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> >How do you back up? Could you use a product like ghost or drive image?
> >Thanks. That question has always kept me from RAID.
>
> I understand that Ghost works but will ask an "expert".
I am no expert, but:
My understanding is that Ghost basically copies an exact image of the
drive to a backup drive, pretty much sector-for-sector. If you've
spent some time optimizing your disk &etc, that could be useful.
However that means you must have a backup disk that's the same size
as the disk being saved.
I've been experimenting with Drive Image 5. It reboots automagically
to DOS and creates a compressed backup file on another disk. If you
want you can have it broken up into smaller files, e.g. CD-sized.
(DI5 can also write directly to CD, but I prefer to have it run
unattended during the backup phase.)
I just installed W2k on a new system. After installing all drivers,
all my utility software, and even TS4 (but without a tick database),
I have about 2.5GB on the C: partition. I can run DI5 and back this
up to another partition, where it fits in 1.5 CD-size chunks. Then
at my leisure I can burn those chunks to CD if I choose. I have a CD-
RW with underrun protection so I can burn the CD's while doing
anything else during the day.
Now if anything goes wrong with the system, I have a "standard base
installation" that I can fall back on. It's also simple and fast
enough that I can easily do it a couple of times a week, and I have a
full history of my backups available on CD.
This is a key part of the backup strategy recommended by Fred Langa
in his newsletter -- see http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm.
Gary
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