Backup and Restore across two drives

On my computer there are four hard drives set up like this:

120 GB Mushkin SSD | Primary/Boot | 70 GB Free
2 TB Samsung | Data | 500 GB Free
1 TB Western Digital | Backup | 1 TB Free
1 TB Western Digital | Backup | 1 TB Free

I would like to backup both the Primary hard drive and the 2 TB Samsung to the two 1 TB Western Digitals. What is the best way to do this?

Is this possible using Windows' Backup and Restore?

Maybe I should configure the two Western Digitals in Raid 0 and use them as one drive?

Thanks for any suggestions.

You can create a System Image of multiple drives.

Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Create a system image.

On the next screen you select the target drive to receive this multiple-partiton system image. Select a target and click NEXT.

On this screen, the OS drives are greyed out as they are PREchecked for you (you must back them up). You can select additional drives. But, obviously, you can't select a drive that you're using FOR the backup (I assume if the prior screen had G selected for target, G won't be shown on THIS screen).

As an aside, I did a system image, by accident, that included my D data partition.

The alternative option you have available would be to make an OS backup image to store on one of the other two drives. Then for the second image you would uncheck the main drive and 100mb System Reserved boxes and select the 2tb drive to store that drive's image on the second of the other two you have installed.

This will prevent one image from being too large to store on either of the other two smaller drives. By the looks of it the separate image for the 1.5tb used up will be quite large in size and will take up quite a bit of drive space! You could be looking at filling one of the 1tb WD drives you have there!

The latest image of the 1tb host drive here ran 462gb in size with 520gb of the 920gb total in use.

nicnicman said:

On my computer there are four hard drives set up like this:

120 GB Mushkin SSD | Primary | 70 GB Free
2 TB Samsung | Data | 500 GB Free
1 TB Western Digital | Backup | 1 TB Free
1 TB Western Digital | Backup | 1 TB Free

I would like to backup both the Primary hard drive and the 2 TB Samsung to the two 1 TB Western Digitals. What is the best way to do this?

Click to expand...

Backup the SSD using an image. Store it wherever you want.

Backup the 1.5 TB of data on the 2 TB Samsung without using an image. Use a folder by folder approach. Direct certain folders to WD number 1 and certain other folders to WD number 2.

Most likely you would separate the data according to type---maybe direct all video folders to WD 1 and all other types of data to WD 2. Whatever fits and whatever makes sense to you.

nicnicman You would likely see the message that the image could not be created for the Samsung for the simple reason a 1tb drive wouldn't large even if it was totally empty. The compression wouldn't be high enough to compress the 1.5tb down under 1tb to start with. Then 1tb see the average of 920gb available after partitioning and formatting.

On the hand if you didn't have 3/4s of the 2tb drive filled you might get away with two images one from each of the 1tb drives. With 4 internal HDs and 1 in a usb enclosure I simply add each new file or download to the same specific folder seen on 4 of the 5 HDs were if any drive fails the other will still have the exact same files except for the OS. One or two drives will see an image of the host/boot/OS stored on them.

Eventually I want to an external case that will hold 4-6 2-3tb drives and call it a day!

Night Hawk said:

The alternative option you have available would be to make an OS backup image to store on one of the other two drives. Then for the second image you would uncheck the main drive and 100mb System Reserved boxes and select the 2tb drive to store that drive's image on the second of the other two you have installed.

This will prevent one image from being too large to store on either of the other two smaller drives. By the looks of it the separate image for the 1.5tb used up will be quite large in size and will take up quite a bit of drive space! You could be looking at filling one of the 1tb WD drives you have there!

The latest image of the 1tb host drive here ran 462gb in size with 520gb of the 920gb total in use.

Click to expand...

You can't uncheck the pre-selected OS drive boxes (sys res. and C) when taking a true "system image".

JimLewandowski said:

You can't uncheck the pre-selected OS drive boxes (sys res. and C) when taking a true "system image".

Click to expand...

That was a calculation by size only being referred to there. Even if you used another program like Acronis T.I. the total size of the image from the 2tb drive would exceed the capacity of the smaller 1tb drive.

At a rough estimate an image made from that where you have 1.5tb of files present would be right around 1.3tb in size. Plus any image you make still goes to another drive unless you opt for dvds or a network location.

A business of course would have a server to receive while nicnicman would need a 2tb or larger external HD to store an image from the 2tb internal drive there. The compression isn't high enough for seeing one stored on a smaller drive.

The image I just made here of the main drive shows what I mean quite well with the drive having 520+gb on it and the image made came in at 462gb. That was just over half the drive with the image being about 50% give or take.

Now take the same size drive at 3/4 full where would the image end up at? Over 50%. The same applies to the 2tb where 3/4 full would go over the 1tb size showing he needs to either manually back up files between the other two HDs installed or plan to image that to a new larger drive he would need to add on.

What would work for both host and 2tb drive? A 2tb, 2.5tb, or 3tb drive added on would seem to be large enough to handle the total size of the image you would expect to be seeing once you calculate the total amount on both host and 2tb there.

A 2tb would just fit while a 2.5tb or 3tb would allow for any progressive increase in size later if another image of both drives was made again once more files were added. The mush smaller amount seen on the host SSD drive is the plus factor for seeing it would with another 2tb model.

With a rough estimate of the host coming in at about 35-40gb plus the approximate 1.3tb for the 2tb drive a 1.5tb drive would be risky at that if an image of both were able to fit.