Mirror Internal Hard Drive Partition to External Hard Drive Partition

1,344

Solution 1

I've done this a few different ways, but based on what you want to be able to do I recommend Deltacopy (free). It's rsync for windows. Every hour (or whatever interval you choose) it will sync your partition's files to your external hard drive. You can set it to do everything, or just certain directories. You can also sync across your network and go cross-os. http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

I also use Acronis True Image ($40). It saves a copy of every file you designate as well as several previous revisions and you can just roll back. It can also copy an entire partition image live at an interval instead. It will do everything you want. http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

I recommend Deltacopy though. Good program, no upkeep, just works.

I highly recommend that you do not use any windows built in software raid.

Solution 2

The backup tool for Windows 8 has changed. If you want to backup just your user files, you want to use File History, which will automatically synchronize your Libraries and backup to an external location. However, File History cannot backup your whole system, including applications. File History is suitable for making backups automatically in the background, even while you are using your computer.

To backup your whole system, you want to create a restore point. This will make a copy of your entire hard drive, including system and application files. This is not automatic. If you need something better, you will need to look for a 3rd party application.


I would not recommend storage spaces, because some issues in it means that it does not appear to provide some of the benefits we would like. Windows storage spaces is not a backup solution. It is a way to store files on multiple hard drives, as if it was a single storage space. It allows you to combine multiple drives (of different sizes) into a single storage space, as well as to resiliently store files (in case one of the hard drives fails). However, if you only have 1 hard drive added to the storage space, the read/write speed change.

This is because RAID increases the speed of read/write by doing these in parallel over multiple hard drives.

If you used multiple external hard drives (at least 2), then the read/write speed may change. However, Windows 8 Storage Spaces does not allow you to control exactly how the data is distributed, and therefore how read/write speed changes directly. You can only control how many drives are available, and the resiliency type (for the same hard drives, a lower resiliency will have higher read/write speeds). To be sure about read/write speed, you would need a formal RAID configuration - however that requires hard drives of equal sizes. In addition, it appears that Storage Spaces is actually slower for most configurations, than a bare hard drive. Obviously, writing is going to slow down. However there appears to be no improvement in read speed (where we would expect an improvement).

enter image description here

For more information on Storage Spaces, check this article.


File History and Storage Spaces can be used together to backup data resiliently.

Share:
1,344

Related videos on Youtube

Eunicorn
Author by

Eunicorn

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

  • Eunicorn
    Eunicorn over 1 year

    I am trying to import "Cheerio.js" for web scraping purpose. When I try to run it. I am getting "Module Parse Failed Error: You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type." It seems like I have to install extra loader or change my configuration in my webpack.config.js but I am having hard time trying to solve this issue. Could anyone please help me solve this issue?

    Here is the error that I am getting:

    ERROR in ./~/har-schema/lib/log.json
    Module parse failed: /Users/taelee/Desktop/reactReduxBoilerPlate/ReduxSimpleStarter/node_modules/har-schema/lib/log.json Unexpected token (2:7)
    You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.

    Here is my webpack.config.js file:

    module.exports = {
      entry: [
        './src/index.js'
      ],
      output: {
        path: __dirname,
        publicPath: '/',
        filename: 'bundle.js'
      },
      module: {
        loaders: [{
          exclude: /node_modules/,
          loader: 'babel',
          query: {
            presets: ['react', 'es2015', 'stage-1', 'stage-0']
          }
        }]
      },
      resolve: {
        extensions: ['', '.js', '.jsx']
      },
      devServer: {
        historyApiFallback: true,
        contentBase: './'
      }
    };

    Here is my package.json file:

    {
      "name": "redux-simple-starter",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "description": "Simple starter package for Redux with React and Babel support",
      "main": "index.js",
      "repository": "[email protected]:StephenGrider/ReduxSimpleStarter.git",
      "scripts": {
        "start": "node ./node_modules/webpack-dev-server/bin/webpack-dev-server.js",
        "test": "mocha --compilers js:babel-core/register --require ./test/test_helper.js --recursive ./test",
        "test:watch": "npm run test -- --watch"
      },
      "author": "",
      "license": "ISC",
      "devDependencies": {
        "babel-core": "^6.2.1",
        "babel-loader": "^6.2.0",
        "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.1.18",
        "babel-preset-react": "^6.1.18",
        "chai": "^3.5.0",
        "chai-jquery": "^2.0.0",
        "jquery": "^2.2.1",
        "jsdom": "^8.1.0",
        "mocha": "^2.4.5",
        "react-addons-test-utils": "^0.14.7",
        "webpack": "^1.12.9",
        "webpack-dev-server": "^1.14.0"
      },
      "dependencies": {
        "axios": "^0.17.1",
        "babel-preset-stage-1": "^6.1.18",
        "cheerio": "^1.0.0-rc.2",
        "jsonp": "^0.2.1",
        "lodash": "^3.10.1",
        "moment": "^2.19.2",
        "prop-types": "^15.6.0",
        "react": "^0.14.3",
        "react-ace": "^5.10.0",
        "react-ace-editor": "0.0.2",
        "react-dom": "^0.14.3",
        "react-redux": "4.3.0",
        "react-router": "^2.0.1",
        "react-router-redux": "^4.0.8",
        "redux": "^3.0.4",
        "redux-promise": "^0.5.3",
        "request": "^2.85.0",
        "request-promise": "^4.2.2"
      }
    }

    Could anyone please help me solve this issue?

    Thank you.

    • harrymc
      harrymc over 11 years
      Best to use a 3rd-party backup product rather than Windows backup. Storage Spaces won't help any. There is no way to speed the i/o but usb3 is fast.
  • Eunicorn
    Eunicorn about 6 years
    First of all, thank you for your solution. I tried it but I still get the same error. It seems like it is not able to compile "json". Do you know where I should add the "json-loader" in my webpack.config.js file?
  • Chasing Unicorn - Anshu
    Chasing Unicorn - Anshu about 6 years
    @Eunicorn can you give one last try. Have updated my code, this webpack configuration was working in my local. Also configuration.resolve.extensions[0] should not be empty.
  • Eunicorn
    Eunicorn about 6 years
    Once again, thank you for your answer. I tried your solution but now I am getting new error: Module not found: Error: Cannot resolve 'file' or 'directory' ./src/index.js in /Users/taelee/Desktop/reactReduxBoilerPlate/ReduxSimpleStart‌​er @ multi main I updated my description with my file structure. Please take a look at it.
  • Chasing Unicorn - Anshu
    Chasing Unicorn - Anshu about 6 years
    You can try with the updated code. Have added context: ${__dirname}/src. Ref: github.com/webpack/webpack/issues/2416
  • Eunicorn
    Eunicorn about 6 years
    Thank you for your answer. I have tried above solution, but I still get the same error..