Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Does squirrel sex involving mice equate to bestiality? Computer ethics are more complicated than I thought.

royb_36-cox.net Loc: Phoenix

I have an HP laptop I bought in early 2006 which was Vista compatible (very important) which came loaded with XP as Vista wasn't available until the fall of 2006. I installed Win 8.1 and then Win 10 while it was still free. It's still in use by my Granddaughter for school and related use. I agree this is an extreem example which I'm reporting because I believe this is the earliest PC I know that was upgraded to Win 10, Ver 1703 without problems. The earliest Win 7 PCs came out in 2009 and most in 2010 and later.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have two pre 2005 laptops that upgraded to Windows 10 and function better than they did with W7, even though they weren't supported on W7.

They are slow as hell, but they work. I did have to do a little device driver magic, but everything works.

Tech can be complicated, but it isn't always Mr. Softy's fault.

Heather Iles Loc: UK, Somerset

Hi Trix,

Thanks for your explanation. I have read all the comments on here and looked at video and realised that it is the mirrored copy that is required, but without enough technical knowhow would a StarTech 2 Bay
eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station and 3TB 7200RPM HDD Unblocking suit my purpose? Have you or any other members any experience of this equipment?

I am drawn to this equipment as it seems easy to use, but whether or not it would do what I am looking for (the mirror data)is where I need help. Perhaps you would explain what equipment you use or should I PM your? I would appreciate your response.

Other members are welcome to chip in before I finally make up my mind. I don't want to jump before I am sure it is right for my purpose.

Thanks everyone.

To Mark & Kuzano re my promised PM, I am still considering my options, as you will see from above.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I have used Acronis for almost 10 years. I am grandfathered to their former unlimited Cloud subscription too. So, I backup multiple copies to externals and to the Cloud.
If a drive fails during an Acronis Backup, the file will be corrupt. No way to protect against that. That is why I use the Cloud. You can also create a "restore point" in Win 10,
as an added measure of security. Of course that also depends on the OS drive not failing. I feel I have it covered, but I work at it. I have recovered entire drives using Acronis Recovery.
Mark

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Hello Heather,

If you're considering adding an external drive and feel that you need more than 1TB capacity, then I would recommend purchasing an eSATA or USB 3 connected (depending on what port(s) you have available) enclosure that has a fan and it's own power supply. Personally, I would purchase the enclosure and the drive separately, unless the enclosure company specifies what the internal drive is - which they often don't. Currently, I like the reliability of HGST drives, and would prefer the enterprise class Ultrastar series in 7200 RPM if that fits your budget. WD Red Pro NAS drives are also excellent. Neither are cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Regarding mirroring, if you want automatic sync between drives or between drives and the cloud, I like GoodSync or Microsoft's Synctoy, but there are many alternatives including just manually copying files if you're disciplined enough to do it regularly and only have specific directories that need to be mirrored.

Finally, if you have adequate internet bandwidth, "the cloud" is excellent for a 3rd off-site DR (disaster recovery) copy. I prefer Amazon S3 (Amazon owns the cloud storage business with as much cloud storage as the next 5 vendors combined). Other good alternatives include Google, Microsoft and Apple, none of which are likely to go "belly up" anytime soon. There are others, but beware of small companies with poor financials that may not survive long term. You can use the afore-mentioned GoodSync, Synctoy or other mirroring aps to automatically replicate to the cloud as well as your external drive.

Good luck. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions. There are also a host of other IT/data storage professionals on this forum who I feel sure will be glad to assist as well.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Great information, TriX. I use Fantom externals and the Cloud. Totally concur with everything you said.
Mark

Heather Iles Loc: UK, Somerset

Thanks Trix for your detailed response. I now realise that 1TB capacity is sufficient for my Laptop and will have to select a different model of the eSATA should I chose that make.

For my PC I have looked at the Ultrastar series in 7200 RPM and there are several 7200 at different prices and I can choose one that fits my budget. I haven't checked out the WD Red Pro Nas drives yet, but will do so. I will also consider Cloud as a back-up later on.

Yes, there are some very helpful technical people on here to whom I am most grateful. I can't thank those members enough for giving up their time and dealing with someone who doesn't quite understand or know the jargon, but I am trying and am willing to learn. I hope the originator of this thread have learned from my questions and the answers given.

I will PM Mark regarding Fantom and Cloud and see where that takes me.

Thanks everyone.

Heather

royb_36-cox.net Loc: Phoenix

Wow, that's impressive. My understanding is that Vista and newer OSs required more Video processing power then XP did. I have a 2009 desktop PC which MS wouldn't load W 10 to using the free upgrade because of the video driver. I loaded W 10 manually and it worked fine. I know a few XP vintage laptops came with better video (like game machines) but that may not have been true in your case. Anyway good job with the driver magic. I'll add this to my notes.