External Hard Drive Question

[ofield]

Hi, this is my first post. I have just recieved a Iomega 7200rpm 320Gb External Hard Drive. My question is should I install my new programs on it or on my internal 80Gb drive?

Also how do I back up my system to my external drive in case my internal malfunctions or crashes, etc. My external drive did not come with any software.

Any Help Would be Great......

 

[vacunita]

You can install your apps to your external, however if your internal goes or your Operating System fails, you'll need to reinstall the apps anyway, because apps not only install in their designated folder, but also make registry changes, and install other files like dll's to the Windows folder. (in case you are using Windows, as Mac works slightly differently). Without those the app will most likely not run. There's no real benefit to installing on your external.


Now as for backup, you can uses Windows built in Backup utility, use a 3rd party backup utility, or manually copy files to your external. You could also just redirect your Documents folder to your external, so everything is placed on your external by default.

I would however also recommend frequent backups to CD's or DVD's, just in case your external drive decides to fail, which is not that unlikely. It's always good to have more than one backup.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[wahnula]

It's always good to have more than one backup.

Hear Hear!!! I have been pegged as "anal" by people who think my backup routine is excessive, and that I never throw away hard disks or media. I had the last laugh when the RAID 1 array in my server went south, I had a backup that was only hours old (NT backup) and restored and had the system back up in a few hours after replacing both drives.

Since NT Backup (Start->Run->ntbackup) uses a proprietary file system, I have an internal IDE HDD that stores that information (backup 1). My external drive uses an incremental scheduled backup using the application SyncBackSE which I highly recommend (it costs around $25 US) and it is basically automated file copying, in their original format. That's Backup 2.

Then, from time to time, I spool off DVDs of the "My Documents" folder (backup 3), which I recommend you leave on the internal drive for speed's sake. I make it a point not to lose application CDs and place all my .exe's in a folder within My Documents called "Setups".

If you need more room for My Documents, buy an internal IDE drive large enough to hold that folder plus NTBackup on different partitions, and use your external drive for backups only. If my house was burning, I simply grab the external drive and CD case (optional) and go.

There is also online backup services,

http://www.mozy.com

offers 2GB free storage, and cheap prices for more. That's backup 4. Better to be prepared than posting to the Data Recovery forum!

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[CapitalData]

Why would you be installing your apps on the external drive? What if it fails? People purchase external backup units and trust them more than their computer. This is wrong. These backups rarely have cooling fans, so they overheat, people drop them, etc. I honestly don't suggest you installing apps on it. Just keep it as a backup unit and would be nice to have a second one just in case. We get many clients that come to us with failed internal and backup drives.

Good luck!

Best Regards,
Karen
Capita Data Recovery Inc.

http://www.capitaldatarecovery.com

 

[jlockley]

Instead of installing the apps themselves on your external, install the installation files on the folder, each product in it's own zip folder with a document showing all passwords and codes.

This goes especially for downloaded apps, since they tend to get lost (also, of course, on CD).

*Also create an emergency folder of corrputable files.

*Ntos.exe, etc. Somewhere in these forums there is a list of what you will need if everything goes kerfluie.
If this is one of the really, really huge backup drives, consider a full, unzipped copy of your operating system install.

Install your data preferably on a separate internal drive rather than the Microsof default My Files. You can set each program to default to the space of your choice. Back this data drive up frequently to your External. Data includes media, documents, databases (also for programs like cardscan, address book apps, Financial programs. etc)