Backup Boot OS Drive

[tlo]

I need a good idea for creating a backup copy of my present boot drive. I have 2 drives and want one to be a 24 hour backup of the primary boot up drive. The goal is that if something gets hosed in an install I can change the bootup sequence in bios and boot off yesterdays data. What program can do this? I am running Win2K and have tried Ghost, doesn't work with a win2k environment, will make a clone but doesn't copy over proper boot change data info, i.e. it copys "C" data to an "e" drive or whatever the volume name is. Therefore it won't boot as it doesnt' recognize the bootable drive data. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[pcmark]

RAID1 Mirror. Get a Fastrack IDE RAID CARD.

 

[tlo]

Thanks, but problem with mirroring is that if you get garbage on primary drive, you get it on the secondary drive, instantly. I need to have a time delay, i.e. update it every 24 hours or so.

Thanks

 

[obenton]

Easiest and fastest way is to install w2k on second drive (making a dual boot). Make it a minimal install. Then, you can boot into it and use it to copy your main disk to a storage directory on your second drive, or wherever. If ever your main drive gets corrupted, you can use your second w2k to delete everything on the main HD (w2k will refuse to format it) and copy your backup to it.

 

[tlo]

Hmmm, good idea, was wanting something a little more faster as in, simply change the bios boot disk assignment and it would be as good as yesterday. I.E. more online than an offline backup. However I might be wishing for an unaffordable online storage solution as from EMC! I thought Ghost was going to do the trick for me but it is basically the same process you mentioned, have to load an image back on the partition tht crashed and it is very slow.

 

[obenton]

I've never done it that way, but it might be possible with a little manipulation. A problem is that because of a registry bug you can only log into w2k if its drive letter comes up the same as that on which it was installed. However, if, say, your current w2k drive letter is C:, you can do that by adding a third HD that is, say, SCSI (or ATA66/100), which when booted from BIOS will then come up as C:. Then, you'd use the minimal w2k install that I mentioned to copy drive C: directly to the SCSI drive. You might have to edit its boot.ini to account for the change in controller, but that's easily done - or, if you're unsure how to do that, you could find out by simply installing w2k on the SCSI and seeing how w2k configures its line in boot.ini. Of course, there would be the hardware change (w2k finding itself running on a hard drive whose configuration has changed), but overall I've found that w2k adjusts well to hardware changes and makes the necessary registry adjustments, sometimes querying you in the process and sometimes not. The duplicated drive and other security IDs might present a problem - on a domain it would for sure, but maybe not on a standalone or workgroup computer - you'd have to try it and see. If you try it, let us know how it works. I'm curious. I wouldn't bother trying it myself since, unlike a DOS program like Ghost, w2k can copy a large disk in about 10 to 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes for a backup, or fifteen minutes for a restore, is not bad. Certainly a lot faster, I've found, than playing with Recovery Consoles, repair installs, and the like. I've used this system on my wife's computer so she wouldn't have a long downtime if things needed to be fixed.