External Hard Drive

Hi

I got Acronis quite recently, by download, and created a secure zone and backed everything up. The main reson I wanted Acronis is that I have a lot of applications bought by download and I don't want to lose them if I crash.

I am fairly confident that I will be ok from my Acronis Secure Zone but it is taking up an awful lot of space on my C: drive, getting on for half the disk so I got myself an external HD (Packard Bell 250G) and I was going to move all my backup there but from reading the forum I'm a bit concerned.

I read somewhere on here that my applications might not work properly from an externally saved backup - but even if I start to do all my work on the bigger external HD it will still take up more and more space on my original C: drive.

What should I do? Please advise

Dee

 

There is no problem storing your backup archives on an external HD but you have to make sure that the TI rescue environment, the boot CD, can validate and restore them properly. It is best to find this out before you have a disaster.

Storing your archives in a Secure Zone on the same physical disk as C does NOT mean they are safe should the disk die. If it goes bad, your archives are gone. This applies to any physical drive not just the one C is located on.

IMO, the best way to backup your downloaded program files is to copy them to an external HD or second physical internal HD. You can also just copy them to CD with Nero, Roxio or any other burning software. Be sure to use the "verify after burning" feature of your software to ensure you have a good copy.

 

“I was going to move all my backup there”
First off, due to the nature of the ASZ, you will not be able to move anything stored there to the external. You will just need to start again.

“my applications might not work properly from an externally saved backup”
If I understand you correctly, you’re going to use the external to store your backup images – you will not be running any applications from it.

“but even if I start to do all my work on the bigger external HD it will still take up more and more space on my original C: drive”
This has me totally confused. ??

“What should I do?”
I would use the external for nothing other than storing your backup images. Then I would delete the ASZ and reclaim that space to your C: drive.