Now to backup several PCs

I have recently discovered that you can get external hard drives that connect to the USB port on your PC. I'd like to know if one of those drives could be used to backup several PCs.

Say the hard drive on one of your PCs fails. You get a new hard drive, create a partition, and format it. What I'm wondering is, how would get the stuff off of the external drive (being that it connects to a USB port). I don't suppose you can boot from a drive connected to a USB port. What you if you booted the PC using a startup floppy? Would you "see" the external disk drive connected to the USB port? Could create a CD that boots up W98?

Thanks.

 

I am unaware of any dos drivers for a USB port, you would need windows installed.
Windows 98 would not run off of a CD, or a floppy either.

 

Hi rlambert7

I recommend Norton Ghost , It will enable you to create
an image of a hard drive partition and store it on
another drive,external drive, partition or CD/DVDs.
I use it to backup my OS partitions to another hard drive.
If an OS becomes corrupt I can restore the OS to the State it
was in at the time the backup image was created.
Ghost 2003 allows you to create a boot disk with
drivers that support USB 1.1 and 2.0.

 

I think you would be better looking for a setup based on removeable HDDs that fit in a rack directly connected to
the mobo disk controller. Access them in DOS as you wish.
At normal HDD speeds. USB ports are very lethargic.
regards