How to Build A Cheap Mobile-Rack Backup

When that happens, the user can reinstall the OS and applications off the original disks. But replacing their data is likely to be expensive at best, perhaps impossible. Similarly, corrupted configuration, application, or OS files can be handled by a reinstall. The reinstall might be painful, difficult, and expensive. But nothing that happens with a computer compares to the pain of losing data important to your customer's business or personal life. That's where a cheap mobile-rack backup system can help.

By the way, the increasingly popular method of using a hard-drive partition to back up the OS, a few critical apps, and configurations, doesn't provide the slightest bit of protection against a catastrophic hard-drive failure. It only protects against file corruption. Corrupted files are more frequent than total drive failure, of course, but anyone experienced with computers knows that all hard drives will fail sooner or later. Betting that important computers will have their hard drives retired before they fail is to bet against Murphy's Law. Similarly, for a white-box vendor to tell a customer, "Well, your computer works, sorry about your data," isn't going to make the customer too happy.

Instead, your customers should both mirror data to a backup drive and make offsite backups with a DVD-R or tape. If you install both a mobile rack and a DVD-R or tape drive in every system, you're looking out for your customers. Doing this also lets you sell systems with greatly increased security at a premium price.

Before we get started, remember that while most backup software works with hard drives, DVD-R, and tape, always check the specs to make sure it will work with the intended configuration before downloading.

Mobile Racks and Other Components

Mobile rack: I like a low-cost mobile rack called the Genica GN-210 that is available for all of $6.90 at ComputerGeeks. There are many other possible choices in a wide range of prices, materials, even colors. Simply Google on "mobile rack" as a search term, or go to Pricewatch.

Hard drive: I recommend getting a drive the same size as the PC's original drive to allow drive mirroring. This allows the easy restoration of individual files or directories without having to run a backup program to get at the files on the backup drive. If the user chooses to upgrade the hard disk in the future, the current mirror will allow backing up a drive up to 1.5 times the size of the mirror drive using backup software with compression. For example, a 40 MB drive could back up a 60 MB hard drive. While vendors often claim up to 2:1 compression, my observation is that this is unrealistic with the kind of data found on a typical drive. A more realistic ratio is 1.33:1.

Backup software: There are many possible choices. But do not use the MSDOS XCOPY or DISKCOPY command in or out of a batch file; it will not copy hidden files or system files. Since I run Windows98 SE, I use XXCOPY, a low-cost, shareware imaging backup facility. XXCOPY is a Windows utility that runs in command-line mode. I run mine in a screen window off a Windows .PIF set to:

Cmd Line: C:%5CWINDOWS%5CCOMMAND%5CXXCOPY.EXE C:%5C D:%5C /CLONE

Working: C:%5CWINDOWS%5CCOMMAND

My experiences with XXCOPY have been good enough for me to say that a GUI version called XXCLONE, now in beta, is worth a look.

Here is a selection of commonly used backup applications which might suit your needs. By and large, these run compressed backups. That is, they record the files found on a hard drive in a single compressed file analogous to sequential recording on a magnetic tape. Some allow mirroring.

If these don't suit your needs, Google is your friend. There are a great many backup programs, in shrinkwrap, shareware, and freeware.

Acronis True Image: Commercial-retail, supports Win9x-2000, allows file mirroring.
Dantz Retrospect: Commercial-retail, supports Win9x-2003.
KarenWare Replicator: Freeware-download, supports Win9x-2003, allows file mirroring.
Microsoft Backup: Included in Windows XP Home Edition, supports Windows 9x%962003, compressed only.
Norton Ghost: Commercial-retail, suports Win9x-2000, allows file mirroring.
Xxcopy: Supports Win9x-XP, freeware-personal and commercial Pro versions, runs from command line only, allows file mirroring.

Customer reminder software: Use an inexpensive, shareware calendar-based reminder program to tell your customer when it's time to run backup. Set the number of reminders per week you think are needed to support your customer's needs. I personally use xReminder, which is a freeware program that will run on any Windows system.

Why is this so important? Because for a backup methodology to work, the customer must use it. The backup method I recommend here requires user intervention. That's the tradeoff for making one's backup generally immune to computer disaster.

It's not that much work, though: The user must plug in the mobile drive rack to run the backup, and then unplug it after the machine is shut down. That's all. But this way, if the computer's electronics are physically destroyed by, for example, a catastrophic power supply failure, the user can be in business as soon as the hard drive is in a new box. In the case of a fire or other disaster, the user can take the mobile rack and leave quickly, carrying a couple of pounds of hard drive with a tray to give it some degree of protection, instead of trying to lug the whole computer system.

After backup, the backup drive rack should be removed to some other location. However, the farther away form the PC that is, the less likely it is that the customer will actually back up when reminded to do so. Again, this is an on-site, not an off-site method for backup. Tape or DVD-R is much more appropriate for off-site backup since there is far less likely to go wrong in either case in the shipping process. Tapes and DVD-Rs don't usually break if dropped. So my rack goes into a nearby room, and my off-site backup is located as far away as possible.

Customer instructions: Write a Quick Start Guide that briefly describes the backup and reminder software, explains how each works, tells how to insert and remove the mobile rack, and instructs the customer to contact the system builder if the hard drive fails.

Putting It All Together

Installing the mobile rack is the easy part. In fact, it's so easy, many mobile racks don't even come with instructions. If it's your first time, follow these easy steps:

Insert the hard drive into the drive tray.
Plug the internal drive-tray connectors into the hard drive, then screw tight.
Insert the drive rack into a free 5.25-inch drive bay, then screw tight.
Plug a free IDE cable connector into the back of the drive rack.
Note: If you don't use the key-lock part of the drive rack for security purposes, tape the extra drive key to the bottom of the computer on the inside. Otherwise, the user should put the key in a safe place. Do not figure on being able to get a replacement key from the vendor. My contacts at Genica, for example, said replacement keys are "not available." Also, do not remove the locking part of the drive rack for convenience; this would compromise the connection between the male drive tray connector and the drive rack.
Boot the computer. Access the BIOS. Make sure the drive type for the removable drive (on my AMI BIOS, it's IDE-1 with IDE-0 being the original hard drive) is set to Automatic Detect. If it isn't set that way by default, set it by hand. The motherboard's BIOS should pick up the new hard drive on the next reboot. If it does not, you can set the individual head and cylinder parameters into the BIOS, unless the motherboard is so out-of-date that automatic hard-drive detection of hard-drive parameters is not supported. But you might also consider simply replacing the hard drive, since the old hard drive and motherboard are not communicating properly. And if that doesn't work, then your next step would be to replace the motherboard.
Partition and format the drive for the OS your customer uses. I recommend a catchy name like BACKUP for the volume name!
Note: In a typical installation for Windows, drive C: will be primary, and the mobile rack will be assigned to drive D:
For Windows 9.x/ME: Go to Control Panel > Disk Drives > D: (or whichever drive letter the new drive is) Properties, and check the DMA and Removable Drive checkboxes. Install the reminder software you chose, and set the alarms for whatever intervals you think best. I set mine for Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
For Windows 2000/XP: Go to Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > System > Hardware (tab) > Device Manager > log on as computer administrator > double-click Disk Drives from Device Manager > double-click the new drive icon to get Drive Properties > Policies (tab) > Optimize for Quick Removal.
The Windows XP Disk Management snap-in tool is An alternative method to access hard drive configuration for experienced XP users, you can find out more about it at this Microsoft knowledge base article.
Install the backup software solution you chose. Run it!

What To Do If The Mirrored Main Drive Crashes

Tell your customer to not plug in the mobile rack. There may be a good reason why the main drive has failed. If the backup drive is plugged in, it will likely follow the main drive into disaster. Instead, tell your customer that you will test the computer immediately (either at your shop or their location, depending on your practices) to determine the causes of the failure. If you can't get to their computer immediately, you can tell the customer to try the following:
Reboot the computer without making any changes. If the initialization screen shows up, that's a good sign that at least most of the computer is working.
Set the boot drive in the BIOS to D: Tell the customer to go to the BIOS and look for the hardware monitor. Note: The specifics depend on the BIOS; on my AMI BIOS, I have to hit the Del key during initialization and then select Hardware Monitor.
If++5, -5 , 12, -12 on the hardware monitor display are within++/- 0.5 volts of nominal, the backup hard disk is probably safe to install. I suggest having the customer read the voltages off to you if he is not physically present in your shop. (Use a voltmeter for in-shop testing.)
Tell the customer to change the boot settings to allow booting from the backup drive. How this is done is BIOS-specific. On mine, it's Advanced Settings > Boot Drive - change from IDE-0 to IDE-1.
Tell the customer that if the computer does anything but boot normally, they should power it down. If it hangs, then they should simply pull the plug. Then you should test the computer as soon as possible.

What To Do On Warranty Service Other Than The Above

Check the power supply to make sure it doesn't have a stability problem. See if anything else looks flaky about the computer without the backup drive installed.
Try booting from the backup drive. If it doesn't boot, find out why and fix it. If it does, go to the next step.
Replace the boot drive with the backup drive, and then replace the backup drive in the mobile rack. Or, you can run hard drive diagnostics on the backup. If you don't find a problem, then do a low-level format, partition the drive, do an OS format, and restore it to service.
A. LIZARD is an Internet consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been writing for technology magazines and Web media since 1987.