My trusty Evesham Athlon 700 is now getting on a bit (6 years old) and with all the info I have on the hard drive ...I got to thinking

1) how long do hard drives last

2) how do I back up everything on there

3) is it possible to back up everything on there so if it did die I could just swap drives and carry on?

Any ideas welcome

I will be getting a new computer this year (when funds allow Athlon 64 3500) so I have to start all over again with the setup ....last time took 4 weeks of sorting passwords etc. :eek:

hard drives can last many years, we have servers here that have been on 24/7 since 1997 and still have the original disks in. BUT you must backup your data, things to consider are how important the info on the pc is and how you could manage if the unthinkable happens.

At least backup your documents to CD, floppy or those USB pen things. Applications are easy as you just reinstall from the original CD's.

A quick method to backup the whole machine is to use something like symantec ghost to take an image of the whole drive to CD or DVD.

1) It depends on the quality of the drive... The time they've been spinning, etc. Quiet some time generally (I've got computers that have been running 6 years without issue).

2) There's a few options. Your best bet may be to burn everything to DVD as you can now pick up DVD burners for less than 30 quid.

3) You could 'Image' the drive which would do that. Look into something like Norton Ghost

Just had a brainwave.......doesn't happen very often............hard drives are cheap......... can I fit and then copy everything onto another hard drive...I can remember there being some software to do that but haven't seen an advert for it for a while

Yep, you can. I wouldn't bother copying over system/application files though, you'd be better off reinstalling them if worst came to worst

160gb Samsung

buy 2 hard drives and a RAID controller

buy 2 hard drives and a RAID controller

AHHH now youv'e lost me does the raid controller send/copy to both discs at the same time.

I'd get a DVD writer, personally.

Hi Nick ......not visiting any Temples today then

Trouble is I have got about 7 GB of stuf to back up (website, photos etc. etc.) so not sure which way to go :confused:.................................mind you my cd r/rw did die yesterday

Another vote for a DVD writer here.

4.7gb per disk is enough to back up your data , and with blank disks at 25p each you can afford to make a couple of copies.

You can then save a few quid by buying a new machine without a DVD writer and then move it over from the old PC.

AHHH now youv'e lost me does the raid controller send/copy to both discs at the same time.

Yes it does. It was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion I suspect. It's a bit expensive for what you want, really. More of a business solution, although I do know some nuts who run RAID systems at home.

There are various configurations possible but in all of them, you lose the capacity of at least one disk. Ideally the disks all need to be of the same size, also, or you're wasting the extra capacity of the larger one(s).

The problem I see with buying a large hard disk is an old pc is unlikely to recognise all the drives capacity, or may not even see the drive. The bios will likely need upgrading to recognise anything larger than 20GB.

The problem I see with buying a large hard disk is an old pc is unlikely to recognise all the drives capacity, or may not even see the drive. The bios will likely need upgrading to recognise anything larger than 20GB.

Tried upgrading the bios once :eek: it's why I have got the computer I have now........looks like the dvd writer is the way to go for now....just to be on the safe side and maybe this http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/PCsextra.html?PC-0706T at a later date

Yes it does. It was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion I suspect. It's a bit expensive for what you want' date=' really. More of a business solution, although I do know some nuts who run RAID systems at home.

There are various configurations possible but in all of them, you lose the capacity of at least one disk. Ideally the disks all need to be of the same size, also, or you're wasting the extra capacity of the larger one(s).[/quote']

Nick,

Kinda tongue-in-cheek but the cost of them now you can get 2 cheap drives and a pci raid controller for peanuts. I am one of those nuts , but i'm going to configure it as raid 0 instead of raid 1 purely for speed over resilience.

Seriously for the home user it can be a tad extreme so ideally a dual layer DVDRW which does all formats would be an idea (yes the discs are expensive but will come down in price) and possibly a larger disc for storing data off the system drive.

Another vote for a DVD-writer. If you can get one bundled with Nero 6, that does "HD Backup" to either CD or DVD, although I've never tried it to know how successful it is ....

Note to self: must backup my discs!

Chris

Nick' date='

Kinda tongue-in-cheek but the cost of them now you can get 2 cheap drives and a pci raid controller for peanuts. I am one of those nuts , but i'm going to configure it as raid 0 instead of raid 1 purely for speed over resilience.

Seriously for the home user it can be a tad extreme so ideally a dual layer DVDRW which does all formats would be an idea (yes the discs are expensive but will come down in price) and possibly a larger disc for storing data off the system drive.[/quote']

I left out striping configurations in my reply since Rob was asking about a backup solution. Personally I'd never use RAID 0 - all it saves you is a drive letter. Lose one disk, lose everything, but I'm sure you know that

Another vote for a DVD-writer. If you can get one bundled with Nero 6' date=' that does "HD Backup" to either CD or DVD, although I've never tried it to know how successful it is ....

Note to self: must backup my discs!

Chris[/quote']

Must admit it was only the fact that my cd r/rw drive packed up that made me think about it....................sooooo slap on wrist and get it sorted this afternoon.........PC World here I come

Is it worth going for dual layer? or is this going over the top

Is it worth going for dual layer? or is this going over the top

It's the future, but I personally wouldn't pay a premium for it, especially if you're just looking to do backups If you find one at a good price, then it's going to be a good investment, but you probably won't be buying any dual-layer blanks for a few months until prices come down

Chris

looks promising

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1519008767.1113302541@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddegeilmhjcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&sku=316850

but dual layer blanks at

PC World are overpriced for DVD writers.

you can get a nice NEC dual layer drive from SVP for

looks promising

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1519008767.1113302541@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddegeilmhjcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&sku=316850

but dual layer blanks at

Just had a look at Novatech and they're cheaper' date=' but it depends if you want it today or not And yep, I believe all the dual-layer writers still write single layer discs no problem

Chris[/quote']

Odd isn't it .........been OK for six years .............but now I feel like I tempting fate all of a sudden

Another DVD writer vote here.

If the cost worries you, how much would you lose if your HD failed NOW. They do, y'know. I had a brand new Maxtor drive that lasted just long enough to get the machine built before it died. And I took a server to a customer site t'other day for some testing, and a 200Gb disk suddenly decided to lose 120Gb of data! Hard drives are mechanical devices, and they do wear out.

Phil

Another vote for a DVD-writer. If you can get one bundled with Nero 6' date=' that does "HD Backup" to either CD or DVD, although I've never tried it to know how successful it is ....

Note to self: must backup my discs!

Chris[/quote']

Is there a limit to how much on your HD which can be backed up to a DVD in this way ? Is it just a matter of going into NERO and wanting to back up your whole C drive ?