[muckmail]

How do I make and maintain a backup data drive the right way?
I have a slow computer with XP on it on drive C (IDE maxtor drive 60G).
I have a data called drive F as my data drive (IDE maxtor drive 100G).
Those two drives are the two drives that I use on my computer.
I have an extra disconnected IDE 120G maxtor drive with maxblast software that I want to duplicate all data form my F drive to that 120G Maxtor drive.
I have tryed copying data form my 100G F drive to C drive using XP. Then
I disconnect the 100G F drive and replace it with my 120G drive to move
data to it. This is a all day process that usually ends up with some kind
of windows XP copying error using XP explorier. I get errors like file name
to big, etc. I want to duplicate all my date form my 100G F drive to my
new 120F drive without errors so I am sure I have all my data backup
for 2007.
How can I do that???

Once I have done that I would like to maintain my backup without
copying every file in over and over. Say next month I would like
to backup my data again without copying every thing. How can I
on backup up changed and new files at that time and be sure I have
a full backup.

This is a lot of questions about backup maintence but I want to know
how to do it the right way to insure I have all my date back up. I am
sure others are interested in this topic.
thank you,

 

[stantley]

Hi, welcome to TSG.

The first thing I would do would be to get an external enclosure for the 120GB drive and connect it with a USB cable so you don't have to keep swapping the drives.

A good backup utility is Cobian Backup which can maintain a complete backup of both of the other drives.