Creating a boot drive and a back-up drive?

c_marriott · May 22, 2015

I have a few extra 2.5in HDD's lying around from old laptops and I thought I'd make some use for them,

The two smaller ones (160GB and 320GB) I would like to use as a back up for my 120GB SSD C: Drive and as a separate boot drive in case I need to troubleshoot down the line.

Would it be best to clone my current C: Drive onto the boot drive (mainly because I don't have the ability to make on manually at the moment)?

What would you do as a solution for these two drives?

Thanks

manikyath · May 22, 2015

to me the best solution to backups for a home user is just a straight copy of everything.

plug the drive in your system, do a backup, and unplug the backup drive afterwards, leaving it ready inside your system. (power off your system to plug it in and to unplug it)

as for the seperate boot drive, why not experiment with linux on it? install some tools for troubleshooting.

c_marriott · May 22, 2015

to me the best solution to backups for a home user is just a straight copy of everything.

plug the drive in your system, do a backup, and unplug the backup drive afterwards, leaving it ready inside your system. (power off your system to plug it in and to unplug it)

as for the seperate boot drive, why not experiment with linux on it? install some tools for troubleshooting.

That maybe the best option for the back up, be there for when I need it.

I wouldn't mind trying Linux, never really had the opportunity to so maybe I'll give it a go

manikyath · May 22, 2015

That maybe the best option for the back up, be there for when I need it.

I wouldn't mind trying Linux, never really had the opportunity to so maybe I'll give it a go

this is your opportunity, dive into it, explore, distro hop, and most importantly:

(slightly old teksyndicate meme)

install gentoo.

/s

i'd suggest starting with ubuntu, or its derivatives, they seem to be the most user friendly (especially plugging the kubuntu folks here)

if you feel held back by the noob-friendly measures, or want to try something more cutting edge, try manjaro.

they're based on arch, but have a lot of the simplicity the ubuntu derivatives have, and are supported by the arch community and wiki.