2Q's 1:Can I delete useless partition? 2:Best backup software?

Robwan said:

OK cool I'll look into image backup, sounds good. Many thanks guys :)

kado897 said:

Robwan said:

Thanks guys, some really helpful tips here i'm gonna check out some of those programs.



Nice tut, u should do one of how get the invisible taskbar, thats awesome!

Thanks Robwan. Invisible taskbar?

Oh my bad haha, it looked like your task bar was completely invisible, kinda like this Windows 7 Invisible Taskbar by ~4tyn on deviantART

Afraid not. It is white and as transparent as windows will set it.

Robwan said:

DavidW7ncus said:

Hope I'm not off topic or missed something, but i think it's worth noting...

I haven't seen any mention of backup imaging the OS and Programs in this thread.
That is different than backing up personal data.

The day a system will not boot, or does not work correctly, having a backup image can be a life saver and save many hours of frustration.
System Restore points may fix an issue, but a backup image is a better option to have available.
A backup image is a complete restorable "copy" of the OS, restore points are not.

An image can restore the OS and programs in < 1 hour without needing to re-install/re-configure/re-activate the OS and programs.
If you re-install Windows and all programs regularly, then you may not need or want backup images.
If being able to recover from an HD fail, Windows fail, etc. is important, then you should consider imaging.

A couple of tutorials about this:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Imaging with free Macrium

My hdd is 500gb and my backup external is also 500gb. ive got about 150gb free on my main hdd, so i will be making an image backup of 350gb to the external correct?

After Ive copied the image backup to the external hdd can i use the remaining 150gb for anything i like, such as backing up more recent word documents etc, since i don't want to be doing a new image backup everyday lol.

Thanks

Yes you can use the rest of the disk for anything you like. The image file will be smaller if you use a third party backup like Macrium Free and is likely to be quicker as well. Whatever you chose don't forget to create the appropriate rescue disk and test that it will boot and can see your image file.

Robwan said:

kado897 said:

Yes you can use the rest of the disk for anything you like. The image file will be smaller if you use a third party backup like Macrium Free and is likely to be quicker as well. Whatever you chose don't forget to create the appropriate rescue disk and test that it will boot and can see your image file.

Awesome! I just watched the tuts on it. I'm gonne give macrium a go then. One last question, sorry, I take it its a good idea to make a backup image regularly, will this just involve deleting the old one every time and simply making a new one?

thanks

Yes you can do that or if you have the room you can keep more than one. I guess that in your case you won't have the room so just delete and rerun the backup. A single backup however is always a risk so if you can get a cheap HDD it would be worth the investment.