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Thanks to all who suggested ideas!
My experience with both NT and Windows 2000 Pro has been that keeping a boot
backup set current is a royal PIA. I have therefore ended up running full
system backups to tape and using a 2 step restore procedure: 1) perform a
minimal OS install + backup software, 2) boot into the minimal install and
do a full restore from tape. Naturally, partial restores which do not
involve the operating system require nothing more than loading the backup
files and restoring the required folders or files. Looks like this two step
route may be the best bet with an external USB drive.
CD's are a better choice than floppies for a boot backup set, however my C
drive which is dedicated exclusively to W2000Pro is using 1.27 gig so the OS
will not fit on a CD. The other problem I see with using CD's to restore the
operating system is that one would have to cut a fresh CD set every time one
changes/updates the installed set of software.
I've read the Ghost documentation a number of times and find it rather terse
(to be kind) with respect to how one might build a single CD boot disk which
could be used to restore a basic OS which can then be further updated from a
full backup. The other major problem with the latest Ghost (2001) is that it
can not save images to USB and Firewire based drives (CDR and hard).
Took a look at Ducor's XactCopy, however I could find nothing which
indicates support for external USB (or Firewire). I've done a bit of
software checking on software included with various enclosures, however all
of the included software I've seen supports USB/Firewire booting from
Macintosh only.
My particular setup does not include a desktop. I have a new 15" SXGA+ Dell
8000 with 10 gig HD and a an older 14" UXGA ThinkPad 770 with 10 gig HD. The
laptops are linked with a pair of wireless cards providing peer to peer
networking. The small external drive will be handled in the same manner as
my most recent tape backup - unplugged and moved out of the house. For $400,
about the same cost as a new 20 GB Travan tape drive + tapes, I can have a
pair of external drives which can be rotated.
My general sense is moving in the direction of using the included W2000
backup to do an uncompressed backup to a 2.5" 20 GB drive (about $120 +
enclosure) partitioned into two 10 GB drives, one partition for each of the
two laptops. I am seeing reference to combination USB/Firewire hard disk
enclosures which might prove extremely flexible in that I can use Firewire
for super-fast network backup and still have USB capability for direct
attachment to either laptop. Should I need a bigger drive in one of the
laptops, I can swap the 20 GB out of the external enclosure and replace it
with a 40 GB drive (probably around $100-150 by then).
Earl
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