Mock RAID 1 Setup

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

I am trying to figure out how to completely back up my entire main storage drive (Samsung 850 Pro), to a brand new WD Black HDD, and to keep it updated so if the Samsung fails or gets a virus I will have a hard drive I can run my computer off of until I get a new SSD or wipe the old drive clean.

I plan on buying a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 eventually and I know that I can use the Samsung migration tool to clone the contents of the 850 Pro to the 950 Pro, and then I could be using the 850 as a backup for the 950 and keep using the migration tool to clone the 950 onto the 850.

But my main concern is more immediate and that is how to get my secondary backup set up.
I chose the WD Black since it has a very low fail rate over long periods of time and it is supposed to be one of the most reliable hard drives you can buy, but I have no idea how to clone my 850's data onto it.

Basically I want to do a RAID 1 without it writing in sync, I only want to back it up when I deem it necessary, as to ensure I always have a relatively up to date drive free of corrupted files, viruses, or malware.

 

[Rogue Leader]

There really is nothing that will back up your drive as a bootable drive other than running a drive cloning tool like EaseUS partition master to clone your current drive to the hard drive periodically. It would definitely work.

http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Otherwise you may want to consider setting the drive up to hold a system image and then if theres a failure you can restore the image to a new replacement drive. The chance of an 850 PRO failing is tremendously low. But if you got a virus you can reboot into Windows Repair, restore the image right over it, and be done.

 

[Solandri]

There really is nothing that will back up your drive as a bootable drive other than running a drive cloning tool like EaseUS partition master to clone your current drive to the hard drive periodically. It would definitely work.

This is what I did in the early days of SSDs when their reliability was questionable. I'd install the OS on the SSD, then clone the OS partition over to the HDD (or vice versa). Make a primary partition on the HDD the same size as the SSD's OS partition, then use the cloning software to clone from the SSD to the HDD. Then I'd yank out the SSD to make sure the HDD would boot. Once I'd confirmed it was working, I'd put the SSD back in, and every month or so I'd clone the SSD OS partition to the HDD again. That way if the SSD ever died, I could simply run off the HDD while I waited for the SSD to be replaced under warranty (I did have to do this on one system).

It works trivially for Windows 7. Windows 8.x (and I presume 10) seems to have introduced a new way of telling the computer where the boot partition is, which seems to encode the physical drive ID. So cloning the OS partition isn't enough - it'll try to boot from your nonexistent SSD. You'll have to boot off the install DVD and run some sort of repair before you can get it working again. This is a guess as to what the problem was - I only had to deal with this twice (once to get the HDD booting, once to get the replacement SSD booting) so I didn't fully investigate why it was occurring. I just fixed it with repair, and hoped that I'd never have to do it again (I never did).

That said, I don't do this anymore. I consider modern SSDs to be reliable enough that it's not worth the trouble maintaining an always-ready duplicate bootable partition. I just rely on the standard backups.

As for using this as a way to keep your system free of viruses and malware, it probably won't work. Your "backup" OS partition is always installed in the computer on a running drive. Any virus or malware will be able to access it just like your primary OS partition. You can play some tricks to make it harder to access (e.g. change its partition type ID to something other than NTFS), but that means you have to change it back before you can boot it again. The only way to guarantee you have a clean copy of the OS partition is an offline backup restored with read-only media like a boot DVD.

 

[Rogue Leader]

If he does a System image to the drive that should avoid infection, however any other files on the drive could be infected.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Okay so basically my best bet to keep a system image on a drive and just replace the system image every so often?

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

What about using a portable SSD (Samsung) and just updating it every so often? Then I would have the added protection of having all my content "off-site" as well as the Samsung Migration tool. I could simply update it every few months and I would be happy with that.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Okay so basically my best bet to keep a system image on a drive and just replace the system image every so often?

Thats easier and safer IMO. Preferably on an external hard drive.

 

[Rogue Leader]

What about using a portable SSD (Samsung) and just updating it every so often? Then I would have the added protection of having all my content "off-site" as well as the Samsung Migration tool. I could simply update it every few months and I would be happy with that.

As mentioned it wouldn't be bootable unless you clone it and then you run into the issues Solandri mentioned. Saving an image there would be fine but why spend the money on an SSD for that, just use a cheaper hard drive.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

What about using a portable SSD (Samsung) and just updating it every so often? Then I would have the added protection of having all my content "off-site" as well as the Samsung Migration tool. I could simply update it every few months and I would be happy with that.

As mentioned it wouldn't be bootable unless you clone it and then you run into the issues Solandri mentioned. Saving an image there would be fine but why spend the money on an SSD for that, just use a cheaper hard drive.

Okay so how would I go about creating a system image on Win 10?

 

[Rogue Leader]

I can explain it but this article is way better:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3011736/windows/how-to-create-an-image-backup-in-windows-10-and-restore-it-if-need-be.html

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

I can explain it but this article is way better:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3011736/windows/how-to-create-an-image-backup-in-windows-10-and-restore-it-if-need-be.html

Thank you!