Suggestions for best bang for the $ - need to mirror a PC drive

[olnacl]

I spent Labor day weekend at a no-kill shelter, first replacing a fried HDD, restoring the OS and finally restoring years of veterinary records to the repaired computer. This was a pro bono job and I got a nice letter of thanks from the director as well as a bad case of allergic reaction to the animals. To avoid this problem in the future, I'd like to see them with a mirror image of the HDD as well as the current backup they maintain daily on a second computer. I'm used to running a PC server with a RAID 1setup, but this is a plain vanilla HP with Windows Vista. While there's room for a second drive, and that would be the simplest solution, I'd like to hear from anyone who was faced by the same situation and found the best system - hardware/software combination working with a limited budget.

Since the HDD failed from overheating, I'm afraid a second drive in the same computer will be subject to the same conditions that caused the initial failure (mainly dirt, hair in the computer). I advised them to clean the computers more frequently, but most people who work there are volunteers, like myself, so I can't guarantee any process will be followed. The mirror would be nice because they could just boot from the mirror and get on with business, but perhaps someone has a better suggestion.

Thanks for any advice and experiences.

[tortoise]

Acronis True image is the program of choice for the darkside, I have used it for years as a consultant and it has never let me down. Home version should be adequate for your target use.

http://www.acronis.com/

[olnacl]

I'm installing a trial version on my PC at home as we speak, just to see what it's like.
I suspect, given the dust/dirt conditions of the facility, backing up to an external disk on a daily basis might be best although I like the idea of a RAID card and internal mirror image, if only I could guarantee it would not suffer the same fate as the original HDD should a failure occur...

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I like Acronis too. Is there room to install a small fan to blow on the drives? If the drives are not next to each other, one of the "green" drives should run cooler. In the past I have cut up fiberglass furnace filters and put them on the fan inlet of a computer in a dirty location, it keeps a lot of the big gunk out.

It sounds like you figured out what the original software was. You should document how you restored everything. Vista is not a great choice for a server but I guess they just wanted to use what came with the computer.

[M A V I C]

I discovered last weekend, while working on the in-laws' dell, that Acronis is available as a free download from the WD site. I used it to clone their drive to a WD drive I had. It may only work if the target drive is a WD drive.

[john-o]

Good tip though Mavic, thanks!