[wndslr]

Have a laptop and a desktop and a 300GB external drive. Best programto backup from 2 computers to one external drive.

Notice my new HP appears has a partition, c and d, which you can set up to automatically to backup pictures, etc.? How does this work if drive crashes?

 

[JohnWill]

Well, if the drive crashes, everything that's "backed up" to the same physical drive is obviously gone.

I like Acronis True Image for complete backups of your operating environment and data. If you want to separate your data and do data-only backups more frequent, a good data backup is Cobian Backup, and it's free.

 

[wndslr]

Can I back up 2 computers on one external drive?

 

[JohnWill]

Sure, if you make images with True Image, you can back up as many computers as you can fit images. True Image makes a large compressed file that can be restored to bring your system back to exactly the state when the backup was made, they typically compress to about 50-60% of the used capacity of the disk in the image.

 

[blaqDeaph]

Well, if the drive crashes, everything that's "backed up" to the same physical drive is obviously gone.

Thats in the event of a physical crash. Many times "drive crash" is used loosely to mean many different things. Many times I've heard "drive crash" to mean that their computers have been affected by viruses etc. Even if part of the drive were physically damaged such that data could not be read from that section, then you could still potentially recover data from the other partition further down your drive.

Personally I use GHOST as my imaging/backup tool. I create a small partition to use as the system partition to install programs, and I GHOST that to the external drive. For my data (media files & personal files), I just copy them over to the external drive within Windows.

 

[JohnWill]

Thats in the event of a physical crash. Many times "drive crash" is used loosely to mean many different things. Many times I've heard "drive crash" to mean that their computers have been affected by viruses etc. Even if part of the drive were physically damaged such that data could not be read from that section, then you could still potentially recover data from the other partition further down your drive.

I notice a generous sprinkling of "many times", "even if", "potentially", etc. Let's face it, putting your backup on the same physical spindle is a bad idea. Backup should actually be "backup".

 

[blaqDeaph]

I notice a generous sprinkling of "many times", "even if", "potentially", etc. Let's face it, putting your backup on the same physical spindle is a bad idea. Backup should actually be "backup".

I never disputed that point, I'm just saying that equating harddrive "crash" to the entire drive being unrecoverable is just not realistic.

 

[JohnWill]

Typically, when you say your hard drive "crashed", we're talking about a physical failure. In any case, my point was still valid, real backup is on different media. Can you have a failure where you don't lose all the data on a drive? Sure, I never said otherwise.

 

[blaqDeaph]

1. "Typically" from a tech point of view, many laymen use the term "crash" to mean alot of different errors that could occur in the computer.

2. Even when a physical failure occurs on the drive, it doesn't mean that you lose all data. For an example, if there were to be scratches on the drive, if it occured in the data region (and not the BR/MBR sections of the drive, the rest of the drive stilll could be read. On the other hand, if the drive head was faulty, then you'd have a problem accessing that entire platter.

 

[DoubleHelix]

Backing up to the same drive is not backing up. If you had two certified copies of your birth certificate, would you consider them safe if you put one in the bottom dresser drawer and the other in the top drawer?

The most basic definition of "backup" is another physical medium and/or physical location.

Your theories are fine, but the advice is misplaced. The point is to help people back up their data so it's secure. To do that is not to place the backup on the same physical medium that the original is on. Period.

 

[JohnWill]

DoubleHelix, perhaps you'll have better luck explaining what "backup" means, I'm not having much luck.

 

[blaqDeaph]

DoubleHelix,

I think u misunderstood the point I'm making. Regarding back ups, I did mention my method of backing up previously, which does include backing up to an external media.

However, my point in my last post was to correct 2 mis-statements that JohnWill made, basically that:

1. crash != physical failure of the drive, especially in laymen's context
2. physical failure != loss of all physical data

I think this is a case of barking up 2 different trees.