Windows 7: Partition and Backup questions

My new comp has a 1TB internal HDD. I just purchased a second(TB)and installed it as well. Here's my situation, when I go to run my Paragon 2010 image backup, it says it will need to use 60% of my other HDD. Do I need to partition my second HDD?(I've never actually partitioned a drive before) If so, how big does the partition need to be?
I know I'm probably not describing my problem correctly.
Is it normal for an image backup to take 60% of a backup drive. I mean, I've only used about 100GB on the drive I'm backing up.

Hello twistedvincent.



How big is the volume/partition Windows is installed to?

I've got Windows 7 x64 on a 1tb HDD. No partition

My suggestion is to include only Windows 7 and Programs in the System partition on your first HD, placing the data in a another partition on the lower address (left side) of the second HD where it will have the advantage of proximity to a second laser for faster reads of your data.

Then you can make a smaller Windows 7 backup image of the System/Programs partition to save to the second HD, while you can backup your data externally or to a partition on the first HD.

If this interests you, this tutorial and video will show you how to set up your User folders on another partition/HD: User Folders - Change Default Location
Data Partition

Others also like to place their page file on a second HD for faster reads.

Wow Greg......I thought I was relatively tech savvy, but I have no idea what you just said. I was however going to move my page file. I just want to run paragon backup 2010, get my initial backup done, and then let the incremental backups take over.(or differential........can't remember at the moment)

But thanks for the advise.....even though I'm a moron.

The point is that your image is so big because data is wrapped in it, defeating the purpose of havnig the ability to quickly reimage the System partition without the unnecessary data tagging along.

The solution is to have the User folders data on a separate partition as shown in the tutorial and video I linked for you - was that too complicated to understand also?

When your User files are in a separate linked partition they are in their own vault safe from any OS crashes or reinstalls/reimaging, but ready to go right back to work once you reimage/reinstall.

I'd follow Greg's advice this way:

Move all of your PERSONAL data to the other 1 TB drive temporarily, so that all that is left on the original partition is Windows.

Depending on how many applications you have installed, the boot partition might then contain only 20 or 30 GB, with circa 900 GB free space??

Then shrink your current boot partition to maybe 60 or 80 GB--however much space you think you might eventually need for Windows and applications, with some to spare. You can shrink the partition in Disk Management.

You will end up with say a 60 GB partition on the original drive and the entire remainder as "unallocated space".

Make a new partition from that unallocated space.

Then move your data back from the other hard drive to this new partition.

Then use the second hard drive as a backup destination as necessary. Your boot partition is now a lot smaller and won't take up much space at all if you put images of it onto the backup drive. You could make another backup image of your data partition, but I personally backup data on a file by file basis rather than in an image.

Hello again twistedvincent.




Have a look at these tutorials at the links below for some ideas.




How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7


How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7

I've pretty much moved all my personal files off (C in preparation of my initial backup. The shrink thing is throwing me. What is preventing me from just running a backup like I did on my last machine? I had two 600gb internal HDD's I ran paragon and it created a reasonable sized image backup on my other drive. No partitioning, no shrinking, nothing.
I'm truly grateful for all your help. I can be really thick sometimes. This obviously is one of those times.

I don't use Paragon, but I looked at my copy of Acronis.

Acronis has a checkbox for "sector by sector" imaging.

Here is how it works:

My C partition is 60 gigs. 21 are occupied and 39 are unoccupied.

If sector by sector is checked, Acronis will make an image of the entire 60 GB.

If sector by sector is NOT checked, Acronis will make an image of ONLY the occupied 21 GB.

I don't check sector by sector.

Does Paragon have a similar checkbox? You may have it checked accidentally?

Here is what the Acronis help file says:

To make a sector-by-sector backup, check the Create an image using the sector-by-sector approach parameter. By default the program copies only the hard disk sectors that contain data. However, sometimes it might be useful to make a full sector-by-sector backup. For example, you have deleted some files by mistake and want to make a disk image before trying to undelete them, because sometimes un-deleting may create problems in the file system. Please note that this mode increases processing time and usually results in a larger image file because it copies used and unused hard disk sectors