Got really basic questions about external back up hard drives

[GhosTT]

Short history,
Had to reformat cause of hacker, then bad motherboard then,bad hard drive.
All fixed now,but

Was lazy about learning about backing up.

I have started backing up on CD's, but interested in the EXTERNAL hard drive backup thing!
(and please no advice saying just back up on CD  )


I am seriously considering a MAJOR back up external hard drive.

Push one button, backs you up,very cool.


Here are my questions

Does an external backup HD back up,just all files, or does it also copy your operating system(in my case XP Home.

Also does it back up the programs you downloaded from the internet(in my case, avast, zone alarm firewall, spybot, adwarese,etc.)

And any advice about backup external hard drives appreciated!

Thanks in advance....
      GhosTT

[Eddy]

I think this should be moved to the off-topic or the general thread since it has nothing to do with Avast.

In answer to your question(s):
It all depends on how you do the backup.

[GhosTT]

Uhh,sorry Eddy, 
Moderators, move it at will.

[Eddy]

I suggest you use Norton Ghost or something to create a image of the drive.

[DavidR]

One of the problems of using an external drive for back-ups or using one of the drive image tools is, if you have a system crash and you can't get into the system when you run the imaging tools recovery console it may not recognise the external HDD because the USB/firewire ports are not recognised at that low a level as no drivers are loaded.

I use Drive Image 7, last version before bought out by Symantec who also own Norton Ghost, the latest version of Ghost is meant to be a combination of the best of both programs. There are however other imaging tools out there, but it is best to practice your recovery procedures so when the brown stuff hits the fan, you don't want to find that the external drive isn't recognised.

I have a second HDD in my system I use for storing my drive images (I can also write those drive images to DVD, although I haven't tried that yet).

[alanrf]

To the best of my knowledge the "one button backups" capture all of the information on the hard drive.  Since I do not personally use the "one button" software I cannot speak to the recovery issues DavidR raises.

However, I do use Acronis True Image to backup to my external USB drives. The recovery CD of True Image does recognise all internal and external hard drives.  I can attest to that since I used it a couple off weeks ago to replace my hard drive. 

I removed the old hard drive, put the new one in out of the box and started the True Image recovery CD.  It asked me which backup I wanted to use and how I wanted the new hard drive partitioned compared to the partitioning of the old hard drive (the new drive was bigger).  It partitioned the drive and restored the new partitions from the backup on the external USB drive.   Within 30 minutes of starting the recovery CD  the new hard drive was completely restored and the system was again up and running.

While I have great confidence in the protection I get from avast!, in the unlikely event that an unknown virus gets through and wreaks havoc on my system it is reassuring to know that I can just scrub my hard drive and restore it simply and easily from an earlier clean backup.

[DavidR]

I don't backup, rather take a regular weekly image of my C & D partitions, so I too don't use any one button backup system.

The only reason I mention the external disk issue is that happened to a friend, luckily he found out during a trial of the restore function (as I suggested) before he needed to use it in anger.

I have also found that Drive Image 7 doesn't recognise my wireless optical USB mouse, even though the BIOS is set to detect USB and my earlier DI 2002 version does recognise it. I would have to either use all keyboard for navigation, etc. or plug in a standard ps2 mouse.

So the crux of the matter is what ever system you chose, test it before you need to use it in anger.