Agree with ORAC (who' the b$&^%#r won't tell he how he found that thing on Google!), HDD caddies are the way to go for backups.
I may have said this before, but XXCOPY is simpler and faster than Ghost and makes a true clone rather than an image.
It also costs nothing for personal use. Doesn't do strange things to your drive(s), leaves the MBR alone, doesn't ferk up your Windows installation, just works.
It's a true 32-bit program that runs in a DOS window under Windows.
XXCOPY Personal Edition v2.80.3 is free from Pixielabs at
http://www.xxcopy.com/
Its like a superpowerful Xcopy and the equivalent of a very sharp knife - wonderful if you are careful. The command syntax is very complex and rather arcane, but can do amazing tricks in file management if that what you're into.
Often used for moving drives, but I use it to clone my main drive to a similar sized backup drive that lives in the woodshed.
For copying drives (clone the C
drive to D
drive)
XXCOPY C:/ D:/ \CLONE will do the trick.
Add /PB if you want to see a pretty Windows progress bar as well.
Just remember to start in the root (i.e. C
) when you do this.
Just make sure that you are in a DOS box in Windows (you heard me right, IN Windows). And if you're like me, with a lot of physical. logical and mapped drives, make sure you've typed the right f**king drive letter for the destination (only made that mistake once).
RTFM (Read The Firkin Manual) which is long and complicated, but worth it. It'll handle NTFS volumes too.