Confused on what to check off

[kcaegis45]

I just dl disk backup express.
I have one hard drive with a hidden recovery partition.
I want to backup my only hard drive and also periodically refresh the backup.
When I click on "Backup disk or partition, it requires me to click the check boxes for what I want back up.
This is where I am confused.
There are 5 boxes -
#1 - Basic hard disk
#2 - First hard disk track
#3 - Master boot record
#4 - local disk (this seems to be the hidden recovery partition)
#5 - Preload C:
What needs to be checked off to backup my hard drive?
When I click the "Basic hard disk", the other 4 boxes are automatically check off also.
1) Is that what needs to be checked off to backup my entire hard drive?
2) if I refresh (rebackup periodically) the backup, can I just check off #5 - Preload C: or do I need to have all the boxes checked. The reason I ask is that it uses less space if only the C: is backed up as I already have the other backed up and there is no changes.
3) if I back up each item separately, can I load (restore) them onto the same partition or does each load (restore) erase (format) the drive then load (restore) only that back up file so in essence do I need to check off all boxes so that the file will contain everything. I hope you can understand my questions.

Thanks for any explanation and help anyone can offer.

kcaegis45

[Paragon_Tommy]

Hello kcaegis45,

To clarify, your layout should look something like this:

1)Basic Hard Disk 0
_____A. First Hard Disk Track
__________a. Master Boot Record
_____B. Local Disk (hidden utility partition)
_____C. Preload C:

If you need a complete backup including your utility partition and preload, I would recommend running the backup with everything checked. But since you do plan to run regular backups of your C partition, backing up the utility partition separately once, and doing the C partition periodically may be the easiest way to manage those archives. The first hard disk track and master boot record is not always necessary to backup, as our software will automatically rebuild it from scratch after a restore. I would recommend checking this only if you have multiple operating systems.

Assuming you have one operating system and all you really need is to backup the C partition, run a separate backup for the utility partition (approximately 39 MB) and schedule backups with only Preload C (#5) checked.

Regarding restores, Drive Backup can restore complex archives (multiple partitions) or single partitions to existing partition(s) and unallocated space.



Tommy

[kcaegis45]

Tommy,

Thanks for the quick reply.
I only have one OS and do not plan on having multiple OS.
Can you tell me if this works.
I make a full image of the entire HD (all boxes checked) once and periodically do a backup only of the "Preload C:" partition, that's where my system OS is on and all my other things since I only have one partition besides the hidden partition that has my "Thinkpad recovery" of 5GB which you called as "Utility".
So if I ever need to restore my entire HD disk, First - I restore with the full image and then second - restore only partition C: with the lastest image of "partition C:".
Will that work? and when I restore, will the hidden partition still be hidden after I restore?

Thanks again.
kcaegis45

[Paragon_Tommy]

Yes, you can do that. First restore the complete image, and then restore the Preload C partition again from the most up to date image. We're essentially overwriting the preload partition again.

Like I mentioned earlier, you can backup these partitions individually and restore them individually. By doing an all encompassed hard drive backup, the advantage is that you'll be able to restore it to its original sizes, or if to a new hard drive, retain its proportions.

Your method works too, but it's an extra step to do an additional restore and additional space required to keep two sets of the preload partition (which isn't always bad to have).