Laptop for backup storage ?

I have an Acer 3680 laptop that I am rebuilding and I can get a 160 gb
drive for under $50. Is it practical to use this laptop as a means of
backing up my two 80 gb desktops? Really, I have only 100 gb of data
to backup. Thanks. How might I best do this? Will it be too slow?




--
Grendal

wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:17:33 +0000, Grendal
wrote:

I have an Acer 3680 laptop that I am rebuilding and I can get a 160 gb
drive for under $50. Is it practical to use this laptop as a means of
backing up my two 80 gb desktops? Really, I have only 100 gb of data
to backup. Thanks. How might I best do this? Will it be too slow?

I think that you can use a special usb cable with crossed IN/OUT
signals between your computers. This kind of cable exist in
specialized computer stores.

I think a crossover USB cable can be used only with Vista.
A crossover serial (rs232), parallel, or ethernet cable can be used with WinXP.
An ethernet crossover cable will give acceptable speed (very fast if you have gigabit NICs) and is easy to set up and use if both PCs have ethernet adapters.

GENERAL INFO besides the original question!

If you make only copies of your directories and files, you don't
back-up everything of your computer (example: registers).
This way of doing is sufficient to backup data, but if you intend to
make a full back-up who will allow you to restore your computer in
case of crash, you have to use a dedicated backup software (like GHOST
for instance).

You should create restore points at regular periods to back up the registry.

Paul

--
Mike Walsh

So it looks like I could just use a Cat-5 cable maybe wired with a
crossover to do the transfer. I forgot to mention that it will go from
Xp to Ubuntu. Thanks.




--
Grendal

That will work. Configure each PC with a static IP address.
If you have high speed internet access now would be a good time to buy a router and connect both PCs to the router; instead of the direct connection with a crossover cable.

Grendal wrote:

So it looks like I could just use a Cat-5 cable maybe wired with a
crossover to do the transfer. I forgot to mention that it will go from
Xp to Ubuntu. Thanks.

--
Grendal

--
Mike Walsh

I just use a serial cable from PC to Laptop and create a share then copy the
files over. It is really not that difficult.
Another idea is to buy an external HD and hook it directly to your desktops
then transfer the files to the external HD.
The externals have really come down in price.
Of course, this is just my own methods.




"Grendal" wrote in message
...

I have an Acer 3680 laptop that I am rebuilding and I can get a 160 gb
drive for under $50. Is it practical to use this laptop as a means of
backing up my two 80 gb desktops? Really, I have only 100 gb of data
to backup. Thanks. How might I best do this? Will it be too slow?




--
Grendal