I have a drive that I would like to have mirrored.
I do not want different versions of the drive that I would like to be mirrored.
I would simply like to have the backup update daily and just be a 1:1 copy of the target drive
It is not clear to me how I can go about this in the program
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
It's fairly straight forward, but you do have to be aware of a few things:
Speaking in the syntax Paragon HDM uses, you want a full back-up, scheduled to run daily (at a time you specify). You want to retain 1 backup. This will delete the current back-up when run.
Select create new back-up, give it a name (or use the default) and make those choices in the primary tab.
Things to be aware of on the primary tab:
- Know where you want to back-up from, and where you want to back-up to.
- If the volume you wish to back-up contains your operating system, HDM will select all the extra "hidden" volumes that go along with it. The set-up wizard works pretty well for this.
Next to the primary tab will be the options tab.
Here, you will need to make some choices, so let's look at things to consider in the options tab:
- The back-up will be a "mirror", so to speak, but it will still have a specific format. You can choose to use Paragon's format, Windows format, or others. This may or may not be what you desire. Whatever format you choose will determine what you need to restore the back-up should that ever become necessary. If you choose to use the Paragon format, You will NEED to create a USB stick, or CD, or other removable (or network) device to boot the system from. HDM will create the files and write them to the media device of your choice with the Media Creation wizard. Windows also has a media creation tool, and HDM can write the back-up in the Windows format to work with the Windows boot media.
So, if it's a true and simple "mirror" you want, back-up software may not be what you are looking for. You can use RAID architecture to structure a "mirror" drive that gets updated instantly in real time. There are other software programs (Syncovery comes to mind) that can also create and schedule straight-up "mirror" without the need for an actual back-up format. The advantage in using a back-up format as opposed to a straight mirror is that you can restore your system in the event it will no longer boot due to infection or failure. The disadvantage of a straight-up mirror is if the failure is caused by malicious software, the RAID drive will be infected as instantly as the primary. In the case of using a mirror capable program such as Syncovery, you'll need to make sure you can access the mirrored copy before it gets infected, or in the event of a hardware failure, being capable of physically swapping the mirror with the primary. For these reasons, most of us settle for the fact that we need to use a recoverable removable media tool, and create back-ups under a particular "format". It's still a mirror, just more secure.
- You'll also need to choose compression or not. Not will make the restoration process much faster.
- Choose to split the back-up file into chunks, or not. This will likely depend on the device you are choosing to store the main back-up. If you know the device is stable and has at least as much, or more, storage than the source volume, than feel free to not split the file at all. I personally do this for my Windows OS drive. Yes, it's a huge single 50gb file with no compression.
- It's unlikely you will need to concern yourself with the other choices concerning RAW data/volumes and programs to run before or after the back-up job.
The setup I want to mirror is my Raid 10 (non-windows os array), I want to mirror this in case the raid fails. Just another fail safe. the raid its self has some heft to it, around 10 Tb, so a full write everyday may not be feasible
I think ill need something that'll see the changes and just update those specific files
You've given a lot of great info, I've got a bit more searching to do it seems
I didn't know your level of technical expertise. If you are successfully running a 10TB RAID array, you're pretty well versed!
Check out Syncovery here: https://www.syncovery.com/
Requires a bit of tech savvy, but you should have no problem. Great program, been using it for years. Saved my butt on numerous occasions!
Cheers!
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