New Desktop Computer

[mbuff]

Sonny-

The Dell solution looks ok for home use. We use Ghost here at work to push out images to workstations all the time. We have about 400 workstations on our medical campus and Ghost is the best solution we've found.

Basically, you make an "image" of your computer which even includes the registry settings (we're talking WinDoz here) and then if you have a disk crash or want to clone your PC, you just boot from a bootable disk and then install the Ghost image and Boom Goes The Dynamite.

The only problem I see with the one partition disk in the Dell example is you are TU if the heads crash or that one disk goes to complete failure. Having 2 disks with the image on the secondary disk is much safer.

[Adam Gamradt]

Of course, whatever causes that first drive to fail, will likely cause the second drive to fail. Drives will fail eventually, and two drives that come off the production lines at the same time will likely have similar shelf lives. Any flaws in the first, will be replicated in the second. I always buy drives one at a time, from different vendors if possible.

I'd go with Dell, and back up to dvd or external hard drive. Pay extra and max out the RAM (at least 1GB), and get a bigger hard drive. Dell's the best option for personal pc's. I'm not a fan of all the extra crap that comes on Dell's installation, but it's easiest for the non-geek.

You can also use your old workstation, with a new drive in it to back up your data.

For upgrades, soundcards, etc, I'd go with http://www.newegg.com

Oh, and get XP pro, a good firewall, and antivirus software. Get a decent browser, Firefox, Opera, and you'll be good to go.

[horn17]

The Dell DataSafe solution I was considered is listed below. Don't know if this is worth it or if anyone has any experience with it. Seemed like a pretty easy backup solution with minimal involvement required by the end use.

The Benefits of Dell DataSafeTM

For the Home User
- With the increasing popularity of digital media such as digital photos, digital music, videos and the like, consumers have a growing need for a simple and affordable method to protect their cherished data.
- Dell DataSafeTM is intended to offer a safe and simple way to help protect your memories and songs from damage due to accidents, system crashes and other disasters.

For the Small Business User
- With the increasing need for small businesses to remain cost-effective and competitive, downtime due to system issues, virus/spyware attacks and user errors is becoming a greater competitive hazard for companies.
- Dell DataSafeTM can help avoid costly downtime due to system issues, allowing you to restore business critical data quickly and easily.

Q & A


What is Dell DataSafeTM ?
Dell DataSafe uses Norton Ghost 10 software from Symantec® and Intel® Matrix Storage Technology to create a robust level of data protection for your files.

Why would I need a solution like this?
Even though today's PCs are very reliable devices, there is still a risk that potential issues could occur. Threats such as viruses, corrupted software and possible hardware failure magnify the need for a simple, automatic and reliable data protection solution.1

How easy is it to use?
Dell DataSafe works automatically to protect your data. You can also personalize the settings if you would like to change the frequency of backups or to backup to other locations such as DVD, CD, external hard drives, etc…

What are the key features of this product?
Simple data protection from many software and hardware related failures. System recovery from software and hardware failures and system roll back to previous data points.1

How does this solution vary from other data protection solutions?
DataSafe combines hardware and software protection to give you a higher level of data protection. This enables you to continue to function through many serious hard drive failures and to recover quickly in the event of a software problem. Many products on the market today only offer a small portion of this functionality.

They all crash....nothing to stop it from going down.... I have seen about 8 of these drives already...and its not the issue of the ghosting software, but rather the drive (crappy manufactuer).... besides if it does crash...your looking at a pretty penny to recover all the data....raids are not fail proof as we discussed earlier.... also keep in mind...if one drive goes down ( in a two drive raided system - whether its raid 0, or raid 1) they are still going to be inaccessible....

[Sonny]

For the record, I was considering Raid 1 where the same data is written to two physical drives at the same time. If one drive fails, you unplug it and go with the 2nd one very easily.

Does anyone do anything with off-site, automated (daily or weekly) backups?

[Sonny]

Does anyone do anything with off-site, automated (daily or weekly) backups?

bump

I finally got my desktop ordered with a 250gig (7200rpm) SATA hard drive. Should be here in the next day or two.

Still wondering how to handle backups and partions. Should I partion the drive in two (one for applications and one for data)? And then back up the data partion via DVD and/or external hard drive and/or off-site backup sytem? Or is there some other system I should consider?

Again, I'm basically looking for an easy daily or weekly back-up solution with minimal involvement/effort. Thanks.

[OAKS]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822144052

Looks to be about as easy as it gets if it works as advertised.

[Sonny]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144052

Looks to be about as easy as it gets if it works as advertised.

Looks good. I guess you are OK as long as both drives (HDD in desktop and external USB hard drive) don't fail at the same exact time. Don't people worry about storing things off-site anymore?

[OAKS]

Well, combine that with some DVD backups every once in a while that are kept somewhere else and that should be enough. Just make sure to keep the backup turned off or disconnected except when you're backing things up.

That reminds me of a fun little story. We had to listen to a ton of these throughout my time at Tech.

One company in NYC was using magnetic tape backups and storing them offsite in New Jersey. They would back up their system every week and have a courier take a taxi over to NJ to store them. Well the courier decided he wanted to save time and money, so he took the subway instead. Every week they'd give him the tapes, he'd take the subway and they would store the tapes over in NJ. Well of course one day their system blows up, and so they brought the tapes in to do a restore. They pop the most recent tape in, and it's empty. They put the next one in, and it's empty too. Turns out all of them were empty. There were strong magnetic fields in the subway system which had erased every single one of the tapes as the courier took them to NJ.

[Sonny]

Well, combine that with some DVD backups every once in a while that are kept somewhere else and that should be enough.

cool. How many gigs of data can you put on a DVD these days?

[OAKS]

Dual layer DVDs hold about 8.5 gigs. Aside from porn, movies and tv shows, one or two discs should hold anything mission critical. Then again, quite a few people feel their porn is mission critical.

[laxfan25]

Then again, quite a few people feel their porn is mission critical.

Was that mission, or e-mission critical?!

[Sonny]

Got the new computer set up last night.... A 20" Widescreen Flat Panel is a LOT of screen real estate.