Drive Imaging Newbie

MervTeck · October 5th, 2009, 05:08 AM

So my boss at work would like me to replace our POS (point of sale not the other acronym) computers but we dont want to loose our data stored (90k+ items entered). I was thinking of imaging the drive but im still new to imaging and how it works and what it does. Mainly i just got the job and i wanna keep it... Any tips on what program to use? or at least a little incite?

THANKS TIMO!

MervTeck

Steve R Jones · October 5th, 2009, 07:15 AM

Acronis True Image is a real popular program.

You aren't wanting to image the drive and then stick in a new pc with different drivers are you?

MervTeck · October 5th, 2009, 02:27 PM

All i would like to do is image the user files not the system files. Just the programs that are installed and the files attached to them so that when i go to the new comp. I can pop it in and it reinstalls everything. The new pc is going to be XP aswell as the older one is XP.

Steve R Jones · October 5th, 2009, 02:31 PM

You can't "copy" or image programs. Programs write thousands of entries to the registry and copy files all over the windows folders.

For user files-> Copy to a flash drive or cd-dvd.

Nude_Lewd_Man · October 5th, 2009, 02:34 PM

You could also copy data onto a server - presuming that your work has one, and it has enough space for the (temporary) storage...

Applications would need to be installed fresh....

MervTeck · October 5th, 2009, 02:49 PM

Yeah my boss is a bit retarded... Their back up is a 2gb flash drive yet we have 16 + GB of data >.<

MTAtech · October 5th, 2009, 03:45 PM

As an aside, it seems that you have your data at risk. If the data is stored on one PC's drive and no other place, your data is only as good as the survivability of that drive. Since all drives eventually fail, you are going to lose data.

I wouldn't have the data on the POS system at all but on a separate server dedicated to hold the data and automatically back it up internally.

MervTeck · October 6th, 2009, 12:36 AM

I Intend on doing a Raid 5 for the 2 POS systems that im upgrading to. I just hope this transition goes smoothly

Nude_Lewd_Man · October 6th, 2009, 05:39 AM

IHMO, having/using RAID (especially 5 or 10, but except for 0) is best for running with, it isn't a backup solution - it just has a bit of a fail-safe function so that if a HDD goes down you don't lose data.

It does not mean that you have the data backed up.

A backup (when done correctly) means that if the drive/s that the OS and data are stored on all fail it can be brought back (restored) from a backup. It also means that, if someone has made a change to some data and messed it all up, you can restore it from the last backup.

Backups should be done as frequently as you are prepared to do the work again, and should be sent to (stored on) a separate HDD to where it is backing up from, and that can be on another machine if required.

MTAtech · October 6th, 2009, 09:11 AM

There is a way of using RAID as a backup solution. I use this method on my blade servers that have two internal hot-swappable drives. The drives are mirrored and periodically I take one of the drives out and store it away (as a back up.) The system thinks that the drive failed and I replace it with a different drive that the system now rebuilds the mirror.

Should I need to restore the "backup," I just take both disk outs and replace it with the one stored away disk. That's now the main disk. Once it boots, I can put another disk in the 2nd bay which will force a mirror.