Backing up SATA Hard Drive with 3 partitions

I'm getting a new computer which is being shipped to me.

New Computer:
2 SATA 76GB Hard Drives in Raid-0 (Drive C)
1 SATA 300GB Hard drive (Drive D)
OS= Windows Vista
Acronis True Image 10

I wish to partition the 300GB (Drive D) into 3 partitions. I know how to use Acronis True image on hard drives that were not partition. I will back up to another hard (internal or external) dive which I have not purchased as of yet.

My question is when I got to backup Drive D (300GB) that now has 3 partitions would I backup the whole hard drive or do I backup each partition?

When I want to restore Drive D do I have to restore the whole drive or can I restore the individual partitions?

How to backup the Raid (Drive C) Drive will be in another post.

Thank you

 

Hi,

First of all you can backup entire disk, and then restore only one partition at a time, or even just file from within.
I would do that, unless you want to backup only one or two partitions.

If you dont backup C volume, backup will not include MBR, so nothing to boot of.

If you want to backup your RAID 0 volume C: and then restore to a non raid volume, you would need Acronis Workstation with Universal Restore I guess, unless Vista really changed mass storage management...

Cheers,

Jaycee

 

You do not state the contents of Drive D so I will assume that it is a "data only" disk and does not contain any operating system.

There can be many variances with no specific hard and fast rules. That said, my preferences would be:

1. Image the entire drive (all partitions) for the first backup. Should you need to replace the entire drive due to a hdwe failure, sometimes TrueImage stumbles if the number of partitions being restored does not match the original backup.
2. Subsequent backups and any partition restore could be of the single partition type. Since these would be data partitions, these could be restored from within Windows--or from the Rescue CD.
3. Occasionally thereafter, repeat the cycle of a full disk backup with subsequence single partition backups.
4. Should the data contain lots of audio or video files, these are already compressed and should deserve special treatment so these should be saved outside any proprietary backup format.

It would be helpful if you were to invest some time with these previous postings. (credit to Catsfan432 for calling this link again to our attention-again)
Recommend backup scheme for photos, music?
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=164175

Sometimes our learning should also include how to avoid mistakes. Check this link.
SAVE MY MUSIC COLLECTION! PLEASE
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/search.php?searchid=1586381

You are planning to store your backups on an external drive which is good for normal use. Be sure and have "just in case" plans should the external drive fai and your backups are lostl. Additional backups stored elsewhere are always a good idea.