Hard drive replacement/recovery and backup strategy

ljrack · 07-17-2009, 01:13 PM

Mods, feel free to move this to appropriate forum if this doesn't fit here.

Brief description of situation. I have an HP Pavillion running WinXP Media Center edition. 2.4Ghz, duo-core, 2G ram. Just lost my c: drive - actually, it has come up enough that I was able to copy important files to a second drive. I think it's heat related cause it will come up for a while, then crap out. Subsequently when trying to boot it makes noised that aren't normal... :-) The original failed drive is a Maxtor 250G SATA. I also have two other drives, a 300GB? SATA internal drive that contains most of my user data and a 750GB HP Personal media drive used for secondary backups. OF COURSE I don't not have a bootable recovery drive and I will be reinstalling from my recovery dvds - that hopefully will work. So, here are some questions and I would appreciate anyone's advice going forward:

1. I think I will replace the c: drive with a similar sized SATA drive with the intention of having that primarily as the OS drive, program files, etc. Should I go with a smaller drive?

2. My intent is to have a bootable "ghost" drive so that I won't have to go through a recovery again - and assuming that I do regular copies. I'm looking at Symantec/Ghost or Acronis Home Image for this. I've read many reviews on both and I'm not impressed with reviews with Symantec's Ghost 14. But there are also problems with Acronis. It's kinda like arguing Chevy vs. Ford or Nikon vs. Canon. YMMV. Any opinions on creating a bootable HD appreciated.

3. Another question is: Can I use an external HD (USB2) as a bootable drive? And if so, can it be a partitioned drive? In other words, say I had a 1GB external drive, can it be partitioned and have a small portion of that used for a bootable recovery drive? If not, what do you suggest? Using a dedicated internal SATA just for that purpose?

4. Question regarding recovery. My two other drives are NTFS, 750GB and 300GB(i think) After reinstalling XP on the new C: drive, when I connect the old drives will they be recognized as the D: and P: drive volumes? Or will XP want to write a new signature? How do I reattach and retain the data? Is it as simple and plugging in the USB for the personal media drive, and connecting the SATA and power cable for the internal drive?

5. An option I'm thinking about is after the reinstall on the new c: drive and getting D: and P: connected is to move off all the data on D: to a new External (1TB) drive and then use the D: drive as my mirrored, bootable recovery drive? Does that sound reasonable?

Anyway, lots of questions and my apologies for the length. I want to get some of this sorted out before I buy any hardware and backup software.

Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Lon

**grimx133** · 07-17-2009, 10:04 PM

1 - You can replace the c: with any size that you want, size limitations may come after.

2 - I use StorageCraft's ShadowProtect Desktop and take images of my OS drive and
store them on another physical drive. Don't store images on a partition which resides
on the same physical drive as the OS. Lose that drive and say goodbye to your
images too.
Here's where there's a size limitation, at least with shadowprotect, you can't restore
an image to a partition or drive that is smaller than the original drive that the image
was taken from. Don't know about the other imaging progs, but that's the way it is
with the one that I use. I have 3 or 4 drives that I have put an OS (for me)
sized partition on, for use in case of c: drive failure.
Take an image at semi-regular intervals, old images can be deleted, if you so desire.

3 - No, windows does not like to boot from an external drive. It is possible with some
sort of complicated work around. Don't have the url for that anymore, just didn't
seem worth it. I use internals, 4 in my main rig and 3 in my spare. And a couple
more not installed, should I ever need them.

4 - Yes and no, perhaps maybe. Once you have a new c: and hook up the old data
drives, there is a chance one of them will be assigned as d:, if an optical drive
hasn't taken that letter. Windows assigns the first available letter above c to a
new drive. Drive assignments can be changed in disk management, to preserve
program associations etc.

5 - Externals are good for the portablility of moving data from one machine to another.
They are not good as internal replacements and left always connected. High failure
rate in those circumstances. I have a couple externals, but very rarely do I connect
them, just as needed.

**Tyree** · 07-18-2009, 08:32 AM

What brand are the Hdd's? If you have Seagate or Maxtor, you can download a free version of Acronis from their website. (Seagate Disc Wizard and MaxBlast)
I use that software on my PC's that have Seagate Hdd's and I use Acronis on my PC's that have WD Hdd's.
I make images and store them a separate partition and also on an external drive that is used for nothing else.

ljrack · 07-22-2009, 12:46 PM

Just wanted to come back and thank you for the responses. I ended up with two new WD 320GB drives. I purchased Acronis True Image Home and it worked great in cloning my now partitioned boot drive (small 50GB C: drive and the rest I named a partition called Data1. The second WD drive is now a bootable copy of everything on the primary drive. I also have an original bootable drive with just WinXP as a second backup. I should never have to go thru re-installing the OS again.... Thanks.

07-17-2009, 01:13 PM	#1 (permalink)
ljrack Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP Media edition sp2	Hard drive replacement/recovery and backup strategy Mods, feel free to move this to appropriate forum if this doesn't fit here. Brief description of situation. I have an HP Pavillion running WinXP Media Center edition. 2.4Ghz, duo-core, 2G ram. Just lost my c: drive - actually, it has come up enough that I was able to copy important files to a second drive. I think it's heat related cause it will come up for a while, then crap out. Subsequently when trying to boot it makes noised that aren't normal... :-) The original failed drive is a Maxtor 250G SATA. I also have two other drives, a 300GB? SATA internal drive that contains most of my user data and a 750GB HP Personal media drive used for secondary backups. OF COURSE I don't not have a bootable recovery drive and I will be reinstalling from my recovery dvds - that hopefully will work. So, here are some questions and I would appreciate anyone's advice going forward: 1. I think I will replace the c: drive with a similar sized SATA drive with the intention of having that primarily as the OS drive, program files, etc. Should I go with a smaller drive? 2. My intent is to have a bootable "ghost" drive so that I won't have to go through a recovery again - and assuming that I do regular copies. I'm looking at Symantec/Ghost or Acronis Home Image for this. I've read many reviews on both and I'm not impressed with reviews with Symantec's Ghost 14. But there are also problems with Acronis. It's kinda like arguing Chevy vs. Ford or Nikon vs. Canon. YMMV. Any opinions on creating a bootable HD appreciated. 3. Another question is: Can I use an external HD (USB2) as a bootable drive? And if so, can it be a partitioned drive? In other words, say I had a 1GB external drive, can it be partitioned and have a small portion of that used for a bootable recovery drive? If not, what do you suggest? Using a dedicated internal SATA just for that purpose? 4. Question regarding recovery. My two other drives are NTFS, 750GB and 300GB(i think) After reinstalling XP on the new C: drive, when I connect the old drives will they be recognized as the D: and P: drive volumes? Or will XP want to write a new signature? How do I reattach and retain the data? Is it as simple and plugging in the USB for the personal media drive, and connecting the SATA and power cable for the internal drive? 5. An option I'm thinking about is after the reinstall on the new c: drive and getting D: and P: connected is to move off all the data on D: to a new External (1TB) drive and then use the D: drive as my mirrored, bootable recovery drive? Does that sound reasonable? Anyway, lots of questions and my apologies for the length. I want to get some of this sorted out before I buy any hardware and backup software. Thanks for your help. Regards, Lon

07-17-2009, 10:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
grimx133 Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Canada eh Posts: 3,153 OS: xp mce sp2, xp pro sp2, windows 7 beta My System	Re: Hard drive replacement/recovery and backup strategy 1 - You can replace the c: with any size that you want, size limitations may come after. 2 - I use StorageCraft's ShadowProtect Desktop and take images of my OS drive and store them on another physical drive. Don't store images on a partition which resides on the same physical drive as the OS. Lose that drive and say goodbye to your images too. Here's where there's a size limitation, at least with shadowprotect, you can't restore an image to a partition or drive that is smaller than the original drive that the image was taken from. Don't know about the other imaging progs, but that's the way it is with the one that I use. I have 3 or 4 drives that I have put an OS (for me) sized partition on, for use in case of c: drive failure. Take an image at semi-regular intervals, old images can be deleted, if you so desire. 3 - No, windows does not like to boot from an external drive. It is possible with some sort of complicated work around. Don't have the url for that anymore, just didn't seem worth it. I use internals, 4 in my main rig and 3 in my spare. And a couple more not installed, should I ever need them. 4 - Yes and no, perhaps maybe. Once you have a new c: and hook up the old data drives, there is a chance one of them will be assigned as d:, if an optical drive hasn't taken that letter. Windows assigns the first available letter above c to a new drive. Drive assignments can be changed in disk management, to preserve program associations etc. 5 - Externals are good for the portablility of moving data from one machine to another. They are not good as internal replacements and left always connected. High failure rate in those circumstances. I have a couple externals, but very rarely do I connect them, just as needed. __________________

07-18-2009, 08:32 AM	#3 (permalink)
Tyree Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: May 2009 Location: Illinois Posts: 5,686 OS: XP Pro-7RC-Mandriva My System	Re: Hard drive replacement/recovery and backup strategy What brand are the Hdd's? If you have Seagate or Maxtor, you can download a free version of Acronis from their website. (Seagate Disc Wizard and MaxBlast) I use that software on my PC's that have Seagate Hdd's and I use Acronis on my PC's that have WD Hdd's. I make images and store them a separate partition and also on an external drive that is used for nothing else. __________________ Posting your PC specs will help us to help you quicker and more efficiently.

07-22-2009, 12:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
ljrack Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 2 OS: Win XP Media edition sp2	Re: Hard drive replacement/recovery and backup strategy Just wanted to come back and thank you for the responses. I ended up with two new WD 320GB drives. I purchased Acronis True Image Home and it worked great in cloning my now partitioned boot drive (small 50GB C: drive and the rest I named a partition called Data1. The second WD drive is now a bootable copy of everything on the primary drive. I also have an original bootable drive with just WinXP as a second backup. I should never have to go thru re-installing the OS again.... Thanks.