Backup your DATA!

If thats correct, The I am basing this on experienance alone here.
1. install the os first with that drive being connected
2. install the 2 drives that are going to be RAIDED and then setup the config

I hope I got that right.

1 last question, and this is why I havent done it yet. Can someone really FUBAR there drives id they make a mistake ?

I know this question doesnt belong here but this POST was and still is about backups and it entered into RAID.

Am learning just as much from this as the next guy, I hope :slurp:

Personally, I regard any and all partitioning, RAID, or other HDD strategies as being only first line backup. Since I already separate most of my personal data files from my OS by using multiple partitions and drives, I use CDs and DVDs to make "permanent" backups of my important files. I use RWs for files that are subject to being updated or otherwise changed, and with the low cost of writeables these days, I make two copies of all my other files in case one gets misplaced or damaged. This might seem a bit anal or redundant to most, but I've had to attempt to retreive data from client's machines before when they had lost both HDDs, the main, and their backup drive.
The odds that you'd lose both drives in one shot are pretty slim but the possibility is real enough that if your data could cost you money, you should rely on something more than the same type of device you are subject to losing to electronic or mechanical failure.

Backup!

I totally agree, you need some sort of backup! Its probably been redundant if you even get to my post, but you need to keep hearing this. I lost my data, all 120GB of music, 70GB of Movies, 8GB of pictures. This was due to a hard drive failure, my external hard drive. I got one thinking not only do I need to expand my capacity, but its also a backup, some backup that was!!

All I am trying to say is, even though its inconvenient to get a DVD-R and backup all the time, its the only thing you can do to save your data, or else you end up spending 4 days straight trying to recover your data. In my case I got very lucky and downloaded Easy Recovery Professional, which is an awesome tool! I got all my data back, but I learned my lesson!

Get an external hard drive with a good cooling system, either back that up with DVD's or back it up with another external hard drive. BUT BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!

registry backup issue

Data backups come in many flavors from simple drag-n-drop replication to neat
software that implements, Full, Incremental, and Differential copies.
Programs are data too; they're just executable as well. So of course these
can be captured by your favorite backup technique. There are issues
that need to be considered however.

For example, some systems will not allow a file that is being used to be opened
a second time. You can see this for yourself by attempting to copy a running
program to another location and the file size will be ZERO.

A Windows program is almost useless without the corresponding registry entries
created at install time. Some backup programs will 'do the right thing' and others
may not. If your backup technique is via data replication, then you're going to need
a manual backup of the registry. Here's how You're going to need one each
time you make a replication, so a naming convention will help you coordinate
the registry to the data.

What to backup and how?

The following is part of an earlier post of mine in the http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html "How to: Repair Windows XP/2000 if you are unable to boot into Windows" thread.

CDRs and DVDRs are great to backup stuff if you don't have too much data. But when it come to larger amounts of data you might consider other solutions for backups.

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If you want to backup your files:

Here is a simple and cheap suggestion. Buy an external USB hard drive enclosure, they can be found for around $29. This way, you can temporarily remove your hard drive from your computer, install it in the USB enclosure and connected via USB to any other system and copy over your data. Note if your file system is NTFS, as is the case most of the time with Windows XP and 2000, you won't be able to access the files if you plug it onto a Windows 9x/ME system.

The files you want to backup will likely be within your user(s) profile. After connecting the USB enclosure with your hard drive in it to another system preferably running Windows XP or 2000, it will assign a drive letter for it. You can then access that drive through “My Computer” or Windows Explorer. You might want to scan that drive for viruses before going any further. Once you open your drive, go to “Documents and Settings” folder then find your username folder, it may have your name or be called “Owner” or “User”. If you have more than one user you obviously will have more than one username folder. Don't worry about the following four folders if they appear: All Users, Default User, LocalService and NetworkService. Once in a “username” folder, you probably want to copy the Desktop (may contain only shortcuts but some people save files there), Favorites and My Documents (may be called Username's Documents) folders. Save those onto the hard drive your USB enclosure is connected to. Do this for any other user you may have.

Also if you use Outlook Express for email and want to save your email and address book you can. These are located in hidden folders, to be able to see hidden folders, click on “Tools” in the top menu of Windows Explorer, then click “Folder Options”, click the “View” tab, go down and click to select “Show hidden files and folders” and click “Ok”.

To save your address book, still within the “Local Settings\username folder, go to “Application Data”, then “Microsoft” and then copy the “Address Book” folder.

To save your email, again within the “Local Settings\username" folder, go to “Local Settings”, “Application Data”, "Identities”, next folder is a big long number like “{0C99E7CD-2119-4A33-8C58-FF498AAA4A0B}”, “Microsoft” and copy the “Outlook Express” folder.

If you use Mozilla Firefox like I do and want to save your bookmarks, they are within a folder similar to mine which is c:\Documents and Settings\Pete\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yoh9r35k.default\bookmarkbackups

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Also for more advanced users with more than one computer on a network you might consider a Bytecc Landisk. This is basically the same as an external enclosure except it connects directly to your network instead of USB. Very easy to setup, similar to a router. I have sold these to some of our small business customers as an alternative to a file server. My cost from wholesaler in Canada is $73CAD which would probably be about the same retail in USD. Much cheaper than a whole new system with keyboard, mouse, monitor and OS.

I have pretty much always backed up my files manually and regularly but there are many ways to do automatic backups with third party software or using the Windows backup utility located in Start\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Backup.

I have seen some people literally cry over lost data such as personal pictures, accounting and other important files. There is a little secret that gives you a small chance of getting data back from a crashed hard drive. Sometimes, and I stress that word sometime, if you physically freeze the hard drive in the freezer for a couple of hours, you may have a couple of minutes of precious access time to backup your data. This has worked for me on several customer's hard drives even when the drive would constantly make the deadly clicking noise. What I use on my tech bench is an external USB bay but I ripped the enclosure off and spliced longer power connectors and a 18” IDE cable and just plug in a frozen hard drive, then turn on the USB device and then, if accessible, copy documents as fast as I can from the failing hard drive.

Ghost

Although the other Norton products may be crappy, in terms of system resources thay demand, (look at the Internet Security Suite), Ghost remains one of the best possible solutions, just w. a floppy disk and you can restore a partition or an entire drive back.
I never tried the Bart's PE builder tool, maybe there is a thread for that here, but I think that if you don't want to get into something complicated, you might just want to copy the data to some DVDs.
The idea is not what to use, but rather JUST USE SOMETHING !
It's better to have a crappy made back-up, than to completely lack one.

Can you recover data from USB flash drive?

This is addressed to the self-help data recovery experts who have learned the hard way to back up their data. I do a lot of work on a USB drive (Kingstar 256MB) which I use on any one of four computers. Today it stopped working (This USB device has malfunctioned and is not recognized, etc). Has anyone figured out a way to 1) get any Windows XP machine to recognize it, or 2) figure out a way to scrape some data off it? Oh, yeah - NEVER BE "TOO BUSY TO BACK UP" BECAUSE THAT IS WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET IT MOST. Thanks.

USB problems

Have you tried some of the GET DaTA back tools ? Maybe it'll work for you.
A colleague of mine had the same problem, but it had to change the stick
Good luck to you, I hope you'll get your data back...