On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition aswel

Hi everyone, I recently started a thread here about some probs with creating a partition image but now have that resolved & as usual, got some great advice from you guys on here.

I wanted to ask more knowledgable folks about exactly what should I be backing up when creating full system/disk images. By this I mean, was I right to just image my C drive ( mbr, win 7 installation, all installed programs, and my data folders, ie. docs, movies, music etc) ?, or should I consider also imaging the small 400mb hidden system* partition, this one only shows in a partitioning app or windows own disk management app, it doesnt have a letter label just "system*" with the asterisk, is this a recovery partition or does it have something to do with BIOS stuff?? and should I make an image of it seperately or indeed, should I clone the whole hd with all partitions??

I dont want to bother with the incremental stuff because I am good at doing my own drag & drop data and file backups, but definitely want system or disk images in case a full restore is needed as I dont want to have to re-install everything from scratch ever again.

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much.

 

Re: On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition a

If your Toshiba LT has a DVD burner then I would use DVD's to back up/image your HD. This makes it so you don't have use the external HD to recover things.

I'd use DVD-R's for this.

 

Re: On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition a

The thing is about imaging and restoring your system partition where, as in your case, your personal files are on the same partition, the system restoration wipes all your personal files and replaces them with what you had when the backup was created. So it means you have to have separate up-to-date backups of all your personal files as well as your slowly ageing system backup, and need to restore them separately after you have restored your system. This arrangement also means your system backup, which needs to be repeated regularly to keep it reasonably up-to-date, is far bigger than it need be and so takes far longer to create than it need.

The answer is to shrink your system partition to make room for a data partition, and move My Docs, Pics, Music etc to it. Once that has been done you can create sensible but different backup regimes for both system and data without needless duplication.

As to the other partition you have, yes, it is a recovery partition, and now you have your own recovery method via Acronis is redundant. The only use you would ever have for it is if you wanted for some reason to wipe absolutely everything and return the computer to its factory state.

EDIT - I should have added that you must test your rescue CD by booting it and checking that it can see both the drive where your backup image is stored, and the drive you would want to restore it to. If that is OK I would say forget DVDs as they are slow and cumbersome.

 

Re: On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition a

yes puppywunder, thanks, I have thought about using dvds in addition but it would take quite a few discs unless I exclude my movies and other non system stuff, I might do it just to have an additional reserve so to speak.

thanks very much for your answer Earthling, I have taken your comments on board, funny how you mention the data partition, as one of the first things I did when I got the machine was to shrink that second data partition (D drive) down to the minimum as it came almost exactly C: 50% D: 50% (appx 150gb each), I didnt want the d drive really, just wanted a big C drive, which, now with hindsight, was dumb and I may well take your advice and stretch it back, with age, I just get dumber rolleyes

 

Re: On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition a

Once you have your system and data properly separated you may find, as I have found, that while Acronis is a super tool for system imaging, it isn't necessarily the best to use for data backups. Systems can always be reinstalled, but your personal files are irreplaceable, so I don't think it's a great idea to put them into a proprietary format when backing up. I mainly use WinRAR for my personal files and emails, as the RAR format is in the public realm and WinRAR is such a capable tool, but I also use a free folder synchronisation program for the larger folders - all my downloads, pics, etc.

Horses for courses

 

Re: On imaging/backing up, is C: drive sufficient or + the hidden system* partition a

you know to be honest, I dont really accumulate too much stuff, just a couple dozen full movies, a couple of gb of music, some pics and barely 30mb of mixed documents, also a gb or so of music vids grabbed from YouTube, so for me the easiest way to back up this personal data is drag and drop, I do this to USB sticks, data dvds and a usb ext hd, so most of it is in three places, so I am only really interested in using Acronis for system/disk images for full restoration purposes, i am so fanatical about backing up my personal stuff that for example, when I download a movie avi file or whatever, it gets copied on to a usb stick before I even view it, and when I have 3 or 4 movies or whatever, I burn a data DVD.

I guess using a compression utility like RAR is useful if you have loads of files and folders to back up, especially work stuff etc, but for me, as I say above. Also, I dont really want a big program always operating in the background making all these incremental backups and continuous this and that, as it would annoy me and with Windows being such a pathetic resource hog, thats the last thing I would want.