My father-in-law was wondering if he could back up his hard drive by creating an image with an external hard drive. Do they come with this feature or will he need a separate piece of software to do this?

Basically, he wants to image his hard drive just in case he ever needs to restore it.

 

He will likely need software to create the image, but some of the external drives come with it.

 

Thanks.

Does anyone know which ones come with it? I looked on CompUSA and there are so many to choose from....

 

I may have spoken too soon! I've been reviewing a few of the products I know about, LaCie, Seagate, Western Digital and SimpleTech and while all of them come with backup software, I do not see any that specific imaging software. I'll keep looking...

 

I'd get a high quality external drive and than a copy of Norton Ghost if you want to make Images.

 

I will take a look at Norton Ghost.

Thanks.

 

Also if you have a DVD burner, do an occasional backup to DVD's. That way if you get hit by a power spike that takes out your internal and external HDD, and it does happen, you still have a chance at recovery. Ghost will also do this.

 

Ghost is the way to go. I periodically "ghost" the c drive to another drive.
Saved myself any headaches.

 

I have my PC set up to do that, nightly.

I have a spare drive large enough to hold 3 images, and as the newest one is added the oldest one is removed, automatically.

Plus, I burn an image to DVD once a month, so that's the oldest my backup will ever be, in an extreme case.

I will NOT lose everything, ever again!