Backing up Changes Only when disk has multiple partitions
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:06 am
The disk on my PC has three partitions, one of which is the Win7 OS, another is its System boot partition, and the third is the manufacturer's original Recovery data partition. When I made the original backup of my entire disk with IFL after booting into its CD environment, I selected the top checkbox for the disk, which then automatically selected all three of these partitions. During my configuration of the backup parameters, I chose to have the backup files limited to a maximum size of 2 GB. So, for the Windows OS partition, which is large, this resulted in having several 2 GB files to complete the backup, as I expected. No problem there.
When I used IFL to back up the data on this disk, it created three separate and distinct parts, one for each partition. That is to say, when I later used TBI View to browse into the folder where I had backed up the data, there were three TBI files, one representing each partition. For the large partition consisting of several 2 GB files made during this backup, there was only one of its several files labeled with a TBI suffix. I understand this and all of it appears as I would expect.
However, when I then proceeded later on to make another backup of my entire disk, but this time I chose to make the backup of Changes Only, during the procedure in which IFL asked me to identify the file where the original backup data was located, once I browse to the folder where I had originally placed it, I see again three separate TBI files, one for each of the partitions. These are of course the same files I mentioned already, each one representing one of the partitions. Which of these should I choose?
It is at this point that I am surprised because It would appear as if I can only point out one of these three files at this time because They do not have the same individual checkboxes next to them, such as there were when I made the original backup. Consequently, my backup of the Changes Only seems to me to be different procedurally in that I cannot now backup all three partitions in one swipe as I did with the initial backup of the disk. Am I supposed to make three different backups now, one for each of the partitions? First make one, then after it has finished I should start the process all over for the next partition, etc., rather than having the opportunity to indicate that I want to backup the entire disk in its entirety, including all three partitions, and do so in one pass through the process? Even if it were true in my simple case that only one of these partitions had changed, this would not generally be true in all other cases.
When I used IFL to back up the data on this disk, it created three separate and distinct parts, one for each partition. That is to say, when I later used TBI View to browse into the folder where I had backed up the data, there were three TBI files, one representing each partition. For the large partition consisting of several 2 GB files made during this backup, there was only one of its several files labeled with a TBI suffix. I understand this and all of it appears as I would expect.
However, when I then proceeded later on to make another backup of my entire disk, but this time I chose to make the backup of Changes Only, during the procedure in which IFL asked me to identify the file where the original backup data was located, once I browse to the folder where I had originally placed it, I see again three separate TBI files, one for each of the partitions. These are of course the same files I mentioned already, each one representing one of the partitions. Which of these should I choose?
It is at this point that I am surprised because It would appear as if I can only point out one of these three files at this time because They do not have the same individual checkboxes next to them, such as there were when I made the original backup. Consequently, my backup of the Changes Only seems to me to be different procedurally in that I cannot now backup all three partitions in one swipe as I did with the initial backup of the disk. Am I supposed to make three different backups now, one for each of the partitions? First make one, then after it has finished I should start the process all over for the next partition, etc., rather than having the opportunity to indicate that I want to backup the entire disk in its entirety, including all three partitions, and do so in one pass through the process? Even if it were true in my simple case that only one of these partitions had changed, this would not generally be true in all other cases.