version, and a third version in the recycle bin that is created every time the second copy version is overwritten. This provides pilot protection because I would have to save a bad file TWICE before I would not be able to recover it within seconds.

11-25-2003, 08:41 PM	#328
midranger4 Registered Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 53	Originally posted by feldon27 Once you get all your programs and everything set up, maybe you want to use Norton Ghost or DriveImage or something like that to take a snapshot and copy it to another hard drive? Hard drives are so cheap now, I'd just keep one in a drawer with my programs on it. I agree fully Feldon and would offer the following from a post in a technical forum I frequent. The solution offered is one I thought about from many perspectives before choosing it over a RAID protected system. My primary concern is HD failure and can surely relate to Jim's plight as it pertains to reloading third party software, entering license keys, and bringing these apps back up to current revs. A format/reload is good for a user that doesn't live on their PC. In my case so much critical data and programs reside on my system I went with the solution described below. I hope my perspective offers some direction for some folks. I would simply encourage everyone to implement ANY type of solution because flying without a net is surely a risky proposition. Jim, I hope your back where you need to be in quick fashion. There are a number of ways to approach disaster recovery and it surely depends on your individual situation. I went with a software based solution that combines Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/) with Second Copy (http://www.centered.com/) and I’m quite happy with the functionality and level of protection I enjoy. Basically Ghost creates an image of my primary hard drive to image files only it can read. These image files are created on my second hard drive. Should my primary hard drive fail I can use Ghost to restore the image off the second drive to a newly installed primary drive and have the system restored to the exact state it was in when the image was created. Problem with this approach however is you can’t be creating image files every hour because they take about 45 minutes to create (in my case) so I was still at risk of losing data that was changing between the times I created an image file (which I do about once a month). This is where second copy comes in and this is likely my most cherished little utility. This gem of a program monitors folders I define for ANY changes and shoots a copy of the changed object over to the second hard drive. Now because my second hard drive is not a RAID drive I can use it not only for my Ghost images but for backup copies of changing data from the primary drive. So if my primary hard drive craps out I restore the Ghost image to a new drive then copy the backup folders second copy maintains on the secondary drive back to the primary and viola I’m back in the saddle. Another major plus to second copy is 3 copies of monitored objects are available at any given time. The live version, the second copy version, and a third version in the recycle bin that is created every time the second copy version is overwritten. This provides pilot protection because I would have to save a bad file TWICE before I would not be able to recover it within seconds.