How do I do this setup?

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silkman

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I have a pc that I do all my accounts, documentc and work on. I am in constant fear that I will be doomed if my pc stuffs up. I do make regular backups.
Is there a way I could have a system whereby if my pc dies I just plug in another oc and carry on working? Currently if I change my pc I need to get the software company to load the software then do the restores then only can I continue working. Is there a way all work can be concurrently backed up on 2 or 3 pcs and a server or something?
 
The solution you are looking for, is going to be expensive...

Buy 2 PCs (as I am guessing yours is a bit old now and won't work for what I want to suggest) with exactly the same specs, but only one pc needs 2x HDDs. Set them up in RAID1 (mirroring), so when the one pc dies, you just plug the hdd into the other pc and go on or if the HDD dies, just boot from the other one.
 
my pc is quite new about 2 years old. Can I add another HDD now and set up RAID1 or does it have to be done when installing the programs initially?
 
Have a look at something like DropBox. I don't know of other online backup solutions though.

Using a RAID 1 setup is better than a single HDD, but its still prone to failures.
The best solution would be to make use of an online backup solution or at the very least just an off-site backup.
 
In order to do this the hardware used by your "active" and "backup" computers has to be EXACTLY the same - same components with the same firmware versions. Also, the proposed solution doesn't help in a total drive failure scenario or virus damage scenario. However, unless you're Rockefeller, covering all possible failure scenarios is just too expensive.
 
If you have win7 then do an image backup (or get a free tool thet do this for XP etc). Do not know if it will work on another machine, but if your disk goes then you can restore to a new disk.
If the disk don't go and something else fail, well then you still have the disk to put in a usb enclosure and copy over your stuff.

Or better create a virtual machine (VMWare or Oracle's Virtual box is free), do all your work in the VM and backup the entire VM.
You can then just use the VM on another machine if the existing one dies.
 
I rely on 3 machines.

primary desktop
backup desktop
laptop (usually "claimed" by the G/F)

Batch files on the primary PC copies (XCOPY) all data from the primary PC to the other 2 once a week.
The Outlook backup tool copies my PST's to the other 2 PC's as well (once a week)

I use "EF Commander" once a month or so to compare the folders on the 3 machines and delete any old/outdated stuff on the 2 backup machines (stuff that I don't use/need on the primary anymore).
I can logon at any of the 3 machines and see the same data.

Only times I'll be a loser is if my house burns down or if they steal everything.
My important stuff is stored online (hotmail & photobucket) so I'll be OK-ish if that happens.

:-)
 
Just image the hard drive (to another physical hard drive) besides doing your regular backups then you will be able to restore from a disk image in minutes after a hard drive or PC failure.
 
Windows 7 has a built in disk image creator which is supposed to image your PC for you, but it didn't work so well for me.

One thing I love about Macs, you can just what the OP says - stick any hard drive into any Mac and it will boot. Even over USB. And cloning them is very easy too.
 
Thanks for the help people... Will need to speak to a special IT company it seems. Thought it would be easy

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
 
I don't understand the problem. You do a scheduled backup of your data onto an external hd every night. Ensure you also backup all your application setup files a well.

What do you mean by your pc dying?
 
silkman said:
I have a pc that I do all my accounts, documentc and work on. I am in constant fear that I will be doomed if my pc stuffs up. I do make regular backups.
Is there a way I could have a system whereby if my pc dies I just plug in another oc and carry on working? Currently if I change my pc I need to get the software company to load the software then do the restores then only can I continue working. Is there a way all work can be concurrently backed up on 2 or 3 pcs and a server or something?
Click to expand...

I used this solution for a customer who didn't want to spend any money on a backup solution and didn't mind not working on his original computer. Install this app:

Disk2vhd v1.63

That creates a copy of your hard drives and their relevant partitions and repacks everything into a VHD file. VHD files can be mounted in Windows 7 directly, and then they're accessed as a normal partition. Alternatively, they can be booted using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. This solution doesn't cost you anything, and can only benefit you in the long run. Unfortunately the app always creates a full system image, so it will take longer and longer as your files pile up and disk space gets constrained.
 
KSINGH said:
I don't understand the problem. You do a scheduled backup of your data onto an external hd every night. Ensure you also backup all your application setup files a well.

What do you mean by your pc dying?
Click to expand...
My main problem is I don't want to reinstall all the programs cos they are done by an external company and they can sometimes take like 2-3 days to come out. If my pc "dies" or won't boot or the HDD crashes I want to be up and running with the same programs/data on another pc.
Backups are not so much of a problem as I have those it's the actual programs I want on the 2nd pc. Am I making sense?
 
Make a ghost image of the hard drive - that is the best option I can think of.

If your PC crashes, just get a new HDD and reghost the drive over and it's back to exactly the way it was.
 
thanks- so even if all the components on the new pc are completely different all the programs etc will still work? if so what is the best program for making a ghost image
 
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