Solved Options for Full External Backup of 3 installed Hard Drives

[VJBenz]

I have the following Hard Drives:
Internal Main SATA Drive C: 2TB with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit (70 GB used)
Internal SATA slave drive G: 150GB (data) (35 GB used)
Internal SATA slave drive H: 185GB (music) (65 GB used)
External USB back-up drive I: 2TB WD My Book 1130 (120 GB used - old historical data)

What I think I want to do is put all my backups on the external USB drive.

I am leaning towards a full system image backup of the C Drive, and data file backups of the G and H drives, that I would like to be accessible as data files.

Q1: Is this a reasonable objective for backups?

Q2: Can I do this within the Windows 7 Backup utility, or should I consider another program?

Q3: Do in need to partition the I drive to reflect these three backup drives, thus limiting the potential of backups competing for space?

Q4: I was thinking of C system image backups weekly, and the G & H backups done incrementally after an initial full backup. What do you think/suggest?

Vic

 

[kado897]

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. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?filter[2]=Backup%20Restore and this with FreeFileSync. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube

 

[karlsnooks]

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

 

[mjf]

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.

 

[karlsnooks]

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

 

[VJBenz]

Next Steps

OK, So my plan seems to be OK, but there are a few suggestions. I presume the recommendation to partition the 2TB drive refers to my Main Drive C as shown in the attachment. I know it is a large drive, and I am not sure what I will eventually do with it, but partitioning for the OS and programs seems reasonable.

With respect to the attachment, I noticed one other thing. The USB external drive that I plan to use for the backups (Backup I), uses a file system of exFAT while all the others are NTFS. Is that a problem?

Vic

 

[karlsnooks]

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.

 

[VJBenz]

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

 

[karlsnooks]

vj,
see post #7.

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

 

[mjf]

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.

 

[VJBenz]

Thanks karlsnooks and mjf. I'll do as you suggest.

Vic

 

[kado897]

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.

It is my understanding that Partition Wizard can convert the filesystem without loss of data but I have yet to try it myself.

 

[mjf]

..........

It is my understanding that Partition Wizard can convert the filesystem without loss of data but I have yet to try it myself.

I don't know but I would have been surprised. I'd copy to be safe.
If you convert the filesystem let us know if the data stays in tact.

 

[karlsnooks]

I think that feature is only available in the paid version.

 

[kado897]

..........

It is my understanding that Partition Wizard can convert the filesystem without loss of data but I have yet to try it myself.

I don't know but I would have been surprised. I'd copy to be safe.
If you convert the filesystem let us know if the data stays in tact.

It's in the free version and I just tried a FAT32 to NTFS conversion in a VM and it works without loss of data.

 

[F5ing]

For years I've always just used the convert command within Windows to convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS. It's always best to have the data copied somewhere else first, but the couple of dozen times I've used it I've never lost data.

It should be noted though, to ensure you realize the full performance benefits provided by NTFS you should always create a newly formatted NTFS, then place your files there. I'm not sure if third party software would do a better conversion (performance-wise) than Windows convert would.

 

[mjf]

Before I undertake any partition operation, never mind a format change, I make sure I have the data backed up in some way in case things screw up. This includes images for the OS/installed programs and any type of file data backup that takes your fancy.

 

[kado897]

I second that. You can never have too many backups.

 

[karlsnooks]

my mistake earlier. I thought the attempt was to convert dynamic to basic.

 

[F5ing]

My mistake too. I was reading it as wanting to convert FAT to NTFS. Looking back at prior posts I see it's an exFAT partition. I don't think the convert command can handle exFAT, only FAT and FAT32.