Backing up Arcade Hard Drives

[mytymaus007]

I would like to here how everyone is backing up there Arcade cabinets? Are you doing a windows back up and restore? Are you just Copying files over to an additional hard drive the same size? Well I have a 4TB hard drive running over 50 emulators with Hypersin FE just about MAXed out. I didnot do any sort of back up yet. If I just copy files over to another 4TB hard drive ill be able to save all my artwork and games but what about all my settings plus the expense of another 4TB HD. If I do a windows 7 back up it should compress all files on the HD to another smaller HD. I did a test with another PC i have. Windows 7 backup compressed 60GB of data to 10GB Wow. IM thinking of purchasing a 2TB HD and backing up 4TB of data with a windows 7 backup. I think this should work and also should restore it back to exactly the state before the crash if the systems crashes. Let me know if anyone has ever done this before

[BobA]

I would use a backup program that creates an exact image of your hard drive.  This would save all settings and all work you have put into getting the emulators to function properly.   You can create an exact image on a larger hard drive and the extra space will be added to the drive as useable disk space.

[mytymaus007]

I would use a backup program that creates an exact image of your hard drive.  This would save all settings and all work you have put into getting the emulators to function properly.   You can create an exact image on a larger hard drive and the extra space will be added to the drive as useable disk space.

Any suggestions on what backup program and have you ever restore it to a new PC other then the one you backed it up on.

[cigardude]

Second on using a program that makes an exact image. I personally use Acronis at home to backup my system drives. My data drives get backed up using RoboCopy. With Acronis you can restore to a bigger drive in the same system. There is also a universal restore option that you can purchase and it should restore the image to a totally different system. If you have some IT knowledge, it would come in handy restoring to totally different hardware because drivers are going to be needed. Doesn't always work that great.

[Thenasty]

+100 on Acronis. You can check out Symantec Ghost also.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I would use a backup program that creates an exact image of your hard drive.  This would save all settings and all work you have put into getting the emulators to function properly.   You can create an exact image on a larger hard drive and the extra space will be added to the drive as useable disk space.

Ouch!  Sore subject for me!  I actually did this many times (cloning) and it works great.  However, the last time I did it, I used the same exact drive brand/model and size for the back-up.  You can guess what I accidentally did when trying to clone it.  My "Ultra Arcade" is dead... for now, until I find time to put into re-doing everything.

My advice is to get a different sized hard drive for your backup.  NEVER the same size.

However, that said:  When I did back it up successfully it was very handy!  I once had my arcade hard drive die on me on the day of my Superbowl party and all I did was grab the spare, swap it out and I was back up within minutes.  I then cloned it again the next day and put the new clone on a shelf somewhere.

P.S. - No need to buy Acronis.  I use the FREE bootable CD-Roms that come with hard drives to clone them.  (Max Blast, Seagate Tools, Western Digital , etc)  They work great.  If your HDD didn't come with one, simply download the ISO free from your hard drive manufacturer.

DeLuSioNaL29

[mgb]

This is a good subject. its a topic I have thought much about but for some dumb reason, I haven't fully understood.
When talking about Acronis, I assumeticular product from them that you all are referring to is True Image.

I'm a little confused about why different size drives.

And I've also heard that when you buy a western digital hard drive, it comes with a version of acronis but for recovering the image, it must be used on another western digital hd?

My Mame cab is real easy to back up. I have one hard drive for the os and system files and then another hard drive with mame and mala on it plus a few utilities such as ledblinky and mame res tool so I can just copy the files and all form there especially because mame is the only emulator running on it.
The computer I'm currently building will have much more with multiple emulators, Hyperspin and home theater stuff, so I plan on doing some good backing up on that.

[Diet_Pepsi]

For backups I have another PC running Windows Home Server.  I am pretty handy when it comes to installing operating systems, so I don't back that stuff up -- I just use WHS to backup my emulator configurations and roms (and pictures of my kids).

[alfonzotan]

Acronis is excellent for Windows backups.  I have an onboard backup of my cab's OS X boot partitions via Carbon Copy Cloner on a separate drive.  Game data is on a different partition that can be accessed by either OS X or Windows, and I keep an external backup of game ROMs.

[HaRuMaN]

I'm a little confused about why different size drives.

So you don't get mixed up and clone the empty drive (spare) over top of the source drive (original).

[HaRuMaN]

I just use clonezilla.

http://clonezilla.org/

[ahofle]

I just use clonezilla.

http://clonezilla.org/

+1

[BobA]

I use Acronis True Image Home.   Works every time for me.

[UncleArgyle]

I also use Clonezilla to create an image when the system is complete and I have no more configuration changes to make.

While I am setting up my cab I use robocopy to sync all my changes to a USB drive. This way I can make changes and have a current backup. It also allows me to make changes on my laptop and then transfer those changes to the cab via a USB drive.

Robocopy can just copy the differences between files. That way you are not trying to copy 4TB worth of data every time you want to back up.

[cammada]

instead of regular backup, you could try set up mirrored drive so that if one of the hard drive died then you could easily replace the dead hard drive without losing any data as mirrored drive will automatic update the new hard drive.

Then you can use backup like Acronis for off site storage in case your place catch fire or a theives steal your precious PC or arcade. It really depends how often you want to backup, if you do it regular then mirrored drive would save more time otherwise if it fortnightly or monthy then use acronis.

However Acronis is good software as you don't have to do full back up everytime as you could do differential or incremential backup which do save space and time. Acronis True Image is the one should get. If you can't afford the software then get Robocopy as they are free. For real time syncronication, use Second Copy 8.


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[thaddeussmith]

why not something like Backblaze, Carbonite, etc? ~$5 a month for truly redundant and offsite media safety.