Backing up to External Hard drive - do i need to partition?

monkeylove said:

In my case, I use an external HD exclusively as a backup source. For additional space needed for data, etc., I use another HD.

I bascially have in use:
80GB windows7 internal (IDE)
320GB data internal (IDE)

My 320 internal is getting full up, plus I want to back the files up, plus I want to be able to use files no my laptop and PC
- for this reason I have all my data files on a 2TB external which I can plug into PC or Laptop.

I want to back up my 80B windows drive so that if anything goes wrong I can do a fresh install of windows.


My spare hard drives are:
20GB internal (IDE)
40GB internal (SATA)
80GB internal (IDE)

the 20GB and 40 GB hard drives are too small to back up windows
I wanted to keep the other 80GB as a spare incase my windows7 80GB dies

Therefore I thought i could back up windows on my 2TB external
But I still want to mainly use my 2TB external for linking my files to my laptop

I think this is probably my best option?

kado897 said:

kingmonkeywoman said:

kado897 said:

Some people partition data disks dividing the disk up by data type. In general this is a bad idea because you need to know in advance how big to make each partition. What happens when you run out of space for say videos, you need to modify the partition sizes. This is possible but can be risky. It is better to keep a single partition and to allow the file system to segregate your types.

The exception to this as mjf posted is the Windows disk, which should be partitioned to separate the OS and data as much as possible to make imaging the system easier.

My data and OS are seperated. The OS and programmes are on my 80GB internal.
My files are on my 2TB external.
I do not want to partition my 80GB because I need the remaining space for more programmes.
I want to back up my OS onto my 2TB external, but wasn't sure i I was meant to partition the external first to keep the back up and the files seperate.

My windows drive is 80GB so I guess I would only need to partition 80GB of my external. However, if I don't need to partition my external, and can just create a folder then I will do this.
I have never used windows imaging to back up an OS so I don't know what to expect. I didn't want to start it and then mess it up because I should have created a partition.

Cheers
Soph

80GB is about right for Windows and a lot of programs with enough to spare for breathing room.

Yep, my internal windows7 drive is 80GB
But to back up windows7 onto an external, do I need to partition 80GB of my external or can I just create a folder?

I was going to first use 'windows 7 backup and restore'.

If i manage to do this I may use another programme to create a second back up.

In windows7 I want to 'create system image' and 'create system repair disc'
Back Up Windows 7 by Creating a System Image - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

When it asks me where I want to create my backup...

I want to create my backup on an external hard drive, which is 2TB and contains lots of fils.

Do I create a folder on my external for the backup or do I need to create a partition?

Cheers
Soph

kado897 said:

If you are using Windows Backup then no. The Image, which is a folder called WindowsImageBackup, must be in the root of the drive. If you are using a third party imaging tool such as Macrium then you can create a folder to hold your images.

Back Up Windows 7 by Creating a System Image - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki

It asks me 'where do you want to save the backup?'
So if I select my external 2TB hard drive (this is not my drive with windows on) it will automatically save it in the root of the external drive?

Sorry to be a bit slow with all this, but what is the root of the drive? When you click to open a drive, does it take u to the root? So the first location on the drive i.e where files and subfolders are contained? So I will already have stuff in the root of my drive? Doesn't it need to be somewhere seperate from all my other files on the drive?

Cheers
Soph

Ah ok sorry I'm being a bit slow. So all I need to do is select the external HDD and windows will automatically create a folder on my external which contains the backup. Cool. Cheers.

Thanks for the help! Glad I don't need to partition my external.
I'm going to use the windows 'create system image' first. If I manage to do this I will go on to use a third party programme to create another back up as I have heard people say that the windows one doesnt always work.
Any recommendations for other free programmes to use?

Soph