Options for Full External Backup of 3 installed Hard Drives

Hi VJBenz and welcome to Seven Forums. That is a reasonable strategy but would be difficult but not impossible with Windows Backup. I would suggest using Macrium Reflect free edition for the imaging and FreeFileSync for the data backups. The link to both is in my signature. This is a tutorial of backing up with Macrium. Imaging with free Macrium and this with FreeFileSync. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube

I would use Win 7 Backup and Restore. With Task Scheduler you can schedule any task to run at your desired times.

WIN + F1 | type Backup and Recovery Strategies for IT Pros | click on Wbadmin command and Task Scheduler

If it was me I'd backup the data and music using something like FreeFileSync like Kado suggests. Why: I imagine this is fairly static information and I don't think imaging is a good approach. Incremental imaging is an option with a paid product but I think you increase your risks of problems recovering.

I'd certainly image the OS partition. Try both Windows inbuilt and free Macrium Reflect. I use both. If you haven't already, I would partition your 2TB main drive so that your OS and installed programs live on ~ 200GB partition. It's good to keep your images to ~50GB otherwise they take too long and you will tend to not make them as often as you should.

The creating of smaller partitions on your 2 TB, as recommended by mjf, is definitely a wise idea.

I always move the documents, music, pictures, and downloads folders off of my main partition.

PartitionWizard is an excellent tool for repartitioning your hard drive.
Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

Yes. You will need to reformat the external as NTFS.

You will also want to keep you os and also your programs on the C:
My c: is 60 gb with more than 20 gb free.

vj,
see post #7.

You will be able to add partitions to C without reformatting C.

VJBenz said:

OK... a couple of questions.

Q1: Do I have to reformat my I drive to NTFS or can I "convert" to NTFS from exFAT without formatting, and therefore losing the stuff I have on the I Drive?


Q2: Can I add partitions to my C Drive without reformatting it? What are the steps?

Vic

Q2:
It's good to have the installed Partition Wizard Mini Tool AND the CD/DVD ISO. You make a bootable CD/DVD from the ISO using for example
The Official ImgBurn Website
Another good program to have.

For partition operations like yours I would recommend using the Boot CD.
To do the job you
1)highlight the partition (C)
2)drag the right handle to the left so that the OS occupies ~ 200GB
This will a large chunk of unallocated on C to the right
3) Select Apply
4) Select the unallocated
5) Use the obvious tools to format it NTFS, Primary - Apply the operations
6) Assign a letter - Apply

Q1:
Copy your data to your newly created partition and do an NTFS format (Primary) of your I drive. You can use Partition Wizard again if you want. I'd do a quick format as a full format will take a long time.
Copy your stuff back.