Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Backups on separate physical drives or separate partitions

Apr 13, 2016 7:47PM PDT

Does it make any difference if: 
          (a) backups are kept on separate physical drives; or 
          (b) separate partitions of same physical drive? 
          (c) If having separate partitions of same physical drive is good enough then choice between Primary or Logical partitions?

Is it better to install OS on a MBR drive or GPT drive?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
pros & cons of Portable disk/OneDrive, dual-boot/single-boot
Apr 16, 2016 6:54PM PDT

Thanks to both of you.

Storing 2nd / 3rd backup on portable disk or OneDrive -- pros / cons, in your view?

Windows 10, 64-bit OS, x64-based architecture, Intel graphics, and 8 GB RAM DDR3
1 TB fixed drive with OS and data on it + 500 GB portable drive + 
160 GB fixed drive with system on it (unsure if to delete the OS and use it as backup only disk, or to make it an external drive and replace it with a new 1 TB fixed drive, and then, use the 1 TB as system (dual-boot) and local backup as well -- any advice?)

- Collapse -
Answer
No.
Apr 14, 2016 9:23AM PDT

As you can make any of these work, you go with what works for you.

My view is that backup is more than one copy. WHY? Because most folk backup to the same place so for a time there is no backup copy. This means a power or other glitch can wipe out the original and the backup.

Backup to me is more than one backup copy. Get to that state by any means that works for you.

- Collapse -
Answer
Both.
Apr 16, 2016 4:13AM PDT

Do NOT use option b) alone if the only drive you have is the system drive - WHEN the motor burns out or the head crashes, you lose everything.

As Bob says the minimum backup is two physical drives and preferably with the second drive external to your computer so that you don't lose it if it catches fire!

Also, as Bob says, with that in mind, any solution that works for you is good.

For what it's worth, I use two external drives, with multiple partitions, one partition for each backed up machine. Then I use the "Active" backup drive for a month of incrementals. Once a month I switch to the other backup, starting with a full image copy and file level data backup and go on using this second drive for incrementals. During any month, only the Active backup is ever used. Oh, and I run a disk scan after full backups.

Overkill? Works for me and I've not lost data yet. Disks are cheap, time machines are not!

Since you will probably want to use backup drives larger than 2 TB, you will probably want to use GPT but within the addressing limits, it doesn't make much difference.

Your Mileage May Vary.

- Collapse -
Answer
Backup must be separate to be safe
Apr 17, 2016 12:02PM PDT

Backup is not backup unless it is on a separate device, which is physically removed in between backup runs. This is the only way to protect from far more likely calamities than drive motor burnout, such as viruses, ransomware, a bad OS patch you were forced to install (e.g.Win10), or your own momentary carelessness. If ransomware hits while your backup drive/partition is connected, you better round up a pile of Bitcoins to get your data back, because you have no backup. Store this drive somewhere else, such as in your office at work, or a different room of your home, or in the cloud via an online backup service.

When backing up, avoid "continuous backup" schemes, which I have seen overwhelmed by ransomware changing files frequently, thereby causing many new backups of the corrupted files to be made, until the original uncorrupted version rolls off the end. I've even seen this effect on non-continuous scheduled automatic backup systems. If using an online cloud backup system, log out from it when not actually doing a backup or restore.

The ability to restore if needed is the whole reason to do backup. Make sure you can restore, in case of a whole range of potential problems.

- Collapse -
Thank you, and hope I understood you correctly...
Apr 17, 2016 9:12PM PDT

I appreciate what you say. Over past 14 years, I have had many backups, but couldn't recover any of them successfully. This points at the value of your statement "The ability to restore if needed is the whole reason to do backup. Make sure you can restore, in case of a whole range of potential problems".

I forgot to mention that I have an UPS (make: APC) installed in between the main power supply and the desktop PC. The software it comes with winds up the entire work, saves all open works, and then shuts down the system, with its 45 minutes power backup. Though, never a situation has arisen for APC to put it software in action over the years, yet it can only address one of the issues you have enumerated in your reply.

May be, I have been lucky so far but that does not guarantee my safety for all times to come. And, therefore, I realized the importance of your statement "Store this drive somewhere else". In other words, I mustn't use a drive that is an integral part of PC, connected through SATA and Power plug. What you are suggesting sounds like 'use an external case in which I can place the backup drive, and disconnect it from the PC after the job is done; and then, move the drive away and keep it somewhere far enough'.

Thinking on similar lines, 'can a portable drive like Seagate Backup Plus substitute the 'external case containing backup drive' so long the portable drive is disconnected after every backup, and removed from the vicinity of the PC it was attached to while taking the backup'?

One question comes to my mind: should I be taking a full back every time, not an incremental or differential one?

Now, on the question of cloud storage. If a corrupted file gets uploaded from my PC to my OneDrive account, or Google Drive account, do they not monitor the contents for any kind of threat using some very powerful software, on an ongoing basis? If not, then it's hardly worth paying them monthly fees for additional storage space on recurring basis?

I couldn't understand what you meant by "you better round up a pile of Bitcoins to get your data back"?

Best Regards...

- Collapse -
you mean backup of data, or....
Apr 17, 2016 10:33PM PDT

...the entire system including your own personal data? I only backup my personal data, in windows typically in all those "My ......... Folder" area.

I never backup the entire system with all added third party software installed, because it's more than needed, software is constantly updating and if I had to restore from a system backup, I'm already behind where I had been before, unless I keep overwriting previous backups, and the time that takes, and would still need to reinstall or upgrade all the software which had been upgraded since the last system backup.

The only value to system backup is setting up windows fresh, then adding all updates to that time, and then using something like Easus to make backups you can burn to CD or DVD (it can make in file sizes that will burn across several CD or DVD if necessary) and the starting Emergency Restore Disc. It's AFTER that I add the latest extra third party stuff. A "windows only" backup. If I have to Restore and don't want to have all the windows updates to download again, then I can restore from the Easus backup and have only the updates left to catch up on since the last time I loaded windows.

I use Linux and never do system backups with it, since I can download the latest ISO file, put on USB or DVD, and it's usually kept updated by the particular distro so I'm not that far behind on updates needed as windows typically is.

All I do now is just personal data backup, but it's to a USB HDD that's offline/unplugged except when backing up the data. That's to avoid losing it too any power surge that might destroy it and my computer's various parts, or damage it's internal HDD.

For the most part, entire drive backup including system makes no sense to me.

- Collapse -
Data Backup only
Apr 17, 2016 11:28PM PDT

That's a good question: System + Data back or only Data backup? I had thought of clarifying that but somehow it skipped my mind.

I was thinking of Data only. Somehow or other system backups taken over the years using Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image never succeeded in restoring my system. Though some technical advisers recommend system backup also but my personal failures in peculiar scenarios where I was called upon to restore the backup, and your arguments seem to convince me to simply focus on data backup because that cannot be recreated, whereas there CDs/DVDs for Application Software and OS are with me, plus 50 Mbps 25 GB, FUP 1 Mbps unlimited Internet connection can easily download all updates that may be necessary. Hence, now I am thinking of Data only.

This will also reduce storage requirement, and I may not need to buy additional hard disks. Good old Samsung 2007 (160 GB) batting steadily, and Seagate USB 2009 (500 GB) may help me with two separate backups and third backup on OneDrive (130 GB). I have to take special care to disconnect these storages when they are not actively backing up/syncing.

Am I on the correct path?

- Collapse -
(NT) sounds like a plan!
Apr 18, 2016 1:40AM PDT
- Collapse -
This is what I have done; and, one last question
May 11, 2016 3:55PM PDT

Thanks!
Finally, what I have done is this:
I had one 3-yr old WD 1 TB drive on which System and User Data were kept.
I bought a new Seagate 1 TB drive and Cloned WD >> Seagate.
Cloning eliminated the need to restore backup system image and user data, as the system booted from both drives depending on my choice.
Considering that one drive was 3-yr old, and the other a brand new one, decided to make the old one as a clone, and the new one as the main drive on which all new work would be done.
Then, setup a daily incremental cloning plan, which would synchronize the clone drive with the main drive, once ever day.
Thus, there will be two physically independantly bootable drives ready, and if the main drive crashes, the clone drive takes over.
Since cloning gets carried out once a day, those user data files that get added and/or modified between two cloning schedules, that also needed to be taken care of. For this, Windows File History was setup on an external disk, which gets updated almost on a real-time basis with date and time stamp for each such update.

Is there a need to improvise on it? For instance, partioning main drive for storing system files on first partition and user data on second partition. During next cloning, cloned disk will also get partitioned the same way. Should I partition the main disk in this manner, or should I leave it as it is?