Microsoft Backup is crap...according to The Register

etalmar said:

Dave76 said:

You can add another partition after your D partition, use this for a convenient place to keep 'some' of your backups. Everyone will decide what's appropriate for them.

Hello Dave,

So, exactly how does one add another partition after the D partition, keeping in mind that I have never attempted anything like this before and therefore I am extremely apprehensive about inadvertently nuking all or part of my OS in the process?

Looking over your posts, we need to clarify your disk layout.
Can you post a snip of your Disk Management?

Usually OEMs put the recovery partition first and the OS second. That would be from left to right in Disk Management.
If your recovery partition D is on the left, then next (to the right) is your C partition.
You can shrink the C partition, which will give you un-allocated space on the right side. This can then be made into a new partition.

Just so you know, there is a known issue with shrinking the C partition, sometimes it will only let you shrink it by a small amount. This can be easily overcome with a free third party disk management program.

As mentioned previously, make a backup first, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
Many have recommended Windows Backup, a good free alternative is Macrium Reflect.
You can keep the backup on your C partition, better to have one there than none at all. This can be moved later if needed.

Windows Disk Manager should be able do that for you.

These Seven Forums tutorials will explain it.

How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7

How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7

If you have any questions, just ask.

etalmar said:

Dave76 said:

Looking over your posts, we need to clarify your disk layout. Can you post a snip of your Disk Management?

Usually OEMs put the recovery partition first and the OS second. That would be from left to right in Disk Management. If your recovery partition D is on the left, then next (to the right) is your C partition. You can shrink the C partition, which will give you un-allocated space on the right side. This can then be made into a new partition.

Just so you know, there is a known issue with shrinking the C partition, sometimes it will only let you shrink it by a small amount. This can be easily overcome with a free third party disk management program.

As mentioned previously, make a backup first, it's always better to be safe than sorry. Many have recommended Windows Backup, a good free alternative is Macrium Reflect. You can keep the backup on your C partition, better to have one there than none at all. This can be moved later if needed.

Windows Disk Manager should be able do that for you.

These Seven Forums tutorials will explain it.

How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7

How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7

If you have any questions, just ask.

Thanks for the info. Here's a screenshot of my disk management:


After considering your suggestions, I've decided to leave well enough alone and just proceed with purchasing an external hard drive.

The recovery partition is better at the end, right side.

If you want to give it a try, or maybe after you get your external HD and make a backup.

You should be able to shrink the C partition, your used space is 28.6GB.
I would try to make the C partition 80GB, you can make it 60GB if you like, but wouldn't go much smaller than that.

If that works, you will have un-allocated space between the C and D partitions, use the tutorial previously posted to make a new partition from all of the space available.

If Disk Manager doesn't want to shrink the C partition by that much, you can take what it gives you or use a free program called Partition Wizard, that will do it easily.

If you decide to just get an external HD, I think you mentioned a WD, these work very well.
Personally I always get an internal HDD and buy a external enclosure. These are useful, the HDD can be used in your computer if needed, or if you need to extract anything from a different HD you can put it in the enclosure.

Let us know if you have any questions on arranging the C partition, or anything else.

Figured I'd post what my setup looks like partition and backup wise. I can usually create a system image in 10-15 mins for 40 gigs.

I have two internal drives. I am using windows backup right now.

74 gig from back in 2004
600 gig I purchased little over a year ago

Ideally I'd use the 74 gig as my OS, but it's slow and I game so no go there. Alot of games like to install config folders into your my docs, so that's why even though the games are on a different partition.

I have 5 partitions
On the 600 gig
Drive X:7 gig pagefile on the very front of the 600 gig
Drive C: 74 gig OS
Drive D: 200 gig for games
Drive E: The left overs - Storage - music, video, ect

On the old and slow 74 gig
Drive Z: Archive - backups and system Image - as I never allow my used space to get above 80%, my image wont get too big as to not allow windows backup files. Diskeeper gets fussy when it's too full.

I used Partition Wizard to create this scheme. My image is mainly there so I don't have to manually configure everything. I don't really care about saving documents, and if I do I keep them on a 8 gig flash drive in my desk for backup.

I've done one Image restore so far, and it only effected my C drive. I kept all my data on my other partitions just fine, but I only imaged my C drive to begin with. Idk, how it does it in home, but in Pro it seems to work great.