drive backup/mirror software

[immortality]

Hi Guys,

Looking at setting up a mirror drive to back up my primary hard drive.

what software do people use/recommend, any advice appreicated.

cheers

Bart

[Problemchild_87]

ill also need this software
my hard drive has run out of space need to upgrade to greater capacity, need to know where i can buy this software
i know of Acronis and Ghost fairly old now
any help appreciated

[Super_Low 91]

I use my on bord raid that is a function the motherboard has an i set it to raid 1.
I have 4TB of usable storage and 4TB of raid (mirrored back up), if one of my main storage drive fails for any reason my mirror drive takes over untill it is replaced, when i hook up a new main drive all the information gets copied back to the new main drive..
I like it because there is no data loss an it back itself up with out ever worrying about it.

I use the on bord controller less hassle easy to setup no fancy software needed an no expensive raid card needed.

To better explain it here is a copy paste from a page:

RAID I, for example, writes two copies of the data simultaneously on two separate drives. This is called fault tolerant because if one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical failure (e.g. spindle failure) or does not respond, the remaining drive will continue to function. The RAID 1 configuration is performed either by a hardware RAID controller… or performed in software. It is suited to applications requiring high fault tolerance at a low cost and where a duplicated set of data is more secure than using parity. RAID 1 is popular for accounting and other financial data. It is also commonly used for small database systems, enterprise servers, and home PCs where a fairly inexpensive fault tolerance is required.

[immortality]

ahh, but i have a external 2TB HD that i want to use as back up so i don't think that i can use the onboard raid controller, hence the request for advice about running software for a mirror drive

[Trayner]

quick question on the topic , I want to copy everything from my laptop to a USB HDD , wipe laptop then copy most of it back on ,
Would/ could you mirror my Laptop HDD to the USB HDD ?
Any programs that you guys recommend?

[NV-MY-VT]

Ok well, Mirroring, or imaging, has it's benefits but also it's disadvantages.

With Ghost, Acronis or FOG for example, the program takes a complete bit-for-bit image of the drive and makes a copy. It doesn't just take your files and folders, it takes your MBR, it takes your partitions (if so chosen), it takes your files, your programs, your viruses, your cookies, your trojans... anything and everything you have on a designated drive.

I use ghost for once a month style backups. Run it every now and again, and if everything shits itself, just reimage another drive. I also use it at work, where we have upwards of 500 computers, that all need to have the same software, the same OS, the same programs and the same settings. It's quicker to just image them than set up a whole new computer every time a HDD dies (About 3 times a week).

What I would recommend is a program like DirSync Pro (DirSync Pro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Use it to set up automatic syncs between directories. Just say you want my documents, you just tell it to sync My Documents to the external drive. Simple.