Keep all your charts and other important programs on disk
and keep a system recovery/backup disk as well.

Most folks probably know this, but just in case ... The "system recovery"
disks that come with most notebook computers today (on a CD or in a hidden
partition of the hard drive) wipe out all your data, along with any programs
you installed after you got the machine. They are designed to do that, in
order to return your machine to the way it came to you from the
manufacturer.

What you really want is a utility that will restore your system after a
crash to the way it was the day before the crash. Two that do that are
Norton Ghost (good but a bit awkward to use) from Symantec.com, and Acronis
True Image, much more user-friendly, from Acronis.com. Both retail for under
$50, and are often discounted.

I use Acronis, and make weekly compressed backups of my C: drive onto
external hard drives. I've used it to restore onto a new, bare hard drive
after a disk crash. The entire process took less than 20 minutes and gave me
a computer that was identical to the pre-crash system.

Given the importance of a navigation computer to a cruiser, it makes sense
to have a current "image backup" of the hard drive that can be used to
quickly restore the computer so all applications, charts, etc., are
immediately available.

Oh yeah -- and test the backups! (g)

Alex

On 2007-10-15 20:19:47 -0400, "Alex"
said:

Given the importance of a navigation computer to a cruiser, it makes
sense to have a current "image backup" of the hard drive that can be
used to quickly restore the computer so all applications, charts, etc.,
are immediately available.

Oh yeah -- and test the backups! (g)

Even better, "mirror" the internal drive so you can BOOT from the
backup! And do it periodically, spot-checking recent files and
programs. Our Mac will synchronize the external to match the 30 gigs of
internal data in about half an hour. I expect Windows will do about the
same thing.

Then put the backup in a electronically and magnetically shielded,
water-tight, air-tight container.

(says one who lost almost all of 20 years' files despite a image drive
and incremental backups. All failed in the same week -- a friend's
power surges took out two of them as I tried to get his back up.)

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2007101522343316807-jerelull@maccom...
On 2007-10-15 20:19:47 -0400, "Alex"
said:

Given the importance of a navigation computer to a cruiser, it makes
sense to have a current "image backup" of the hard drive that can be used
to quickly restore the computer so all applications, charts, etc., are
immediately available.

Oh yeah -- and test the backups! (g)

Even better, "mirror" the internal drive so you can BOOT from the backup!
And do it periodically, spot-checking recent files and programs. Our Mac
will synchronize the external to match the 30 gigs of internal data in
about half an hour. I expect Windows will do about the same thing.

To my knowledge, a Windows PC won't boot from an external hard drive. It
will boot from an internal CD or DVD, but I don't think it will recognize a
USB or FireWire remote drive. I believe a Mac will boot from an external
drive, further proof that Macs are for wimps and people who want to get work
done, while Windows machines are for us macho geeks who enjoy pointless,
frustrating challenges. (g)

With a Windows system, one could create a bootable external drive with the
intention of swapping it for the internal drive in the event of a failure.
In a desktop machine it's relatively easy to pop the cables and install a
mirrored hard drive, making that the boot drive. But in a laptop, at sea in
the cabin of a pitching boat, that kind of surgery could be a bit dicey.

Alex

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:05:28 +0000, Alex wrote:


To my knowledge, a Windows PC won't boot from an external hard drive. It
will boot from an internal CD or DVD, but I don't think it will
recognize a USB or FireWire remote drive. I believe a Mac will boot from
an external drive, further proof that Macs are for wimps and people who
want to get work done, while Windows machines are for us macho geeks who
enjoy pointless, frustrating challenges. (g)


Seeing that you enjoy frustrating challenges, you *might* be able to boot Windows from an
external drive using Grub, or a Super Grub disk. While I don't have much use for Windows,
grub will allow chainloading, allowing you to move Windows bootloader from the MBR to
another partition, or even another hard drive. Hey, it might be a frustrating challenge, or it
might work. :-) Some information on how other OSs do it:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromUSB

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzo...bDiskPage.html

On 2007-10-16 02:05:28 -0400, "Alex"
said:

To my knowledge, a Windows PC won't boot from an external hard drive.
It will boot from an internal CD or DVD, but I don't think it will
recognize a USB or FireWire remote drive.

You've got to be kidding! I've been booting Macs from external drives
from the early SCSI days, easily 15 years. Just hold down the "Option"
key to get all the possible options, including net-boot. I thought
Windoze had mostly caught up on trivial little things like that.

Truth be told, I know I can net-boot my work PC, so expect there's some
arcane set of keystrokes you can press as it flicks through DOS to boot
up on an external drive.

Sounds like Windows users should make a bootable DVD with their
backup/mirror software installed so they can at least reformat and
restore to the internal (new or replacement). AGAIN, test periodically
to ensure it works.

I believe a Mac will boot from an external drive, further proof that
Macs are for wimps and people who want to get work done, while Windows
machines are for us macho geeks who enjoy pointless, frustrating
challenges. (g)

Hey, them'd be fighting words except it's the exact truth. If my
workplace were on Macs, I probably would no longer have a job. Windows
should keep me busy until I decide to retire, because just about every
time we get an OS upgrade, I get a flurry of things to do. If the
switch to XP is any indication, the switch to Vista should keep me
well-paid for 2-3 years. ;-)

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

In rec.boats.cruising Jere Lull wrote:
:On 2007-10-16 02:05:28 -0400, "Alex"
said:

: To my knowledge, a Windows PC won't boot from an external hard drive.
: It will boot from an internal CD or DVD, but I don't think it will
: recognize a USB or FireWire remote drive.

:You've got to be kidding! I've been booting Macs from external drives
:from the early SCSI days, easily 15 years. Just hold down the "Option"
:key to get all the possible options, including net-boot. I thought
:Windoze had mostly caught up on trivial little things like that.

It's a limitation of the BIOS. If the BIOS properly enumerates USB
disks, windows will boot from them. Many don't, though things have
gotten better. I haven't tried in ages, though.

You can boot Windows from a USB drive, whether external hard drive or
flash drive.

Maybe not on one with a 6 year old BIOS.
But all 3 of my computers will accept a USB drive for boot.

You can boot Windows from a USB drive, whether external hard drive or
flash drive.

And there are also adapters that will let you plug a flash drive into an IDE
port. Just plug the adapter into the motherboard's IDE port and then a
flash drive into the adapter. The computer sees it as just another drive.
Granted, the OS won't generally see it as removable so it's not a typical
way to use a flash memory card. But it's a great way to add a
no-moving-parts drive to a system that doesn't otherwise directly support
that sort of media. You can also use those IBM/Hitachi CF-card MicroDrive
cards if you want actual rotating memory (as 'unmanaged' flash has it's
share of long term read/write issues).