Poll: Keep or sell my Maxtor 60GB HD?

[RossMAN]

A few months ago I purchased a Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM HD with the intent of installing it into my new Dell Dimension 4550 to mirror my 40GB C: drive so I never have to backup.

Should I:
1) Keep the drive and install it, what do I need to do in order to mirror the C: drive so EVERYTHING gets copied onto the D: drive?
2) Sell it here or on eBay?

Thanks.

 

[Nohr]

If you don't install it, keep it around. Never know when it might come in handy.

 

[newbiepcuser]

1) Keep the drive and install it, what do I need to do in order to mirror the C: drive so EVERYTHING gets copied onto the D: drive?

Norton Ghost works great for me

 

[MaxDSP]

Sell it to PAB


Id like to see how ugly the negotiations get

 

[mpitts]

I'd sell it on FS/T.

 

[Ime]

Keep it.

Assuming you are using Win2k, WinXP, or Linux, or BSD, etc, you can do a software mirror.

If you have Win9x or WinME installed... you should sell it.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Ime
Keep it.

Assuming you are using Win2k, WinXP, or Linux, or BSD, etc, you can do a software mirror.

If you have Win9x or WinME installed... you should sell it.

I have XP Pro and a legal copy of Norton SystemWorks 2003 Pro with Ghost.

How do I setup software mirroring?

 

[Harvey]

Use Ghost to mirror your present drive to the 60 GB, and make the 40 GB drive your backup (until it's too small to hold what's on the 60).

You're always as good as your last backup. You can Ghost 40 GB while you're taking a shower. (You do shower, don't you? )

 

[Czar]

use it, then use second copy 2002 to mirror the important files

 

[Brutuskend]

Where's the Give it to Brutuskend choice???

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Use Ghost to mirror your present drive to the 60 GB, and make the 40 GB drive your backup (until it's too small to hold what's on the 60).

You're always as good as your last backup. You can Ghost 40 GB while you're taking a shower. (You do shower, don't you? )

The most I'll ever use is 20GB, maybe only 15GB as long as I have my web browser, Hot Deals links and e-mail I'm good to go.

Thanks for the great suggestion and yes I do shower, thank you very much.

 

[Brutuskend]

Why don't you get another match to your current drive and set up a raid 1 array?

 

[Evadman]

If you decide to sell it, LMK. I could always use another dive

You could get a cheap raid card (for $10-20 or so, I got one for $7.99) and install it as a full mirror, but you would loose the 20 GB of extra space on the 60gb drive. If you go that route, sell or trade the 60 for a $40 and get some $, hopefully enough for the raid card.

 

[glenn1]

Keep it. Once you factor in shipping costs (probably ~$10) and the aggravation of finding a buyer for the drive, the $40something max you'll net won't be worth it.

 

[Double Trouble]

Well, if you really want to mirror, you can do that using hardware mirroring (with a raid controller), or you can do software mirroring (through XP or other OS that supports it).

Unfortunately, "on the fly" mirroring has one bad side effect: if you erase something by accident, or a virus destroys some data, you have no backup, because the data will be destroyed/erased on BOTH copies "on the fly".

For me, a better option is to hook up both drives, then use a program like "SmartBackup" version 1.64. It will let you create "backup projects" (basically, scheduled backup jobs) that are highly customizable and configurable such that you can grab specific info for backup without backing up useless junk. It even allows you to use variables and such in naming directories, so you can use dates in the names of folders to keep various backups without overwiting other backups. This comes in really handy if you want to make backups of programming work as you go along -- at some point you might want to go back to a previous version, but if you just overwrite your backup all the time, you lose "history" of your changes.

That's my .02

 

[DeafeningSilence]

I'm in the same boat as you RossMAN -- I bought a drive a few months ago and haven't installed it yet. (Well, I guess the word "bought" is misleading... since they paid me to take it off their hands... Thanks, Office Depot! )

When I get my computer running again, I plan to install it and use it as a backup (along the lines of what tagej suggested).

 

[RossMAN]

DeafeningSilence - I always hear horror stories about people not backing up until their drive fails and I want to backup before that ever happens. I think I'm going to keep it since I would only get about $50 shipped for it which really isn't a whole lotta money.

I'll most likely take tagej's advice and use SmartBackUp v2 which is free to try and only $15 to register!

 

[FoBoT]

i could use a 60gb for my daughter's PC, sell it in FS/FT