How long to fully restore a system after hard drive failure? : restore, failed, long

May 17, 2008 03:51am pdt

1. nobus 29,157
2. garycase 17,404
3. PCBONEZ 12,172
4. Callandor 11,608
5. PUNKY 11,373
6. jamietoner 9,380
7. coral47 9,337
8. sparkmaker 8,922
9. briancassin 6,970
10. dbrunton 6,600
11. souseran 4,500
12. BillDL 4,080
13. willcomp 4,068
14. sungenwang 4,000
14. aleghart 4,000

1. Callandor 1,789,324
2. nobus 618,314
3. garycase 582,136
4. sparkmaker 240,774
5. mwnnj 217,787
6. rindi 207,208
7. jamietoner 177,968
8. PCBONEZ 168,621
9. coral47 152,963
10. burrcm 146,639
11. leew 134,457
12. rid 133,842
13. LucF 113,704
14. CrazyOne 110,561
15. AlbertaBeef 103,327

10.21.2007 at 12:53PM PDT, ID: 22907743

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6.6

How long to fully restore a system after hard drive failure?

Zones: General Computer Systems, Windows XP Operating System, Computer Hard Drives

Tags: restore, failed, long

My trusty WD Raptor failed !! So, as a rhetorical question:

How long does it take to replace a failed hard drive; reload XP; do all Windows Updates; load Microsoft Office; do all Office updates; load over 200 programs and do all the updates for those that support on-line updating; activate those programs that require it; load anti-virus and anti-spyware programs; re-arrange and "tweak" the desktop for personal preferences; restore all icons, pointers, default operating and temporary directories for all of the programs; and re-establish all shared directories and network connections so over 4TB of data can be accessed seamlessly ??

Obviously I don't expect an answer to this -- but I'll split the points amongst those who provide thoughtful comments on how they'd arrange THEIR system to minimize such a disaster. I mainly posted this to have a reference to refer to when encouraging folks to organize their systems for easy restoration ... real-life experiences can be very instructive.

Meanwhile, I'll post a note detailing what I had to do to restore my system -- hopefully this will encourage some to read what I wrote here and take heed:

Start your free trial to view this solution

Question Stats

Zone: Computer Hardware

Question Asked By: garycase

Solution Provided By: vallis

Participating Experts: 5

Solution Grade: A

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10.21.2007 at 01:01PM PDT, ID: 20119077

dlangr:

Put 2 harddisks in the system, mirror them using soft or hardware raid 1. Software raid 1 usually needs an reboot with 1 disk after the other failed to continue working, while hardware raid is usually smart enought to just ignore the failed drive without crashing. Therefore hardware raid would be preferred to minimize down time. If both harddisks die or the information on them is corrupted due to a virus or other malicious writes to the mirrored disk, rebuild from a recent backup.

10.21.2007 at 01:01PM PDT, ID: 20119082

garycase:

Okay ... notes on what I had to do to accomplish the above.

First, I was very lucky at the timing of this. I just happened to have a spare Raptor that I bought two weeks ago to use on another build which I haven't done yet -- which of course saved the delay of acquiring a new hard disk :-)
So I used that, and will send off the dead Raptor for a warranty replacement.

... otherwise, the timing would all be the same EXCEPT I'd have to wait for either a warranty replacement drive or a new drive to arrive.

In my case, to restore my system required this:

(1) Remove and replace the Raptor: 10 minutes

(2) Boot to Boot-It NG and partition the replacement drive essentially the same as the Raptor had been (I actually used larger 2nd and 3rd partitions, since I replaced the 74GB Raptor with a 150GB version): 5 minutes

(3) Restore the OS partition (with Boot-It): 10 minutes

DONE !! At this point I booted to the new drive ==> total down time ~ 25 minutes. I DID have to startup a SyncBack synchronization to restore the "D:" drive (where all my data is kept) to have it fully restored -- but the system was fully useable while this was happening. In fact, it was while this was in progress I decided to write this note to encourage others to organize their systems to be equally "bullet-proof." It has, at this moment, been about an hour since my Raptor failed, and my system is completely recovered with no indication whatsoever that it had a problem.

My system is organized with separate system and data partitions; and I always have a current image of the system partition and current backup of the data partition. This is an excellent example of how "bulletproof" this arrangement can make a system ==> but I'd be interested in any other techniques folks use.

I've often toyed with setting up a RAID-1 array in addition to this ==> but it was SO simple to get everything back up & running that I'm not at all convinced it would be worth it. The 2nd drive in the RAID 1 array, for example, would be running all the time and have just as many operational hours as the 1st one ... so while it would eliminate the 25 minutes it took me to do the swap & restore the partitions, it seems like it would be better to simply have a 2nd drive just kept unused (so it would be new when used as a replacement). It could even be installed in the case ... but just not connected => and then the full restore could be done in about 15 minutes :-) ... it IS true, however, that if I'd had a RAID-1 the only downtime would have been 10 minutes to replace the drive [or no time if I went to the expense of using hot-swap drive cages].

10.21.2007 at 01:03PM PDT, ID: 20119090

Rank: Guru

vallis:

Before you start your 12 hour plus marathon purchase a copy of Acronis True Image. And to make life even easier Acronis Disk Director too.

Here's a strategy for setting up Windows XP using imaging software at different points along the way so that if anything goes wrong during the installation or forever after, you're only 20 minutes away fro a pristine system.

http://www.mistywindow.com/pc-care/typical-xp-install.htm

Thoughts on imaging:
Save yourself some agony - image it!
http://mistywindow.net/?p=7

Acronis' website:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Accepted Solution

10.21.2007 at 01:07PM PDT, ID: 20119103

garycase:

My "12 hour plus marathon" took 25 minutes --> and only because I took 10 minutes to swap the drive (I took my time; blew our the case while I was at it; etc.) :-)

10.21.2007 at 01:13PM PDT, ID: 20119123

dlangr:

With hardware raid 1 you could restore the disk at a time you prefer, instead of at the time it crashed, wich is random. It would also als you noted yourselve mean much less down time, especially with the hot-swap drive cages. While the HD would have the same amount of operational hours, hd's are not very expensive. Losing a day of work because the hd crashed and the only backup is 1 day old, can be a very expensive thing. It all depends on how critical the data is for you, but you asked for the least downtime possible.

10.21.2007 at 01:15PM PDT, ID: 20119128

garycase:

vallis => Your web page on how you installed XP is almost identical to how I've done it for years :-) The only difference is the imaging software we use. Nice reference page, however => I've been "meaning" to do a writeup like that for a long time ... now I'll just use your page as a reference :-)

I'm also a bit more paranoid about backing up ==> I keep my backups & images on (a) a 2nd hard drive in the system; (b) a 2nd hard drive on my wife's system; and (c) a spare hard drive on my video server. In addition, I burn occasional DVD copies of the backups & images :-) And ALL of my systems have UPS's => I consider a UPS a mandatory part of any PC I build.

10.21.2007 at 01:52PM PDT, ID: 20119227

Rank: Guru

vallis:

@garycase
I didn't want to confess to being anally retentive, I hid my lamp under a bushel. I'm at least as paranoid as you with the important stuff.
Some may consider it over the top, but I've been bitten more than once with multiple backups being corrupt.
1. Internal drive.
2. USB drive.
3. Pocket drive.
4. Sync with Laptop.
5. Most important stuff that will fit on 8GB USB stick.

One important point about True Image for those unfamiliar with it. Verifying the backup is not the default setting, so that's a sensible choice to be made in the final step - Set the options manually.

10.21.2007 at 02:13PM PDT, ID: 20119288

x86fix:

I agree with so much that is in here in fact even what I disagree on has been covered somewhat.

Things to add.

Time to restore an image = pretty much the same time it took to make it.
Time to install XP 15-40minutes.
Install all updates to Windows 1-5hours.
Recreate data files 0-infinity
Multiple Media, Multiple locations, and mulitple backup versions
protect not only against the single drive failure but also protect against
fire, flood, theft, magnetic field, backup failure, virus, undiscovered corruption, sabotage
A backup of critical data to DVD gives an added layer of protection. I prefer Hard drives.
A bad backup can happen. What if your data went bad in certain critical files last month and you just realized it today?
Over 50% of businesses that suffer a 90% loss or greater go under within 2 years.
Splititng the OS onto a smaller partition than the data makes recovery much faster and enables recovery of the OS painless when an update goes bad or other unecpected problem suddenly crops up.

10.21.2007 at 02:26PM PDT, ID: 20119329

garycase:

As I said in the question, this is a rhetorical question => i.e. I think I know the answer very well and my experience with this failure confirms it [I've had more than my share of failures with more than 32 years of PCs at home :-) ] I'm just curious if others have appreciably different strategies -- I actually doubt it (hard to imagine what would work better) ... but am always curious.

As for a bad backup ... it's certainly possible; but I always have at least 4 generations of images; and keep known-good key baseline images on DVD's. And all of my automated backups are stored on 4 different hard drives on 4 different UPS-protected systems ... so it's rather unlikely I'll ever have that problem :-) [and I also burn periodic DVDs of the backups]

... of course if I had a business I'd be even MORE paranoid about backups :-)

10.22.2007 at 01:50AM PDT, ID: 20121618

Rank: Sage

nobus:

Since your home must look like a PC shop by now ( :-) ) i suppose you could add a separate PC, or server for all the backups, and images.
You can also look for a trust worthy friend, that has PC storage, and give him a copy of your backups (weekly or monthly) to be safe in case of a fire
But i think, knowing you a bit, that you have it all fairly well covered

Assisted Solution

10.22.2007 at 02:03AM PDT, ID: 20121672

garycase:

"... But i think, knowing you a bit, that you have it all fairly well covered ..." ==> :-)
I think that's something of an understatement :-) [I do, as you suspect, have a "trustworthy friend" who keeps a set of my backup DVDs for me]

As I noted at the beginning, this is mostly a rhetorical question ... I clearly don't need any "help" in this area. But I AM interested in any other approaches folks might be using ... there's always an opportunity to learn something new.

As for my home looking like a PC shop ... my wife might agree with you; but I DO try to keep most of the "extra" PC's in just two rooms [although every spare bedroom has a PC w/internet connection and a client for my video server ... so if you come to visit you can do your e-mail, browse the internet and watch any TV show or any movie in my collection from your bedroom :-) ].

10.22.2007 at 02:37AM PDT, ID: 20121818

Rank: Sage

nobus:

>> but I DO try to keep most of the "extra" PC's in just two rooms << i only managed to get 1 room ;=((

10.22.2007 at 10:29AM PDT, ID: 20124957

Rank: Guru

vallis:

<quote> i only managed to get 1 room ;=(( </quote>

Luxury!

I get one corner of the sunroom and wherever my laptop is.

10.28.2007 at 01:15AM PDT, ID: 20163992

garycase:

Guess there aren't likely to be any more thoughts here ...

... clearly I didn't need (or get) any help here => that wasn't the intent; I just wanted to see if there were any appreciably different ideas (which there really weren't).

But I did appreciate the dialogue ... and in particular vallis's web page; which describes a process VERY similar to what I do when loading a system. I tend to take even more images than he does along the way :-)

So ... the bulk of the points to vallis for the link to his web page (which I'll certainly use as a reference for others); and a few points to nobus for mentioned an "off-site" backup [which I also do].

sm_feroz

02.09.2008 at 06:12AM PST, ID: 20857291

Hi,
Replacing a Hard Drive will take not more than 10 minutes ,installing operating system will take 45 Minutes ,Loading MS Office will take 10 minutes and updates will take another 45 minutes if the ram is of 512 MB and if it is 1 GB of ram then it will take less time half of the time specified above,depending upon Ram installation process increases and updates Ram plays a vital role in speed up process.

vallis

02.09.2008 at 09:23AM PST, ID: 20857953

It's not that simple sm feroz. :o)
I've just bought a new laptop. Here's what I've done so far and I haven't finished yet. Still have 3 virtual machines to install.

Install Windows.
Setup Norton Internet Security.
Run Live Update for Norton.
Set up Power settings.
Windows Update.
Set up touchpad - no touchlock, fast speed.
Kill Dell Support Centre & Home Network Assistant.
Uninstall Google Desktop.
Start Sidebar.
Adobe CS3 Web Premium install & register.
MS Office 2007 install & activate.
Acronis True Image 10.
Security folder on Desktop.
Run Easy Transfer (only settings).
Windows Explorer folders set to Single-click to open and Use check boxes.
Change PC name and user name.
Network setup.
HP LaserJet self installed.
Install Epson 2400 scanner driver.
Print, scan, rip & burn folder on Desktop.
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.
Partition C:\.
Move main default data folders to E:\ drive.
Install Bluetooth mouse.
Run NAV.
Set up Outlook, remove MSs pestilential RSS feeds from account Settings.
Firefox 2.0.0.11 and Google toolbar with British English add-on.
Change Windows Update setting to Notify but don't install.
Portable bookmarks shortcut in Taskbar.
System managed 6000MB fixed size paging file on D:\. Remove paging file from C:\.
Windows Updates and Ultimate Extras.
Image 1720 20080131
Install Flash player.
Install Infoselect. Change data path
SyncBackSE.
SnagIt 8.2.3.
Camtasia Studio 5.
Connect to Gossamer.
Acronis True Image 11. Disable Norton first.
Firefox Google autofill.
Image 1720 20080201
Update NAV.
Windows Update.
Install Dell 2407 driver.
Install MonOff with shortcut Ctrl + Alt + F12. Exe file in E:\Downloads\Utilities.
Install Google Earth & Spyware Doctor.
Expression Web.
IrfanView.
Run Adobe Suite Updater.
Copied Adobe and Corel fonts to D:/Fonts/, installed Cheltenham, Mistral, Technical & Albertus fonts.
Office update, including Office 2007 SP1.
Install MS VPC 2007.
Installed Bitstream Font Navigator from Corel 12 disc 1.
Note: Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86) is installed with Vista.
Image 1720 20080202
Pixie.
TypingMaster Pro.
QuickTime.
ColorPic.
Run Portable Bookmarks and Export to Firefox.
Install Java.
Ashampoo® WinOptimizer 4 and update.
Change Adobe Acrobat Internet settings.
Defrag C:\ D:\ E:\.
Clear temp files .
FileZilla.
Image 1720 20080204
Disconnect network mapped drives for Athlon.
Nokia Suite.
Vodafone setup.
WinBubbles and WinfLog.
CCleaner install and run.
SnagIt Stamps and WordPress output.
Install Pixma iP5300 and utilities.
Import websites to Dreamweaver.
Install ICOFormat plug-in for Photoshop.
Install Firebug add-on and StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox.
Pure Text shortcut in Quicklaunch.
Autoruns.
Process Monitor.
Install Opera 9.25.
Install WampServer 2.0.
Install jetAudio.
Set up dictionary backup.
Java JRE6 update 3?
EULAlyzer.
Favorg.
Old Windows 32-bit Help program file WinHlp32.exe for Favorg.

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