1 PC with 2 synchronized hard drives

[bigdainca]

I've done quite a bit of research on this, but I'm not finding the exactly solution I'm looking for. My goal is to install second hard drives on our business PCs, and set up a synchronization of the operating system and files between the two. If the primary hard drive fails, we can simply tell the PC to boot off the other drive, and Windows would be fully functional and all of our files intact.

While running on the backup hard drive, I would then replace the bad drive, and re-sync.

I've found software (like Acronis True Image 2015) and methods that will allow you to backup the system image and files on to another hard drive as a "recovery" method, but there is no automatic synchronization that I can see, and it doesn't sound like the computer would be able to "boot" from the drive in which the image is backed up. What am I missing here? Thanks so much!

Devin

 

[yoji]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

 

[bigdainca]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

I'm quite familiar with raid 1, but everything I read about using it for this purpose is for file backup only. It doesn't actually sync a functional operating system to the second drive. Am I wrong?

 

[smorizio]

you need to buy software for smb and from places like emc that not only does back up images it can also do full image copys.
http://www.retrospect.com/en/documentation/user_guide/win/immediate_operations#50458633_71329
for your office pc pick up a removable drive bay and two drives. set one drive as the daily backup and one as the cloned drive. then for added safty buy some cloud storage and put a backup copy of your image online. if it too costly then have him buy a portable hard drive make a monthly image to it and then take the drive home. if there a fire or flood at the office all he have to do is buy a new pc and then run the recovery disk that comes with most softwares and withing a few min be back up and running.

 

[kanewolf]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

I'm quite familiar with raid 1, but everything I read about using it for this purpose is for file backup only. It doesn't actually sync a functional operating system to the second drive. Am I wrong?

You are incorrect, assuming that the RAID 1 volume was built before the OS was installed. RAID 1 writes the same data to two disks. If a drive fails, the mirror takes over. RAID 1 does not protect from drive from file corruption due to bad software or bad drivers etc. It doesn't protect from human errors such as deleting files. Only backups protect against those things. RAID 1 is usually more trouble than it is worth.

With ALL that said, if weekly (or maybe nightly) sync is sufficient, you might think about a scheduled disk clone via the task scheduler. You could have a job run on the weekend that cloned the boot disk to a second disk. This would require that the hosts be left in sleep mode or be awakened via wake on lan (WOL).

It might also be the case, that you should investigate using a virtual desktop environment and diskless thin clients. This approach completely eliminates local disks.

 

[USAFRet]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

I'm quite familiar with raid 1, but everything I read about using it for this purpose is for file backup only. It doesn't actually sync a functional operating system to the second drive. Am I wrong?

RAID 1 is a mirror. Exact same data on both drives. If one dies, the other is still fully functional.

It is NOT, however, a true backup. Only helpful in the unlikely event of a dead drive. You still need your critical data backed up elsewhere.

To RAID 1 or not depends on some parameters.
Do you need 100% uptime?
Given other, proper backups, how long would it take to reconstitute the system and be up and running?
How much revenue if any would be lost during that process?

The Acronis True Image you mentioned will make an 'image' of the drive. A snapshot at a particular time.
Not a fail over, always running copy.

 

[bigdainca]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

I'm quite familiar with raid 1, but everything I read about using it for this purpose is for file backup only. It doesn't actually sync a functional operating system to the second drive. Am I wrong?

RAID 1 is a mirror. Exact same data on both drives. If one dies, the other is still fully functional.

It is NOT, however, a true backup. Only helpful in the unlikely event of a dead drive. You still need your critical data backed up elsewhere.

To RAID 1 or not depends on some parameters.
Do you need 100% uptime?
Given other, proper backups, how long would it take to reconstitute the system and be up and running?
How much revenue if any would be lost during that process?

The Acronis True Image you mentioned will make an 'image' of the drive. A snapshot at a particular time.
Not a fail over, always running copy.

Raid 1 then sounds like what I am looking for. I do understand that RAID is only protecting against physical hard drive failure. Our goal is to be back up and running within an hour, with the same files, software - everything as it was. We backup all of our files into a RAID 1 NAS on the network, which has it's own true backup drive as well. It's not the files I'm worried about - it's down time. A weekly scheduled clone to the second hard drive would be perfect, if that is possible.

 

[kanewolf]

Set up as RAID1 (look it up for details).. that seems like it will do what you want.
HTH
Cheers

I'm quite familiar with raid 1, but everything I read about using it for this purpose is for file backup only. It doesn't actually sync a functional operating system to the second drive. Am I wrong?

RAID 1 is a mirror. Exact same data on both drives. If one dies, the other is still fully functional.

It is NOT, however, a true backup. Only helpful in the unlikely event of a dead drive. You still need your critical data backed up elsewhere.

To RAID 1 or not depends on some parameters.
Do you need 100% uptime?
Given other, proper backups, how long would it take to reconstitute the system and be up and running?
How much revenue if any would be lost during that process?

The Acronis True Image you mentioned will make an 'image' of the drive. A snapshot at a particular time.
Not a fail over, always running copy.

Raid 1 then sounds like what I am looking for. I do understand that RAID is only protecting against physical hard drive failure. Our goal is to be back up and running within an hour, with the same files, software - everything as it was. We backup all of our files into a RAID 1 NAS on the network, which has it's own true backup drive as well. It's not the files I'm worried about - it's down time. A weekly scheduled clone to the second hard drive would be perfect, if that is possible.

Acronis does have a business version. I believe it has the features you are looking for.

 

[yoji]

If the primary hard drive fails, we can simply tell the PC to boot off the other drive, and Windows would be fully functional and all of our files intact.

While running on the backup hard drive, I would then replace the bad drive, and re-sync.

With a true Raid1 you will have no down time.. it will just keep running. and you will get an alert that a drive has failed..
and if you have a hot swap capability... swap out and it will auto resync to the new drive..

Cheers

 

[popatim]

You cant have raid1 and a weekly sync to the other drive going at the same time. Raid 1 is a live sync. Create a file and its created on both drives at the same time. Delete a file and its gone from both drive. Open a file and both drive will have the same 'last accessed' date&time...

Important file backups should be done nightly at minimum and to an external device like your NAS. More often if they are updated frequently and you cant afford to lose the days work.

 

[yoji]

You cant have raid1 and a weekly sync to the other drive going at the same time. .

Why not? You can have your RAID1 Backed up on a weekly schedule (not to one of your RAID1 drives ofc). But the thrust of what you saying is 100% correct... no-one should every be confused... RAID1 is NOT an adequate replacement for a good backup strategy. As people have said.. file corruption or accidental deletes are not handled by RAID1

Cheers

 

[Paperdoc]

RAID1 is the best solution for your needs, I think. With any decent RAID1 system, both HDD's contain exactly the same info at all times. If one HDD fails, the system immediately reverts to the mode in which the remaining good unit is the only drive in use, and it keeps on working. It also puts out a message on the screen telling you that a failure of the RAID1 system has happened, so you know a repair is needed.

There are two "weak points" in this, but easily addressable.

1. On some RAID1 systems, the failure message may show up as a window on the main screen. BUT an untrained user may find that box just annoying without recognizing its importance, and just close it. So it is possible for you as the system manager to not know the problem happened. It would be very useful to get into the habit of checking the RAID system for error messages. In my case, the simple way I do that is to reboot from time to time and watch the start-up screen messages for the RAID system report.

2. When you get the failure report, you need to get a new replacement HDD unit and then schedule some downtime for repairs. Ideally this will be within a few days, although the remaining good HDD might well keep functioning for years. The RAID management system should help you identify which HDD unit has failed so you know which to replace, and then it will rebuild the array by copying all data from good old unit to new unit. Although often this rebuild can be done as a background activity while normal operations are going on, I prefer to let it happen with no "normal operations" to slow it down. But that's a preference, not a need. So you DO need some downtime to replace the failed unit and rebuild the array - as much as several hours if you have an array with a terabyte or two of data and you want the rebuild to proceed by itself. BUT the point is you can SCHEDULE that downtime. Until you do, the computer just keeps on working with no interruption.

As others have said, RAID1 is NOT a backup system at all, so you need to set that up additionally.

A CAUTION. There is no standard for any RAID system. Thus, if you have a RAID array of any type operating and the RAID controller system fails (either a mobo's built-in RAID, or an add-on controller card), it can be difficult for a new controller to read and use the old HDD's. There ARE ways to prevent this problem, starting, of course, with regular backups. But to try to ensure that a new controller can deal with old HDD's:
1. If you buy a dedicated RAID controller card, get one from a well-established manufacturer that is very likely to still be there in 10 years or whenever you might need to replace that card. It is very likely they will still have cards in their product line able to deal with your HDD's correctly.

2. If you plan to use the RAID system built into the BIOS of the mobo, do what I did. I surveyed the makers of the common mobo chips - the Southbridge - used to control the hard drives.On a mobo it is this chip and its associated controller code in the BIOS chip that provide RAID management. At least one maker (nVidia in my case) offered an assurance that it will continue to use the same RAID algorithms in its future chips so that their future products on future mobos will be fully able to handle HDD's written by their earlier chips. So I chose a mobo using such a chipset. I actually had to use that assurance a few years later when the mobo's voltage regulator section failed. I chose a replacement from a different mobo manufacturer that DID use a chipset from that original company (nVidia) and, when it was installed, the system booted up completely normally. I did not have to make ANY adjustments in the RAID system! So, look for chipset makers that offer such an assurance, and choose your mobo accordingly.

3. Last resort, I would consider, is that there are software packages out there that claim to be able to read any old RAID set of HDD's and recover your data for you if your old controller failed. I have no experience with these, and am not completely comfortable with that. However, I do recognize this: among the several types of RAID, all quite different, RAID1 is the simplest because each HDD unit contains ALL the data written in the same form as any "normal" stand-alone HDD. It may have some uncommon info in the Partition Table and/or Directory structures that make is not quite trivial for an OS like Windows to read only ONE HDD from a RAID1 array, but I'm pretty sure most data recovery software would be able to get around that easily.

 

[popatim]

You cant have raid1 and a weekly sync to the other drive going at the same time. .

Why not? You can have your RAID1 Backed up on a weekly schedule (not to one of your RAID1 drives ofc).

Thats exactly the way I read the OP's post. He wanted a weekly backup of disk1 of the raid array put onto disk 2. So I wanted to clear that up in case he did mean that. LoL

 

[popatim]

Just to add to PaperDoc's Item #1.
I suggest that you Install the raid management software (AMD RaidXpert or Intels Rapidstor) for your applicable chipset raid - as both will allow you to setup email alerts as one of the options for how to treat errors, failures, or warnings.