Backing up my new system need some advice

[liamcrane]

Hi guys i have just built myself a monster of a machine running like a dream at the mo the thing is im worried about it going wrong and i have no back up disks etc if something does happen so how do i go about backing up my hole hd incase it fails and is there anything else i can do incase it goes wrong so i can restore it?

cheers guys

 

[steve258]

DVDR? Should be enough to back up all your personal data.

If you want to back up the entire hard drive it is probably best using Ghost to make an image of the entire disk. You can also run a Raid 1 but you need a 2nd hard drive of the same size and preferably from the same manufacturer.

Or maybe get an external hard drive from maxtor or WD that has backup features.

 

[Revenant]

I've just bought a WD ES My Book 320 GB. It comes with some backup software that will let you copy various folders (e.g. your personal docs). You can set-up a scheduled back-up to maintain these backups regularly as they change.

The WD is fairly quiet and is both USB2 or eSATA, though it does NOT come with an eSATA cable.

As noted, if you want to actually back-up your system files/registry, then Ghost is what you need.

 

[gumbald]

Split your HD into OS and data partition. Then you can take an image using Acronis or such and not have to do the entire disk. Depending on your install, you might get it on a few DVDs or on an external HD.

No point taking a direct image of everything, that doesn't allow you to update stuff easily