Is my C partition and F partition combined?

karlsnooks said:

whs,
I can agree with you regarding Vista.

I have been very pleasantly surprised and pleased with the the performance and capabilities of Backup And Restore in Windows 7 which incidentally, I have used extensively and tested all features thereof extensively.

There are many fine third-party products available to accomplish backup and restore.

Karl, why not just use a simple "Copy to Folder ..." function. It is simple, you know what you are doing and it is fast.
I tried to backup only my Documents folder (4.4GBs) from the SSD to an internal HDD with the Win7 backup function. After 10 minutes it was still not even half done and I cancelled it. In contrast, it takes less than 4 minutes to image my whole OS (about 18GB) with Macrium from and to the same disks. So it is not my system that's holding things up.
And now I have the damn backup definition file sitting somewhere and I have no clue how to delete it. Maybe you know where it's at.

Sorry for the confusion.

First, I meant that logging into my Admin account requires a password. When I start up my computer and want to access this Admin account I'm on right now I must first sign in. Is that understandable?

Second, I know that an OS is needed to access the files on L. What I was confused about is are the files on L, (they are not installed), tied in any way to this Admin account? Would I be able to take the external hard drive L and transport it to my brother's PC and access the files that are on L from his PC?

Third, I made a system image of C and I have it stored on an external hard drive. It's really big so I can't make anymore backups at this moment. I have to make room. I did make a backup of my documents using Windows 7 Backup and Restore option, however, I also took the advice WHS and stored my documents, pictures, etc, onto my USB device.

Is there anymore information that is needed? I'm still a bit confused about that L drive.

Your L drive does not require a password to be accessed from another OS. You could even take a live Linux CD or USB stick and run the L drive with that - if the worst case ever happens which we do not hope.

Just out of curiousity, have you ever looked at the backup files that Backup/Restore created?

I can't answer your question about taking the external drive to another PC because I don't know if that thing about the administrative account will foul you up. My guess would be that you can get around it somehow, but I can't confirm that.

My PC is set up without logins or passwords. I am the only user of the PC.

There are numerous programs other than Windows Backup and Restore that can be used to backup just your personal files, without an image. You can set them to run on a schedule, back up only certain folders, back up only certain types of files, omit particular folders, etc. You retain complete control. Some of these are free and some have a modest cost.

Alternatively, you can just manually copy as WHS has suggested.

You might find the programs are handier and quicker, but a manual copy will certainly work easily enough, particularly if you have all of your personal files in a single folder tree, such as somewhere under C:\Users.

whs said:

Your L drive does not require a password to be accessed from another OS. You could even take a live Linux CD or USB stick and run the L drive with that - if the worst case ever happens which we do not hope.

Just out of curiousity, have you ever looked at the backup files that Backup/Restore created?

Awesome!! So that means I could take L out and basically give it to my brother and he'd be able to access the files?

I backed up the most important data I had. I wish I could back it all up but I don't have enough room. If I could just back up "My Documents" which has all of my gamesaves, word Documents, etc, etc, then that's all my important stuff right there. But I can't pick & choose with Macrium unless I buy it.

Yes, I looked at the files in the backup and it seems as though everything is there.

I understand. I backed up the most important data I had. I wish I could back it all up but I don't have enough room. If I could just back up "My Documents" which has all of my gamesaves, word Documents, etc, etc, then that's all my important stuff right there. But I can't pick & choose with Macrium unless I buy it.

Edit: Ignatzatsonic said that he doesn't know if the admin account could foul me up. Do you think this is true? Would my brother not be able to access my files on L because of the admin thing?

ignatzatsonic said:

I can't answer your question about taking the external drive to another PC because I don't know if that thing about the administrative account will foul you up. My guess would be that you can get around it somehow, but I can't confirm that.

My PC is set up without logins or passwords. I am the only user of the PC.

What do you mean without "logins" and passwords? I thought there were only passwords. I'm am the only user of my PC as well but I have a password on it for security reasons. But I think WHS suggested I take it off as it could do more harm then good so I may remove it if he wants me to.

Talker:

If WHS is right about you being able to connect the external L to another PC and access your files at will, my guess would be that your brother could access them as well. But as I said, I don't know and I will yield to others on that.

When I installed Windows 7, I came to a choice about setting up a password. I went right on by it without entering a password. When I boot my PC, it goes directly to a desktop and is fully functional without any interaction from me. That's all I meant.

I'm sure you will get different opinions on whether or not that is insane and a security risk. It's just a choice I have made. My understanding is that it isn't difficult to bypass the typical password requirement.

An alternative is to encrypt particular folders.

I removed my password. I didn't think it was necessary I just had it on for what could happen. But I know what you mean about it being easily bypassed.

Okay, I have an important question here. I kinda already asked this question and I asked my brother as well and here I found out he was confused and thought I meant something else. So I'm going to re-ask the question here again. I will try to word it correctly.

Here goes: In C there is a folder named Users, in Users is another folder named after my PC, and then in that folder is "My Documents", "My Pictures", "App Data", "Downloads", etc, etc, etc.

Now. I transferred "My Documents" from C:>Users>(PCName) and put it on the L drive. (Not the word documents files but rather the actual folder called "My Documents".)

Let's say, for sake of example, that the hard drive containing my OS died.

Would I be able to take the drive L over to my brother's computer and access "My Documents" from his computer? Or is "My Documents" tied to this Admin user account?

Based on WHS's comment, I would certainly think you could access My Documents from L when connected to another PC.

Rather than wonder, try it and tell us the results. You certainly shouldn't take our word for something as important as your backup strategy.

I'm afraid to take it out and try it. What if when I take it out and then put it back in it won't work? Then I would lose all my information for just a test.

Is this a possibility?

If that is a possibility, you are better off find that out now rather than later.

Assuming you have your original data on C or D, I would copy stuff to L and go to brother's PC and find out what happens. Why wonder?