Advice on Backing Up Hard Drive

[showhost]

Hi all...

I'm a bit of a computer novice here who could use some sage advice on backing up your hard drive. I've done some research and it seems to me that a good way to go is to have an external enclosure containing a backup hard drive.

But when it gets to some of the finer points on mixing and matching hardware, I get lost. Will these two pieces of hardware be compatible?

AMS VENUS DS-2316B2BK 3.5" USB 2.0 Black External Enclosure See it Here

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380011A 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
See it Here


The whole IDE, ATA, SATA thing confuses me and I also don?t know if this setup needs to conform somehow with my current hardware configuration in my box Isn?t having a backup hard drive essentially like a flash drive only LOTS bigger? I mean, I would just be using a USB cable to send an ?image? of my internal hard drive to the backup, right? I understand I would need to format the new hard drive but is there anything else I?d need to know or be aware of in terms of compatibility issues? I probably would need some software like Acronis TrueImage or something right?

Thanks!

 

[showhost]

Bump - Anybody???

 

[jjsbasmt]

Your thoughts are almost exactly what I have used for a couple of years now, to back up a dozen systems. I use Acronis True Image 9 and Ghost 9 for my backups software. I do prefer TI 9 as it allows me to create a "Secure Zone" (hidden partition) on the host drive that I use for the initial backup. I also use the external for a backup. That way I have 2 backups of the same thing on two different drives. I feel that it would be a very rare event that the host drive and the external would both die at the same time.
I don't have a clue as to where you live, but if feasible, check the ads for the Best Buy, Staples, etc for a better deal on a much larger HD for the same money. Note: For the money you mentioned in the post for the Enclosure and HD, you could purchase a factory external HD of the same size or perhaps larger. And if you think that the factory external HD limits your upgrade options, not exactly true. I purchased a Maxtor 80 GB External on sale this past Spring for $89, and subsequently upgraded to a 250 GB in the same enclosure, when I got the 250 for a hundred dollars on sale this Fall.