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To: Ian@SI who wrote (68853)	2/24/2010 10:24:14 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110653

Ian, having one HD off site is a good idea. Or try Mozy which is off site already and costs zero up to 2 GB. It backs up for me twice daily, but only when I'm not at the computer. Things that don't change, like music and photos, I also burn to CD or DVD. If valuable, you can save a copy in a safe deposit box. PS: actually, losing it all can be a good thing. You start over with a clean slate.

To: Ian@SI who wrote (68853)	2/24/2010 11:25:21 PM
From: Raptech	Respond to of 110653

I have a WD My Passport Essential USB which works extremely well, and as advertised. I primarily use it for a backup to the backup, and keeping backup data off site. Great for traveling with a laptop so you don't have to download your desktop data in to the laptop. I also have a Seagate USB external drive that came with backup software, Bounce Back. It has good options and too works well and gives you great restore options where you can view and open each file, and just restoring one file or all of them. One caution would be that I burned out a previous Seagate external by keeping it always on for about 2 years. I since have learned to turn it on only when using. The next desktop external I buy will have a timed auto shutdown or hibernation. Personally, I don't need TB capacity so I go for 500gb which will be less expensive. Also would look for 7200 rpm to move things a bit faster. Saw some at Best Buy for under $100. Both of the above were easy to install, mount and dismount, and partition.

To: Ian@SI who wrote (68853)	2/25/2010 8:50:12 AM
From: Bicycle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110653

Whatever external disk solution you settle on, do yourself a favour and download a free copy of Acronis True Image from Western Digital. Make an image of your system. It'll save your bacon when everything else fails. Bye4Now, FD. support.wdc.com

To: Ian@SI who wrote (68853)	2/26/2010 8:57:55 AM
From: thecow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110653

I'm late to the party but I would definitely download and install the WD Acronis. Make the rescue disk, it may come in handy some day. I would shrink the partition you have, make a new one, and move your data to that partition separate from the system. That will make your images much smaller and take much less time to make. If you end up having to reinstall Windows, your data won't be affected. You can partition the external drive so images can be separate from the data backups also. If you ever decide to dual boot, the built in imager on 7 sucks. It will image all operating systems it finds making the images huge and time consuming to make.