Best (and cheapest) way to backup PC?

[GaryKing]

Okay, here's my scenario.

I have PC #1 with 2 HD; first one has 3 partitions (34/60 GB used), second one has 1 partition only (50/80 GB used). I want to basically make an image of my PC so that I can reformat PC #1 and start from fresh, but I want to keep a copy of my current PC state because I want to keep my configurations, files, documents, etc. (I have so many sprawled all over the place, and settings for programs, etc. that simply burning them to a CD wouldn't be practical.)

What would be the best way to do this? I have been looking at PC costs and the cheap ones have very little HD space; you need to go up higher in cost to get more HD space. And external HDs won't really work for me, because I need a complete mirror image of my current PC.

An okay solution would be for me to borrow a 100 GB computer and then image to there temporarily - but, does anyone really want to spare a 100 GB computer? 😉

Any ideas?
Thanks in advance! 😀

 

[Zepper]

Get another hard drive of large enough capacity and mount it in a removable drive rack. If you play the rebate game, the whole thing needn't cost more than $80.
.bh.

:moon:

 

[Bonesdad]

Yep, just buy another HDD...make a copy of each drive onto the new drive. Be sure to give yourself plenty of extra room though. Figure at LEAST 100GB, but remember, your usage will grow, so your backup has to as well.

 

[GaryKing]

Okay, but I want to copy the entire system, such as the OS (Windows XP home), registry (for settings, etc.) so that I have a mirror of my current PC. I can do all that on another HD on same PC..? 🙂

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: GaryKing
Okay, but I want to copy the entire system, such as the OS (Windows XP home), registry (for settings, etc.) so that I have a mirror of my current PC. I can do all that on another HD on same PC..? 🙂

Sure! (If I understand your question correctly). Products like Acronis True Image, Symantec Ghost and others do exactly this. That is, you can create an image of your disk(s) or partition(s) which you can store on most any media including another HD in the same PC.

I use True Image to image (2) 80G SATA drives in a RAID-0 array. The array contains my bootable WinXP system, and I store the images on a large IDE drive installed in the same PC.

Sure enough, both of my drives failed last year, several months apart. After breaking the array and running the remaining drive in non-RAID mode, I restored my last image and booted right back to Windows. When the replacement drive arrived, I created an image of my temporary single drive system, installed the new drive, rebuilt the array and restored the image I had just created.

The drives need not be SATA or RAID-0; that is just my setup.

Good luck!