Can I use as a mirror (image) and a backup drive? I'd like to use this to create both an image or mirror of my system in case of crash, but also use for creating an incremental backup. Is that possible?

Question

Cronux · Accepted Answer

In short, YES!

In long, if you are using Mac, just format to OSX Journal not case sensitive type and use it as time machine. I would use 'airport express' to do time machine backup wirelessly for 2 reasons, its wireless and convinient, and also because its an external hard drive with external power supply not a portable usb hard drive, so they are more delicate and should not be carried around.
For PC you can use a program of your choice - crashplan free version will do it for you, you can also back up your other computers to the same HDD using crashplan free program. You can also go wireless or NAS route if you have a NAS system or appropriate router.

Hope it helps!

Midorichi · Answer

Yes, You can use the drive to store a mirror image from whatever software you choose. You can also store data on the drive assuming the image does not completely fill the drive. So if the image is 1GB then you still have ~2.6GB of free space to backup whatever you want manually to the drive on an as needed basis or you can have a software that does certain folders all the time. Basically an auto-backup on change type thing.

Answered by Midorichi 10 years ago

Gozar · Answer

With the right software you can do this. Just realize that if this USB drive fails you lose both the image and your incremental
Backup. Might want to consider storing an image backup
Offsite.

precisionimage · Answer

Yes this is very doable. Depending on what OS you are running you'll need to create a duplicate image of your current OS hard drive. This will likely either be an .iso .dmg or .rar file. Once the file is created store that file onto the external. In the event that you need to use your backup os image, you will open the compressed file and uncompress it onto a new os hard drive.

Answered by precisionimage 10 years ago

millertime199 · Answer

It would depend on the software you are using to back up your machine. Windows 7 has a built in image backup software (windows backup) that starts with an image of your machine and then does incrementals automatically. You could also purchase various backup programs that do the same thing such as Symantec desktop backup or Acronis desktop backup. Windows 8 did away with the automatic image backup but you can do a file level only backup automatically with it. Win 8/8.1 require third party software for what you are looking to do. The WD drives come with a basic file level backup tool which I'm sure you are aware of.

Answered by millertime199 10 years ago

Supertechman · Answer

Yes, it comes with Acronis True Image software (WD Version)

“Can I use as a mirror (image) and a backup drive? I'd like to use this to create both an image or mirror of my system in case of crash, but also use for creating an incremental backup. Is that possible?”

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