Drive preparation methods for intelligent backup systems

A method for preparing a backup drive that is connected to a computer system, the computer system further having a primary hard drive, comprising:

• selecting the secondary drive to be the backup drive;
• partitioning the backup drive to match a partition arrangement of the primary hard drive of the computer system;
• fake formatting the partitions of the backup drive, the fake formatting being configured to only partially format the partitions of the backup drive, the partially formatting is designed to partially fill-in BIOS parameter block structure fields for each one of the partitions of the backup drive;
• rebooting from the primary hard drive of the computer system;
• formatting the partitions of the backup drive with a complete formatting scheme;
• and
• copying files from the primary hard drive to the backup drive, the copying is configured to move files between the partition arrangement of the primary hard drive to the matching partition arrangement of the backup drive.

A computer readable media containing program instructions for preparing a drive that is connected to a computer system, the computer system further having a primary hard drive, the computer readable media comprising:

• program instructions for generating a list of devices that are connected to the computer system, the list of devices includes at least the primary hard drive and a secondary drive;
• program instructions for selecting the secondary drive to be a backup drive;
• program instructions for partitioning the backup drive to match a partition arrangement of the primary hard drive of the computer system;
• program instructions for fake formatting the partitions of the backup drive, the fake formatting being configured to only partially format the partitions of the backup drive;
• program instructions for rebooting from the primary hard drive of the computer system;
• and
• program instructions for formatting the partitions of the backup drive with a complete formatting scheme.