Re: How to keep a regular fresh exact clone of a system HDD?

KimmoA wrote:

I have two identical HDDs (same brand, size and model): WD Raptors of
40 GB and 10k RPM.

[snip]

So, what are my options? Some kind of software? How will the software
handle itself on the new HDD? If it (the main HDD) does die, and I
switch to the backup one, I don't want it trying to copy stuff to a
non-existent HDD! I want an exact copy.

[snip]

One software to take a look at might be /usr/ports/net/rsync. It may, or may
not, satisfy your requirements. Another 'software' approach might be
gmirror:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/geom-mirror.html

Keep in mind the performance consequences. Disk writes may, or may not,
perform well but disk reads are usually OK. If most of the disk access is
reading without a lot of writes you may never notice.

Since I have as yet to take the plunge and experiment with gmirror I don't
know all the pros and cons; others with direct experience may have better
input for you.

I prefer the hardware based approach myself; but while good production
quality controller cards can be quite expensive there are some el cheapos
that work with FreeBSD. Research is required to identify specific cards
that have good support in FreeBSD, ie the match up of driver support with
specific chipset(s). Googling the usenet/lists will produce a lot of info
here, as most of this has been covered before. Most low end RAID cards are
not really "hardware" solutions as they generally offload the work to the
cpu via the driver. But if you have enough extra cpu cycles to spare they
work well.

-Jason


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: My miserable experiences in testing and "removing" the "Acronis [alleged] True Image 11 Home" Ba
    ... specific interest is with reference to a disk imaging program (as opposed to ... a disk cloning program), I would assume that your *basic* objective is ... source HDD so that if the recipient of the clone is an internal HDD, ... large-capacity hard drives we do not feel this advantage is of major import ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: need a good backup method or program
    ... I have gone with the Casper 4.0 option, it is very user friendly and gives me exactly ... I'm assuming you've had little or no experience with disk imaging/disk ... that cloned HDD will be bootable and its data immediately accessible, ... Note, however, that should the recipient of the clone be a USB or Firewire ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Setting up an external hard drive - partioning and sharing issues
    ... program involving some hundreds of disk -cloning operations... ... day-to-day working HDD to another HDD, ... complete clone of the source disk, ... HDDs involved in the disk-cloning operation are the *identical* drives ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: OT-True Image Backup
    ... Make sure the USB drives file system is NTFS and not FAT32.. ... Jaymon is correct in that the disk image you create and save to the D: ... partition of your USB external HDD will have no effect on the other ... Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Acronis True Image Program to Backup ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: need a good backup method or program
    ... I then scheduled a daily backup at midnight with the PC being turned offf ... I have gone with the Casper 4.0 option, it is very user friendly and gives ... I'm assuming you've had little or no experience with disk imaging/disk ... copy of the HDD so that if the recipient of the "clone" is an internal ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)