C Drive Backup with User Files on F Drive

[jldodge]

I have researched the forum and am unable to find the answer to my situation.

For a variety of reasons, I have ALL of my User Files on a separate hard drive. I recall from some of my research, a comment that when I backup up my C drive (partition, MBR, etc.) that the backup ALSO picks up the User Files regardless of where they are stored. Is this the case with Paragon's backup software? If not, can I do a simple file backup either with Paragon or SyncBack to effectively backup my user files or do I have to do a backup comparable to what I do with my C Drive?

Thanks in advance for any help ...

[Robin A.]

You can do a sector backup of a file backup. In a sector backup, only the partition selected will be backed up. In a file backup, only the files you select will be.

I use Paragon programs only for doing sector-based backups. For me, the best way to back up files is to use a synchronizer. I use FreeFileSync.

[seekforever]

I also use Paragon only for sector-based backups and only for my OS and apps C drive. This is also the way I previously used Drive Image and Acronis True Image.

I keep my important data files on a different drive and use SyncBack for backup. I like to have my data files kept in their native file format and folder structure rather than dumped into a proprietary container file.

[jldodge]

Thanks ... I had not thought of backing up in native format. I was a long time customer of Acronis but, for many of the reasons others have expressed, recently switched to Paragon. Others have recommended SyncBack so I have downloaded it and plan to test it for backing up my "data" drive in native format.

One question remains. For a host of reasons, I have my User files all on my "data" drive, including the Appdata folders. Can I successfully use the native format to backup those files?

Again, thanks in advance for any help. I already have made some valuable changes to my backup process.

[seekforever]

Synback or whatever should just copy the designated folders and files to your backup location without any problem.

There is one thing to be aware of with this type of backup and that is versioning or a lack of it. Say you have a document of some sort you are editing. You spend all day editing and save your file. That evening your backup runs and copies your edited file to your backup location overwriting the previous backup. The next day you decide that your edits are not what you want but now your un-edited backup has been overwritten so both your current file and your backup are the same.

There are ways around this depending on the backup program and you can also manually change the filename before the backup runs so the previous version remains in the backup location. SyncBackSE or Pro, the paid versions, let you enable versioning so previous versions of your file are also kept which makes it possible to rollback to a previous version of the file.

This is may not be a common problem but it somwthing to be aware of.