bzmillerboy
Has anyone relied on a bootable image housed on an external hard drive instead of a secondary laptop?
What are you guys using as a back-up if your laptop fails?
I am currently running a mac and store all my music on an external HD, but I don't have a backup laptop if my main HD fails on the Mac. If my laptop fails they only way to play music is through my ipod. In an effort to alleviate this issue, I was thinking I could create a bootable image of my Mac OS X on the external HD as well, and if my main HD fails, I could just reboot to that image. Of course I would have to install all the necessary software.
Let me know what you guys think?
What are you guys using as a back-up if your laptop fails?
I am currently running a mac and store all my music on an external HD, but I don't have a backup laptop if my main HD fails on the Mac. If my laptop fails they only way to play music is through my ipod. In an effort to alleviate this issue, I was thinking I could create a bootable image of my Mac OS X on the external HD as well, and if my main HD fails, I could just reboot to that image. Of course I would have to install all the necessary software.
Let me know what you guys think?
Posted Wed 10 Sep 08 @ 12:28 pm
DJ von Smoothousen
Hi Millerboy,
good to have a back-up.
However, this will only help if the hdd of the laptop fails.
I once did a gig where a sticky cocktail landed from the dance floor on the laptop's keyboard. Thank good it only failed briefly, but the whole thing might have died.
I happen to have a small and simple laptop from work (Dell), that I have for back-up.
It has the songs on its own hdd.
it can't do video, but at least I could continue playing songs (touch wood).
With low laptop prices, I would recommend buying a cheap (used?) 2nd laptop, because booting a laptop from external hdd can be a pain and you still need that laptop to be OK.
For the windows people (like myself): booting from usb or FW hdd: never got that to work.
Lots of time, in the end lots of frustration ;-)
Good luck,
Arie
good to have a back-up.
However, this will only help if the hdd of the laptop fails.
I once did a gig where a sticky cocktail landed from the dance floor on the laptop's keyboard. Thank good it only failed briefly, but the whole thing might have died.
I happen to have a small and simple laptop from work (Dell), that I have for back-up.
It has the songs on its own hdd.
it can't do video, but at least I could continue playing songs (touch wood).
With low laptop prices, I would recommend buying a cheap (used?) 2nd laptop, because booting a laptop from external hdd can be a pain and you still need that laptop to be OK.
For the windows people (like myself): booting from usb or FW hdd: never got that to work.
Lots of time, in the end lots of frustration ;-)
Good luck,
Arie
Posted Thu 11 Sep 08 @ 6:15 am
it is possiable....
1. make sure in your BIOS that 'boot from USB' option is there (should be turned off) if that option aint there then it probably aint going to work!!
2. use Norton Ghost to create a image of the drive and restore the image to the USB drive. doing it in DOS mode after restart is safer and eaiser in my opion (MAKE SURE YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT DRIVE!)
3. about 1-3 hours later when thats all done go into BIOS and check the 'Boot from USB device' option (this bypass the internal HDD and wont boot from it at all normally)
4. when you save the settings to CMOS and restart (hopefuly!) it should boot from the USB drive! (look for the lights blinking to make sure)
If your laptops new and the harddrive uses SATA connections then you might notice its a bit slower (USB about 100MB/s SATA 3GB/s i think) but it should work and in cant see no reason why it wont, but like the geezer said above the chances of a Hard drive failing are pretty rare and more than likly its gonna be something else thats gonna fail!
If your Harddrive is quite new (about 6-5 years old maby more) then it will probably have a SMART chip on it, there is some free software that will tell you what state your Hard drive is in and will give you a rough guide as to if its likly to fail and will tell you loads about spin up times read/write times etc (all of this data comes from the SMART chip), google is your frend here!(just type SMART Hard Drive software free) this is handy as if it says its ok or good then theres no point doing the above as it probably will have at least 1 year or more in it left, but you can never be sure...! personally i dont have a backup if somethings gonna fail normally it aint the harddrive and you will notice it crashing with blue screens well before hand (this is what happend to me 2 weeks ago i used the software and it confermed my susspisions and i got a new HDD and all is well!)
I know its a lot to read but hopefully its usefull to u! any questions just reply im normally on here everyday and happy DJin ;)
1. make sure in your BIOS that 'boot from USB' option is there (should be turned off) if that option aint there then it probably aint going to work!!
2. use Norton Ghost to create a image of the drive and restore the image to the USB drive. doing it in DOS mode after restart is safer and eaiser in my opion (MAKE SURE YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT DRIVE!)
3. about 1-3 hours later when thats all done go into BIOS and check the 'Boot from USB device' option (this bypass the internal HDD and wont boot from it at all normally)
4. when you save the settings to CMOS and restart (hopefuly!) it should boot from the USB drive! (look for the lights blinking to make sure)
If your laptops new and the harddrive uses SATA connections then you might notice its a bit slower (USB about 100MB/s SATA 3GB/s i think) but it should work and in cant see no reason why it wont, but like the geezer said above the chances of a Hard drive failing are pretty rare and more than likly its gonna be something else thats gonna fail!
If your Harddrive is quite new (about 6-5 years old maby more) then it will probably have a SMART chip on it, there is some free software that will tell you what state your Hard drive is in and will give you a rough guide as to if its likly to fail and will tell you loads about spin up times read/write times etc (all of this data comes from the SMART chip), google is your frend here!(just type SMART Hard Drive software free) this is handy as if it says its ok or good then theres no point doing the above as it probably will have at least 1 year or more in it left, but you can never be sure...! personally i dont have a backup if somethings gonna fail normally it aint the harddrive and you will notice it crashing with blue screens well before hand (this is what happend to me 2 weeks ago i used the software and it confermed my susspisions and i got a new HDD and all is well!)
I know its a lot to read but hopefully its usefull to u! any questions just reply im normally on here everyday and happy DJin ;)
Posted Thu 11 Sep 08 @ 8:52 am
bzmillerboy
Thanks for the information guys!
I'm running a MBP is got last December and actually just upgraded the HD from a 120gb to 320gb, so the HD is brand new. I've always heard the most common thing to fail on a computer is the HD, which is why I was thinking have a back up HD would be sufficient. However I understand your point about something physically breaking or a drink being spilled, etc.
I think I'm just going to stick with my ipod as a back up, it's not perfect but should allow me to continue playing music if ever needed.
I'll be knocking on wood now that I started this thread.
I'm running a MBP is got last December and actually just upgraded the HD from a 120gb to 320gb, so the HD is brand new. I've always heard the most common thing to fail on a computer is the HD, which is why I was thinking have a back up HD would be sufficient. However I understand your point about something physically breaking or a drink being spilled, etc.
I think I'm just going to stick with my ipod as a back up, it's not perfect but should allow me to continue playing music if ever needed.
I'll be knocking on wood now that I started this thread.
Posted Thu 11 Sep 08 @ 10:27 am
djsherz
Yeah I keep a few megamixes on an ipod in case of dire emergency! I also have a battered old laptop with VDJ and a selection of tunes on its HD... of course if things get really bad, there's always CDs!
True, carrying a spare ipod, laptop and CD wallet may seem excessive, but you just can't put a price on the relaxed feeling you get when you know you're covered in case of technical f**kups! As much as I have faith in my main system, I'm nervous all night if I don't have a plan B....
True, carrying a spare ipod, laptop and CD wallet may seem excessive, but you just can't put a price on the relaxed feeling you get when you know you're covered in case of technical f**kups! As much as I have faith in my main system, I'm nervous all night if I don't have a plan B....
Posted Thu 11 Sep 08 @ 1:41 pm
bogart
I use a shuttle as the main. I have a laptop with an external drive
for my backup.
for my backup.
Posted Fri 12 Sep 08 @ 11:02 am