I am new to this and I have an old laptop (10yr old).
I have been backing up my XP/Pro system to a HP/PMD HD (via USB 1). I do a total system backup using Win Backup and Restore. I created an ASR floppy (yes I have one of those!!!

) as per the Win instructions. I have never had to restore my entire system, so I have no idea if this would have ever worked.
I installed Paragon Drive Backup 10 Pro on my XP/Pro system just yesterday. I chose to copy the entire C:\ to the PMD. Paragon created an E:\ drive letter and the entire disk was copied. It wiped out my previous backups (this was clear in the instructions). I also created a boot CD. I want to keep this copy as is. It is a preload, so I do not have an XP disc.
I have lots more space on the PMD, so I used Paragon to create a partition, 40GB away from the newly created backup. It is F:\. Can I put anything I want in this partition? Will I run into a restore issue if I do this?
NB: The PMD is a storage device only. I can not boot from it.