2 Hard Drives in my T43. Need Advice...

[CRSO]

Any others that have 2 HDD's in their notebook? I have a 100GB as my main and a 40GB in my ultrabay. I only have 2GB free in the main one.

Here's the dilemma: I like to keep my documents together so when I backup I have everything in one folder (my documents or now in Vista, in the user folder). I prefer to have items I rarely access on the drive...

I really don't know what data to move to the ultrabay. I sometimes swap it out with my DVD-RW so if I put program files in there, I cannot access a program when the DVD is in the bay.

Any recommendations? What do you have set up?

[agarza]

I've the exact drive setup as you (100GB utilizying C:\ drive the whole drive capacity, 40GB in the Ultrabay with all my files)

+

a 60GB HDD on a USB2.0 enclosure case. I keep there stuff I would be needing in case I swap to my CD-RW/DVD combo, the thing is I rarely use the optical drive as I rely more on the DVD burner my desktop has. Transferring files between the 2 computers is very fast using the USB 2.0 60GB (E7K100) disk

[CRSO]

I've the exact drive setup as you (100GB utilizying C:\ drive the whole drive capacity, 40GB in the Ultrabay with all my files)

+

a 60GB HDD on a USB2.0 enclosure case. I keep there stuff I would be needing in case I swap to my CD-RW/DVD combo, the thing is I rarely use the optical drive as I rely more on the DVD burner my desktop has. Transferring files between the 2 computers is very fast using the USB 2.0 60GB (E7K100) disk

So what files do you keep on the 40? Are you running vista? Vista seems to break up the My Documents folder and has just Music, Videos, Documents, etc.

Most of my space is taken up by music (50GB) with Video a close second. I had my video folder on the 40GB with XP but didn't like that I couldn't access it if the optical drive was in the bay.

I'm just wondering what the hell to put on the 40GB to free up some space on the main 100GB HDD...

[Aroc]

I don't have your setup. Here's what I do:

I have two 100GB hard drives, with the 2nd drive mounted in the ultrabay slim adapter. I've partitioned my first drive as a 73GB C:\ and a 20GB E: drive. Then I either mount the DVD+-RW drive or the 2nd drive (partitioned as a single 93GB volume) as drive D: depending on which is in the computer.

On Drive C: are my programs and data. On Drive E: are .ISO images of all of my O/S installations. I use these for VMWare (virtual machines). VMWare is installed to C: and I store all of my images on the D: drive, by themselves. The utilization on that drive is 54-90GB depending on what I'd doing (right now it's 54GB). I'll likely swap that for a 7200rpm 200GB (or larger) drive in the future.

My working set of data (office documents, pictures, etc) is about 800MB. I back these up everytime I make changes (either daily or a few times a week). I have two 2GB USB key drives and I rotate them (backup best practices seem to suggest at a minimum of two pieces or backup media that are rotated as a guard against media failure during recovery). I periodically (about every two months) image all of my machines to two external enclosures each with a 320GB drive (again, two pieces of backup media that are rotated). I use Symantec Ghost 8.2 (corporate edition from 2004) to take images of each machine at home ($15/seat for 10 licenses).

Using this procedure I can restore a recent Ghost image (that can recover a bootable system in case of drive failure) then restore a recent document backup (800MB). And pretty much have the system at the same state it is as of today. I don't install programs much, but when ever I do and I find the system to be stable (never a problem for me, I'm an IT professional) I take a fresh Ghost image.

As far a breaking up the My Documents in XP (or Users folder in Vista) you can use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to mount the extra drive as a folder under your Documents folder (i.e. create a folder called C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\Archives, then mount the 2nd hard disk as the folder "Archives" so that anything stored in that folder or a subfolder is store onto the 40GB drive). Then when it comes times for your backups, you only need to grab C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My documents as you did before.

[CRSO]

I don't have your setup. Here's what I do:

I have two 100GB hard drives, with the 2nd drive mounted in the ultrabay slim adapter. I've partitioned my first drive as a 73GB C:\ and a 20GB E: drive. Then I either mount the DVD+-RW drive or the 2nd drive (partitioned as a single 93GB volume) as drive D: depending on which is in the computer.

On Drive C: are my programs and data. On Drive E: are .ISO images of all of my O/S installations. I use these for VMWare (virtual machines). VMWare is installed to C: and I store all of my images on the D: drive, by themselves. The utilization on that drive is 54-90GB depending on what I'd doing (right now it's 54GB). I'll likely swap that for a 7200rpm 200GB (or larger) drive in the future.

My working set of data (office documents, pictures, etc) is about 800MB. I back these up everytime I make changes (either daily or a few times a week). I have two 2GB USB key drives and I rotate them (backup best practices seem to suggest at a minimum of two pieces or backup media that are rotated as a guard against media failure during recovery). I periodically (about every two months) image all of my machines to two external enclosures each with a 320GB drive (again, two pieces of backup media that are rotated). I use Symantec Ghost 8.2 (corporate edition from 2004) to take images of each machine at home ($15/seat for 10 licenses).

Using this procedure I can restore a recent Ghost image (that can recover a bootable system in case of drive failure) then restore a recent document backup (800MB). And pretty much have the system at the same state it is as of today. I don't install programs much, but when ever I do and I find the system to be stable (never a problem for me, I'm an IT professional) I take a fresh Ghost image.

As far a breaking up the My Documents in XP (or Users folder in Vista) you can use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to mount the extra drive as a folder under your Documents folder (i.e. create a folder called C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\Archives, then mount the 2nd hard disk as the folder "Archives" so that anything stored in that folder or a subfolder is store onto the 40GB drive). Then when it comes times for your backups, you only need to grab C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My documents as you did before.

Wow, thanks for your detailed reply. It seems like you're more or so inclined to save entire OS's for virtual where I have no problem doing a fresh format and restoring...

My pictures, videos, music, etc is over 80GB with only 20GB left for programs, etc. I want to know what to do with the 40GB bay drive.

Also, just went to Vista Backup... How does it backup your files? I am used to just dragging and dropping. I feel like I have more control over what is done with my files. I understand there is no compression but I have been doing this reliably for over 12 years...

[Temetka]

Hey! That's the same backup method I use. Been working great for me ever since I had a 286. However back then it was done in DOS because the pre win95 file manager was *sub-par* to say the least.

I am looking into Acronis TrueImage right now as a backup solution. Ideally I would like to burn 1 or 2 DVD's, boot off them, hit "ok" and wait an hour. Then all my programs, settings and files are restored.

[CRSO]

Hey! That's the same backup method I use. Been working great for me ever since I had a 286. However back then it was done in DOS because the pre win95 file manager was *sub-par* to say the least.

I am looking into Acronis TrueImage right now as a backup solution. Ideally I would like to burn 1 or 2 DVD's, boot off them, hit "ok" and wait an hour. Then all my programs, settings and files are restored.

So what made you look into Acronis? Have you looked into other backup software out there?

I'd actually be fine if I had a bigger hard drive, lol.

[Temetka]

What made me look into it?

Some of the users here swear by it. That's good enough for me to take a look at least.

[noetus]

Well, here's what I do. I have two internal 100GB drives (one 7200rpm, the other in the Ultrabay is 5400rpm). (I will be upgrading the second hdd to a 160GB soon, plus I have several 3.5" external drives that stay at home.) I never use the internal DVD-RW - instead, I use a portable Plextor PX-608CU which is a better drive - I just tote that along when I think I'll need it.

The first internal drive has three partitions. One is for W2K3 set up as a Workstation, the other is for Vista. The third contains all my data (strict separation of OS/programs and data). The second drive has a single partition, and contains a complete copy of all my data, two page files (one for W2K3, one for Vista), image files of some of my program disks for virtual machines, and music (and I use it as a scratch disk for movies, Photoshop, etc).

When I use the laptop at home I boot into W2K3. That is set up for all my peripherals attached to the docking station - two monitors, TV, 3-4 external hard drives, 2 USB DACs (for 2 different sound systems), 2 printers, iPod, etc. When I use the laptop on the road I boot into Vista (with no peripherals usually, except for a Bluetooth mouse). This makes things much smoother. Every 15 minutes (on either OS) all my data is automatically backed up from the third partition of the main internal drive to the second internal drive by a program called ViceVersa - I don't even know it's there (it just backs up files that have changed and runs in the background). When docked, every few hours an additional second backup is also made to one of my external 3.5" disks (which stays at home). Both backups also archive changed files and deleted files so I can go back in time to old versions of files if I ever need to. (I periodically - once a month or so - burn the archive folder to a DVD(s) and delete the version in the backup folder to free up space.) Finally, my programs are set up so that the configuration files are shared across both W2K3 and Vista - so, for example, when I start up my email client in Vista all the changes (new mail downloaded, etc) are inherited from the last time I used it in W2K3 - no need to do things twice. Also, I setup the Desktop and My Documents folders in both OSes to point to the same folders (in the partition set up for data) so everything works seamlessly from one OS to the other - same desktop, everything (the same programs installed in each, though I did have to do this twice).

Though I have two separate backups of all my data I haven't yet installed a program to automatically back up a third data set to a remote ftp site once a day or so, though I plan to (in case something catastrophic happens at home, where all my main and backup disks reside).

This is all on a T42. This way, it has a dual personality, as a desktop at home and a laptop on the road, with (near) seamless integration between the two and near perfect protection of my data. It took a while to figure out and set up, but it was worth it!

[CRSO]

Well, here's what I do. I have two internal 100GB drives (one 7200rpm, the other in the Ultrabay is 5400rpm). (I will be upgrading the second hdd to a 160GB soon, plus I have several 3.5" external drives that stay at home.) I never use the internal DVD-RW - instead, I use a portable Plextor PX-608CU which is a better drive - I just tote that along when I think I'll need it.

The first internal drive has three partitions. One is for W2K3 set up as a Workstation, the other is for Vista. The third contains all my data (strict separation of OS/programs and data). The second drive has a single partition, and contains a complete copy of all my data, two page files (one for W2K3, one for Vista), image files of some of my program disks for virtual machines, and music (and I use it as a scratch disk for movies, Photoshop, etc).

When I use the laptop at home I boot into W2K3. That is set up for all my peripherals attached to the docking station - two monitors, TV, 3-4 external hard drives, 2 USB DACs (for 2 different sound systems), 2 printers, iPod, etc. When I use the laptop on the road I boot into Vista (with no peripherals usually, except for a Bluetooth mouse). This makes things much smoother. Every 15 minutes (on either OS) all my data is automatically backed up from the third partition of the main internal drive to the second internal drive by a program called ViceVersa - I don't even know it's there (it just backs up files that have changed and runs in the background). When docked, every few hours an additional second backup is also made to one of my external 3.5" disks (which stays at home). Both backups also archive changed files and deleted files so I can go back in time to old versions of files if I ever need to. (I periodically - once a month or so - burn the archive folder to a DVD(s) and delete the version in the backup folder to free up space.) Finally, my programs are set up so that the configuration files are shared across both W2K3 and Vista - so, for example, when I start up my email client in Vista all the changes (new mail downloaded, etc) are inherited from the last time I used it in W2K3 - no need to do things twice. Also, I setup the Desktop and My Documents folders in both OSes to point to the same folders (in the partition set up for data) so everything works seamlessly from one OS to the other - same desktop, everything (the same programs installed in each, though I did have to do this twice).

Though I have two separate backups of all my data I haven't yet installed a program to automatically back up a third data set to a remote ftp site once a day or so, though I plan to (in case something catastrophic happens at home, where all my main and backup disks reside).

This is all on a T42. This way, it has a dual personality, as a desktop at home and a laptop on the road, with (near) seamless integration between the two and near perfect protection of my data. It took a while to figure out and set up, but it was worth it!

Nice! I might take some pointers from this.

How do you like ViceVersa? I just started to use Synctoy. Any experience with Synctoy?

[PhilS]

Any others that have 2 HDD's in their notebook? I have a 100GB as my main and a 40GB in my ultrabay. I only have 2GB free in the main one.

Any recommendations? What do you have set up?

Buy a multi burner drive replacement for your ultrabay and use it with DVD-RAM disks as work area. Keep 18GB free on your primary drive for work areas to build a dual layer (~8.5g) data disk for your movies/photos. You can easily carry around multiple disks and keep a backup copy at home. If you have a system at home that has disk space available, you don't need the 18GB for work space to build the big DVDs.

Yesterday, IBM had refurbished multi-burner drives available for $165.

Phil Sherman

[Aroc]

It seems like you're more or so inclined to save entire OS's for virtual where I have no problem doing a fresh format and restoring...

This is the document I used to build and maintain my "sysprepped" volume license images of W2k3 Enterprise and Standard along with XP. Build a Virtual Laboratory with Virtual Server 2005 (microsoft.com). I find it to be a bit faster and more convenient that reinstall then restore from backup. But yours is a valid approach too.

I can't help you on the Vista backup. It's my understanding that MS has changed the tool (formerly ntbackup.exe on XP and prior versions) which may result in the tool not being as flexible for your needs.