On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 18:11:18 +0100, Mike Harrison
wrote:

A second HD is very quick and convenient but it does not protect against some scumbag running off
with your PC, or a lightning strike/PSU fault blowing up both HDs.

From my original post:

Inexpensive, and it can store to writeable CDs as well if you want the
security of having an offline backup.

I fully concur that it is not in itself a "perfect" solution in
writing to a 2nd disk - which is why you should write to CD and store
offline, at least some of the time.

The OP advised that he used XP backup (if memory serves me right). The
"problem" with any backup program of that nature is that it will do a
fine job of backing up the data held on the system - but it will not
(usually) perform a backup which you can roll back onto the hard disk
to instantly restore your system. Instead you have several hours of
installing Windows onto the hard disk, then the application programs,
some configuration to carry out - and finally the restore of the data
from the backup - only to discover that you've overlooked backing up
an important data file or whatever.

With utilities such as Acronis TrueImage and Norton Ghost the entire
disk is dumped to backup sets. Lose the hard disk - no problem,
perform a restore to put your disk back to the exact way it was before
the last backup. No messing around, and I know from experience that it
then takes just half an hour to restore a fairly large hard disk to
operational status - with no messing around with configuration etc.

YMMV - but farting around with backup utilities which don't copy the
entire hard disk sector by sector is something I did a very long time
ago, at a time when I would occasionally lose the hard disk and then
spend days trying to get back to an operational state.

PoP