[Dxbase] Backup backup backup (KISS)

Thu Dec 31 11:17:23 EST 2009

I've struggled with this for some time. First I had a RAID, but the 
manufacturer of that unit went under and I decided that if the 
controller failed, I'd be dead meat. What to do? My computer has all 
sorts of stuff on it to which the importance of my ham radio stuff 
pales in comparison. I have Really Important Stuff that if lost, 
wouldn't be fatal but death would be far easier to deal with.
My computer uses SATA drives and I have a single 500 GB drive in it. 
I bought a BlacX USB SATA adapter into which you can literally plug 
in SATA drives. I bought another 500 GB SATA drive that I plug into 
it. WIth the new drive came a bit of software called Acronis True 
Image. I liked it enough that I upgraded to the Pro version. Hey! I 
paid for ham radio software! I might as well pay for other stuff, too!
I use that software to clone my entire disk -- all partitions. This 
way, if I ever lose the disk drive, all I need do is plug in the 
cloned drive and everything is back exactly as it was when I last 
cloned the system. No reinstalls, no searching for downloaded 
software, no digging for license keys, no finding old CD-ROMs...
The drawback is that it takes time to clone the entire disk through a 
USB2.0 link. About 90 min or so. Thus, I do these overnight or while 
I'm away at work.
I also have a second, smaller USB2.0 320 GB PATA drive that I use for 
partial backups of data-only files. I might trash those by some 
boneheaded key stroke or mouse click, but leave the hardware 
perfectly fine. I use that drive as a data only backup.
This approach may not be for everyone and is far from perfect (I 
don't keep multiple copies of the system disk in different, fireproof 
locations, for example) and I remove the drive from he cradle when 
I'm not using it (to protect from lightning). There are many other 
ways this system can fail, but it works for me in that I'm 
comfortable with the risks.
73,
Kim Elmore N5OP