Straw poll

[DrTeeth]

Just interested in everybody's backup methodology. Do you back up
partitions separately or the whole disk?

I back up my OS partitions separately as a rule.

During a recent suspected hardware issue, I backed up my whole OS disk
on one go as it was easier in a possible crisis (possible failing
disk).
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose whether or not
to dance in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

[Brian K]

Separate OS partition images on most of my computers. (But I don't image data partitions). Entire drive backups on my test computer.

[George]

I have three internal disks on my PC. I back up selected partitions
separately to an external SATA drive.

George

There are 10 kinds of people in the world,
Those who understand binary,
and those who don't.

[Ed Smith]

I do mine separately. I do my OS more often then I do my Data Partitions.

"DrTeeth" wrote in message news:3410@public.image...

Just interested in everybody's backup methodology. Do you back up
partitions separately or the whole disk?

I back up my OS partitions separately as a rule.

During a recent suspected hardware issue, I backed up my whole OS disk
on one go as it was easier in a possible crisis (possible failing
disk).
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose whether or not
to dance in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

[TAC109]

On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:01:32 PDT, DrTeeth
wrote:

>Just interested in everybody's backup methodology. Do you back up
>partitions separately or the whole disk?
>
>I back up my OS partitions separately as a rule.
>
>During a recent suspected hardware issue, I backed up my whole OS disk
>on one go as it was easier in a possible crisis (possible failing
>disk).

All laptops here.

All are backed up as complete disk into one backup, except for one
laptop which has one partition backed up infrequently and all the
other partitions backed up into one image.

Needless to say (being the author), I use the IFW_Backup scripts.

[jack450]

I have two computers -- a laptop and a desktop. All of the vital data on one is also on the other. My main reason for backing up is to guard against losing the operating system, either as a result of a virus, a bad program installatiion, or just a dying disk that suddenly becomes unusable. I keep three identical disks for each computer (one in the computer and two backups) that I redo (make current) about once a month. I only have one partition on each computer so all of the backups are full disk backups.

Jack G.

[Bob Coleman]

Never do whole disk.* Typically do several partitions at once into a single image file.

* I can now imagine that I might sometime do a whole disk once in the case of a new PC.

[DrTeeth]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:05:15 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
Bob Coleman disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>Typically do several partitions at once into a single image file.

That is interesting, never thought of a half-way house method.

My setup is 3 x 2TB internal HDs and a 2TB external disk on a USB 3
enclosure.

My primary hard disk currently has 8 or 9 OSs on it - this is the disk
I was talking about in my OP. I image to an internal HD, then
copy/synchronise with the external disk. All other PCs on the network
are backed up to the internal disk on my main PC and similarly
mirrored.

I don't image my data partitions, I copy the main one (downloaded
programs, patches and updates and do not care much about the rest -
their loss would be the least of my worries in a disaster.

I had found it easier to image the OSs separately as some change
frequents and some do not. I may experiment with the full disk backup
and see how it works out.

Thanks for your thoughts and keep them coming, it's interesting to see
how others do it.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose whether or not
to dance in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

[a1pcfixer]

DrTeeth wrote:
> Just interested in everybody's backup methodology. Do you back up
> partitions separately or the whole disk?
>
> I back up my OS partitions separately as a rule.
>
> Cheers
>
> DrT

On my new PC I recently built & laptop, both running Win 7-64 bit, both with 256GB-SSD's for Drive C:\ and both with SATA HDD's for Drive D:
I image each separately, one right after the other.

But on old PC & daughter's laptop with single SATA-HDD's partioned to C: and D:, those get done as combined.

Just remember that if you're using any flavor of Windoze that uses the 'Registry' and you install any app on another partition/drive, then you really should image both together.
But *DO* test your images by extracting a couple items to see if they are indeed good. Yeah, IFW/IFD/IFL have 'Verify' as an option, but it's still a good idea to do a test of our images this way.

Used to be a mag called PC Magazine I think it was, that the editor often reminded readers to do their backups frequently. Well, one day he had some hardware failure(s) and thought no problem, I've got tons of daily backups to restore from. He was using some type of fancy tape drive setup, and when he went to do his restore, he found out that ALL of his backups were TOAST! Seems that his tape drive &/or backup software weren't correctly verifying the backups.

Verify.....yes, Test restore....even better!!!

[DrTeeth]

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:28:37 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
a1pcfixer disturbed my reverie and wrote:

> Seems that his tape drive &/or backup software weren't correctly verifying the backups.

Good idea about testing them.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose whether or not
to dance in the puddles (Jewish proverb).