IT/Computer Geeks - What do you suggest for this? | GTAMotorcycle.com

IT/Computer Geeks - What do you suggest for this?

-D-

-D-

Banned
I want to mirror my laptop.
Windows 10 Pro
Primary hard drive is a 550gb SSD
2nd drive will go into the drivebay (Sata connection in the dvd bay). It will likely be a regular drive (600gb)

What software do I use to make Windows 10 automatically mirror or backup onto the 2nd drive?

The purpose is if the primary ssd fails I can switch over and boot up to my system.

What do you suggest?

Thx
 
-D- said:
I want to mirror my laptop.
Windows 10 Pro
Primary hard drive is a 550gb SSD
2nd drive will go into the drivebay (Sata connection in the dvd bay). It will likely be a regular drive (600gb)

What software do I use to make Windows 10 automatically mirror or backup onto the 2nd drive?

The purpose is if the primary ssd fails I can switch over and boot up to my system.

What do you suggest?

Thx
Click to expand...

Not too familiar with Windows 10, but this seems to be what you're looking for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

https://www.winhelp.us/file-history-in-windows-8.html <- includes W10
 
If you have 2 drives in the same piece of hardware, clone the primary drive. I use WD drives as my backup and use Acronis True Image WD edition(have to have at least one of the drives WD).
http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=119
They also have Segate editions, etc. I clone all my drives to a slightly smaller one and repeat every month or so. Or use 2 that are the same and clone and swap back and forth...primary becomes the clone and visa versa each time. I've cloned SATA to old IDE, so don't see why SSD to SATA or IDE wouldn't work.
 
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-D- said:
I want to mirror my laptop.
Windows 10 Pro
Primary hard drive is a 550gb SSD
2nd drive will go into the drivebay (Sata connection in the dvd bay). It will likely be a regular drive (600gb)

What software do I use to make Windows 10 automatically mirror or backup onto the 2nd drive?

The purpose is if the primary ssd fails I can switch over and boot up to my system.

What do you suggest?

Thx
Click to expand...

dunno about auto, i'd assume you would still have to fiddle with it, double check etc, i just do it manually, a few clicks does the trick

1 backup doesn't cut it either, gotta have at least 2, a power supply issue can take out 2 drives in the same box etc

lotsa ways to clone/copy/image drives/partitions, the bigger prob is knowing what you are working with to assure reliable backups & not mess up even the original, so if something new, start with simple stuff
https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

http://www.partition-tool.com/
 
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Macrium Reflect is free for personal use, give that a shot.
 
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+1 for Acronis
 
If you are looking for instant failover and zero downtime, what you really need is a RAID1 setup, but that doesn't exist in the laptop world as far as I know (unless you use a software solution like mdadm in linux vs Windows).

Based on what Windows gives you by default, you could use the system image option to create a full backup of your boot drive to a secondary hard disk or partition, as well as set up file recovery/shadow copy to keep important folders in sync (eg. desktop, documents, etc). In the event of a failure, you can replace the disk, restore the image, then restore the files from teh recovery/shadow copy to get back to 100%. Done this way, it would work fairly similar to what a Mac can do via Time Machine.

That said, if you look for paid solutions there might be something more elegant out there. Also +1 to what others have said in that if you backing up to another drive in your laptop it isn't a true backup -- Have a power issue, spill something, or get it stolen and the backup is useless. Offline (and potentially even off-site) backups would fix any of this, but add to the recovery time.
 
Thanks for the info. Not worried about power issues.
I prefer not to have to clone every week or month.

Let me clarify.

Is there an app (Acronis?) that will backup/clone the primary hard drive to the 2nd hard drive ON THE FLY or even if it does it when the computer is not being used.
 
-D- said:
Thanks for the info. Not worried about power issues.
I prefer not to have to clone every week or month.

Let me clarify.

Is there an app (Acronis?) that will backup/clone the primary hard drive to the 2nd hard drive ON THE FLY or even if it does it when the computer is not being used.
Click to expand...
depends what you mean? the above has already been touched on, computer not being used could also mean lotsa stuff

2nd post gets into "on the fly" options
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

"on the fly" might mean you can still use the computer while at the same time, the copy is in progress?

sounds like you're after something that just does it, whether u are using it or not, even that would require inputs/setting it up & double checks

you can do an image copy to the same HD but that would only be a single point of failure backup, sounds like you are after the same type deal, 'cept you'd like to copy/clone the #2 HD on the fly

The purpose is if the primary ssd fails I can switch over and boot up to my system.
Click to expand...

why so concerned about "on the fly" ?
 
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yodude said:
depends what you mean? the above has already been touched on, computer not being used could also mean lotsa stuff

2nd post gets into "on the fly" options
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

"on the fly" might mean you can still use the computer while at the same time, the copy is in progress?

sounds like you're after something that just does it, whether u are using it or not, even that would require inputs/setting it up & double checks
Click to expand...

to bold
yes

I will check into Acronis (full pkg)

It can backup when laptop is not being used at night like your virus scanner.

This looks like it can work - built into Win10 BUT they want 3 drives and they say it should be the same disks.
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-3091470/set-raid-windows.html

Why would you need 3 drives for Raid 1?
 
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-D- said:
to bold
yes

I will check into Acronis (full pkg)

It can backup when laptop is not being used at night like your virus scanner
Click to expand...

usually, backups that involve cloning or imaging drives end up locking the origin drive & could involve a reboot dedicated to that job,

so you can't use the computer while that's going on

sounds like you're after an auto 'on the fly' backup setup that just kicks in overnight ..when not in use, type deal
 
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yodude said:
usually, backups that involve cloning or imaging drives end up locking the origin drive & could involve a reboot dedicated to that job,

so you can't use the computer while that's going on
Click to expand...


That's ok. I can set it like a virus scan to reboot on X day and time.

I just want my primary drive to mirror to 2nd drive (automatically)
 
"on the fly" might mean you can still use the computer while at the same time, the copy is in progress?
Click to expand...

someone else will have to cover this
 
-D- said:
That's ok. I can set it like a virus scan to reboot on X day and time.

I just want my primary drive to mirror to 2nd drive (automatically)
Click to expand...

understand, haven't gone there (the auto part) myself,

as far as 'on the fly' copying while using the computer, i haven't gone further than imaging partitions, which i find handy as a first easy basic backup,

https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

on the same HD is a single point of failure tho, but then easy enuff to get around that by also putting it somewhere else
 
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-D- said:
Thanks for the info. Not worried about power issues.
I prefer not to have to clone every week or month.

Let me clarify.

Is there an app (Acronis?) that will backup/clone the primary hard drive to the 2nd hard drive ON THE FLY or even if it does it when the computer is not being used.
Click to expand...

Online backups are the worst kind of backups. I initially responded assuming this is what you meant, then decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. The ONLY thing this would protect you against would be spontaneous SSD death, which is uncommon outside of certain models of drives. Additionally, mirroring writes to an HDD would slow everything down to the speed of the HDD, which would defeat the point of having the SSD in the first place. You would almost certainly be better off using a similar SSD.

There are hands-off forms of offline backups - you don't even need to be connected physically to the storage you are backing up to, it could be done over wireless. All you would really have to worry about is leaving your laptop on during the backup.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
Online backups are the worst kind of backups. I initially responded assuming this is what you meant, then decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. The ONLY thing this would protect you against would be spontaneous SSD death, which is uncommon outside of certain models of drives. Additionally, mirroring writes to an HDD would slow everything down to the speed of the HDD, which would defeat the point of having the SSD in the first place. You would almost certainly be better off using a similar SSD.

There are hands-off forms of offline backups - you don't even need to be connected physically to the storage you are backing up to, it could be done over wireless. All you would really have to worry about is leaving your laptop on during the backup.
Click to expand...

Thanks but can we focus on what I asked.
I am not new to this, lol.
New to the idea of trying to mirror my laptop drive.
Ideally I might get a 1 terabyte (hybrid ssd/normal drive) and partition it in a way that mirrors the 550gb primary ssd and the remaining space used for storage (torrents, my nas cloud sync).
 
Chances are your boot drive doesn't need to be close to 500gb...I'd start at repartitioning that first (and moving anything that doesn't need to be there like music, movies, etc to the other partition).
 
conundrum said:
Chances are your boot drive doesn't need to be close to 500gb...I'd start at re-partitioning that first (and moving anything that doesn't need to be there like music, movies, etc to the other partition).
Click to expand...


Its' 150gb...I forgot that info...thx
 
just goes to show, lots to look over & consider even just for backing up,

partitioning is another topic where it is also easy to mess up the whole works,

also, moving large non OS folders/files can be tedious & error prone
 
-D- said:
Thanks but can we focus on what I asked.
I am not new to this, lol.
New to the idea of trying to mirror my laptop drive.
Ideally I might get a 1 terabyte (hybrid ssd/normal drive) and partition it in a way that mirrors the 550gb primary ssd and the remaining space used for storage (torrents, my nas cloud sync).
Click to expand...

Let me summarize. What you are trying to do is not a good idea.

If you want to double down on your bad idea, however, see if your laptop lets you switch the SATA controller from AHCI into RAID mode. There are definitely laptops that will let you do this. Then you can execute your bad idea by installing the appropriate Intel RST drivers & software for your laptop, then follow these instructions: http://www.dell.com/support/article/ca/en/cadhs1/SLN288974/en
 
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