Securing a Large Disk

[pan93]

I have a 45 Gig external hadd that is virtually full. I want to back this drive up with acronis. It is not my primary hard drive (ie the C:\) but it stores a fairly old version of windows along with some programs and important files I used to use on an old computer.

My questions:

- How large will the acronis file be once I have backed those 45 gigs up?

- What type of backup should I do (Im really new to Acronis) ? Is there perhaps some sort of backup that will allow me to easily access the files? Having access to those files is really all I want from my backup. UI do not need to be able to use the old windows version on that driveso i do not want to have to "restorE" those 45 gigs to exactly the same way there were before I backed them up when I have to access some files.

[MudCrab]

The size of the backup image depends on how well the files compress. You may end up around 30GB or more (just a guess).

If you do an "Image" backup (backup the partition), then you can mount the image and browse it as a normal hard drive. You can also explore it and copy out files as needed.

One thing to consider, is that if something happens to the image file (bad sector, etc.) then the image file will be corrupted. You'll most likely still be able to mount it, but you won't be able to restore it or validate it. Also any files located in the "corrupted" area will not be able to be restored.

If you want to have access to all the files, I would leave them as they are on the hard drive and just make a backup so you have a backup.

If you only need access to some of the files (you work files, data files, important files, etc.) and don't care about the Windows files or Program Files directories, then you could create a backup of the partition and then just delete all the files you don't care to keep on the drive. That way you have a backup and you also have easy access to the files that are important to you.

I would NOT advise you to ONLY have the files stored in a backup image.