Does this backup strategy make sense? Rebit, 2 drives and Win7 backup

[vtnn43e]

Does the following make sense to use for a backup strategy?
Like most people I am terrified of losing my data and I have 75,000 photos on my 2TB C: drive. What I am considering doing is adding a second internal 2TB drive and running Rebit to back up to that drive. Then adding an external 2TB external USB drive and also backing up to there with Rebit.
I would also run the backup program that is part of Win 7 Pro and weekly create a system image and also save it to the new internal 2TB drive. Then once a month create a system image with the Win 7 backup program and save it to the external USB drive.
Currently my C: which is a WD20EARX has 755 GB in use. Not sure if this makes any difference but I am running Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) in Enhanced Mode and have a Crucial SSD running RAID 0.
BTW, I know that Rebit is always backing up. Can that be a bad thing?
Any opinions on the above will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Zack S

 

[ignatzatsonic]

A few random thoughts:

It sounds like your data (photos) are on the C partition. You might find that putting your data on a separate D partition on that same drive will make your backup strategy a bit simpler. Not a requirement, just a suggestion.

I would not rely on an image as a backup for data. If your data is on C, any image of C will of course include the data, but imaging is not foolproof and can go bad for unknown reasons.

I have never even heard of Rebit and assume you know it to be reliable. I don't know if it is a file by file backup program or an imaging program.

Copying the photos to another internal drive is a good idea. As is the idea of copying the photos to an external. The more backups the better. But you might consider some type of offsite backup in case of fire or theft.

I'd probably do this:

Temporarily move all data from C to some other physical drive--internal or external.

Then shrink C considerably to the size needed to hold Windows easily--maybe 100 GB.

Then make a new D (data) partition from the free space now available.

Move all data back to the new D from wherever you temporarily moved it.

Use an imaging program thereafter to make periodic images of C alone, storing the image on either the new internal or an external.

Use a file by file backup program to make periodic backups of D alone to the new internal and the external.

I'd probably just use a single partition on the new internal and the external and separate stuff by a folder structure.

 

[kado897]

I don't know Rebit but in general I'm not to fond of automatic backups. You might find a free backup utility like FreeFileSync more flexible. FreeFileSync | Free Security & Utilities software downloads at SourceForge.net

 

[vtnn43e]

I forgot to say thanks for the replies!

Zack S

 

[Brds7t7]

That's great advice and exactly how I do mine.

I use both Macrium and Windows imaging for my Windows Drive and I use FreeFileSync for my Data Partition. Only found out about it a couple of months ago and it's a great backup tool.

Keeping your Data separate from your Windows partition will also reduce the time of the image restore process.

I then keep one partition on my external disk for images and one for file backup.

 

[pparks1]

For my data, I just use robocopy and sync it regularly to a pair of hard drives that I mount in an eSATA dock and then I keep the 2 drives offsite. This way if my house is robbed, or burns to the ground, I don't lose my data. Storing everything in the cloud isn't really feasible for me yet due to limited upload speeds.

I don't store images offsite, because I can always rebuild my machine if worse comes to worse and installing apps isn't all that hard. It's only my data that I really take care of.