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Questions about most reliable backup
Hi all,
I am new to the forums and I am not a computer guru.
I work from home, but out company IT dept only provides me with software and access; no support at all for my home system as it is just for my convenience, not work requirement.
Here is my setup:
Custom desktop, Asus MB, 3rd gen core I7, Win 7 64 bit.
2 hard drives: 64Gb SSD containing work programs only. 500GB HDD containg all work stuff PLUS my own stuff (videos, pics....).
I separately installed win 7 on each hard drive (both have the same win 7 copy and same licence). I disconnected one hard drive at a time while installing win 7 on the other to make sure MBP stays separately one copy on each drive.
Took a very long time, but finally everything worked. Now I have to back things up. I am not a computer pro. When work software is updated, it often crushes/corrupts my system. Reinstalling from the scratch takes entire day and I do not have time.
Here is what I would like/have questions:
1. When drive is corrupted, I do not have time to fix it. I would like to format it and load backed up image so that I can immediately start back online.
2. Each hard drive should stay independent, so if one fails, I can boot from the other and continue working. Each drive shoul be backed up separately, but ideally on the same external HDD.
3. Back up should have a bootable image, so that it is exact clone and can be booted independently.
4. Back up should be reliable and SIMPLE. I just want to clone each internal drive every months to have backup. I use ext USB 1TB drive that is partitioned into 2 parts (200GB to backup 64Gb drice and 800Gb to backup 500Gb drive, which is actually mostly empty and has only 80Gb used space). No need for options I do not have. No need for confusion or future considerations. Just for this to work, but every time!
5. I tried paragon, and it sometimes succeds but now it cannot restore my SSD drive. I am confused with options: backup primary drive, MBP, system reserve..., then what do I need to restore?
6. Question. Most of the time, under computer icon, I have FOUR drive letters. Two are my SSD and HDD, but the other two are SEPARATE letters and bars for 100mb system reserve volumes, one for each drive. Now that I tried to unsuccessfully restore the failed 64Gb drive, 100Mb partituions disappeared, although I can still see them if I go to disk management utility. Why is that and what is the difference? Did I damage something on the intact drive tryong to restore the failed one (the good one still boots and works, but no more separate letter for the 100mb partition).
6. If I change the drive letter under the disk management utility, does it affect the restore process?
Sorry for the long question.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Sophie