Backup Windows OS and applications only?

First time user here.

My C: has 250gb full. I think the resulting image would be too large (i tried and it said after awhile I don't have enough space). I have a bunch of multimedia of music and movies that I don't wish to backup. How do I backup the operating system and maybe installed applications without pulling all the extra media files with it?

I'm assuming that I can just restore this image on a new hard drive if my first HD crashes without reinstalling windows. Is this assumption correct and how long would this take, 10 minutes?

 

Not possible, when true image backups the operating system it backups everything that is on the system partition.

On my computer I have windows and my more important programs installed on C: partition. All non-essential games/media/mp3/movies is on my data partition. My c: partition is 20gb (6gb in use) takes 5 minutes to backup and about 20 minutes to restore.

If you have another partition, just move your data over. Even large programs/games moved over to another partition will still work as long as you update the shortcut.

How your hard drive is setup will give you problems if you have to restore it in an emergency, taking hours to backup and restore. The larger the backup the more risk of it being corrupted.

 

Thanks, I guess I'll find the space to move all non essentials off the drive before I image it.

 

It is possible just exclude the folders with the stuff you don't want to backup.

 

Where are you trying to backup to - not the same drive I hope. It never ceases to amaze me how many people do backups onto the source drive - if the drive were to go belly up which they all do in time then you lose everything. Do full images is always more successful than cherry picking what to backup so my advice would be to backup the entire C drive to another drive be it a slave drive or an external drive.

 

how do i do that? how do i get to those options?

Don't want to backup 250gb in data cuz don't want to sacrifice 250gb for it=)

 

I don't know what Ti-version you are using.

Please read chapter "5.4.2 Source files exclusion" in Ti2009 manual.

BTW:
If you do a full backup you get automtaically the dialog with excluding files/folders.

 

My opinion:
After you get your current backup requirement sorted out consider as was suggested above setting up your HD with at least 2 partitions. One for OS and apps and the other(s) for data.

Apart from fooling with exclusions (which I think is a poor way to approach an image backup) the smallest unit an image can deal with is a partition so it is convenient to setup the HD with this in mind. By having an image of your OS and apps only, you can blow away your C drive at any time without having to worry about losing any data files.

I don't consider any benefit to segregating the OS from the applications by different partitions since the application install writes stuff into the registry and in various places on C anyway so you have to keep them together. My only deviation from this is to install large games like Flight Simulator into their own partition since the basic game data changes very little.

Also, by keeping C relatively small, you will find you can do fast image creation and restores and this will likely make you more willing to do backups.

 

I'm not sure if the whole concept of separating anything including data is now somewhat outmoded with modern backup software cheap storage and fast PC's. My PC has a 500 gig drive with around 90 gig used one single volume. Acronis 2009 backs that up in around 20 minutes and can completely restore it in around 25 minutes. I keep at least 3 copies of this drive so the chances of losing anything is pretty remote.

 

I agree the situation has improved but if I want to make an image before I fool with the system I'd sooner wait (using your numbers) less than 5 minutes than 20 minutes to do the backup first. Also, if something goes wrong due to some rogue software that runs without a backup being made then a restore with an "old" archive is not likely to interfere with any more recent personal data files.

At this time I'd venture a guess your numbers are faster than the vast majority of TI users.

Like I said, it is my opinion and it really depends on how you like to work. I don't see any benefit in making, handling and restoring very large files when I don't need to.

 

bob13bob,

I like this article on Backups. It was written a few years ago but the concept is still valid.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#13

 

Thanks for that link. I found it useful.

 

They may be now with 2009 version but they didn't use to be - see my many previous posts on this subject. With TI 10 that drive took 17 hours to restore before I made a VistaPE disk. 2009 ticks all the boxes on my PC's hardware which is why I like it so much.

 

My TI2009 experience was around 10-15% slower than previous version I was using - 2 different machines.

 

This sounds like a good idea and I plan to do it in the future. (what size partion would you recommend for this anyway, assuming modern 300gb+ hard drives) However, I can't take that option with my current setup because it's too late.

 

It really just depends on what you do and what you have installed so there is no absolute answer.30-50GB is usually way more than enough for C if the data is elsewhere but what happens is some programs use C for temporary storage space and I don't mean Windows\Temp. You can usually re-direct the temporary space elsewhere but it sometimes is forgotten or the app gets reinstalled and the redirection forgotten. Then when you use the program with limited C drive space it fails when the free space is exhausted. So for this reason it doesn't hurt to make C larger than necessary especially since the drives are so large. In fact, a 500GB drive seems to be around the price/capacity sweet-spot these days. So make C around 75-100GB if you wish.

You can consider breaking the remainder into 1 or even more partitons. Be splitting the data from the OS/apps you have taken the major step. I have mine partitioned like this but it is only one way of doing it, do as you wish.
Utility: 20GB redirect Nero or other programs that like buffer space here. If you record TV with a video capture card you can store it here but if you do, make it larger. Using this utility area may help reduce fragmentation.
Games: Install large games like Flight Simulator etc here. Make an image and then forget about it until you install a new game. This is a non-critical partition since you still have the install CDs if it goes bad.
Data: Largest partition. Store your critical data files here and you can also store your TI tib files here.

 

Why advise users to store tib files on source drive - surely you want these stored on another drive or drives in case source drive fails or gets corrupted in some way?

 

OOOOOOPS!
Faust, you are absolutely correct! I have my tib files on an internal drive as the first backup but it is on a second internal HD, not the main one.

A better way of doing this is to put the second HD into the machine if it is possible and just leave the first HD with the OS in place. If not possible, then by all means get the tib files onto an external drive.

 

Yes, I have a slave drive setup - an identical 500 gig drive, not RAID, I use it partitioned, one part is for Ubuntu the other for backups. I have another two external drives that I also use for backups - yes I know I'm obsessive but you simply cannot be too careful with data - you cannot replace all those precious memories.

 

Just wanted to update on my situation. It did not work.
made a partial image of my C: by just unselecting my big folder "multimedia". I left everything else checked. It made an image on new slave D:
-removed C:, left D:, fresh windows install on D: without formatting.
-I then booted up on D:, I did not install motherboard drivers.
-installed acronis and then restored image that was stored there.
-it did not work, i rebooted in to windows and the mouse or keyboard would not work.

Either
1 this is a fluke
2 acronis works better when full hd backup is made

If neither of above are true, than acronis is worthless for me. =(

On a better note I used partitionmagic to make a new 60gb partition on an existing drive with free space (it does it on windows). I then formatted this part and installed windows+applications like recommended in this thread.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

bob13bob, it seems that the recovery operation failed. If the source system was completely functional, the change to lose USB drivers during the recovery is rather improbable. Have you tried to recover the system under Acronis Booting Rescue Media?

Thank you.

--

Oleg Lee