Hey Marci - Can you please confirm what your 'F' storage drive is. If I remember rightly, you have one internal hard drive which is partitioned so the operating system and program files are on the main (boot) partition and all personal data is on a secondary partition (F)....is that right?

If that is the case....then you've already gone a long way to safeguarding your personal data by storing it on a separate partition. That is, because it is separate from the operating system, it would not be affected by a system crash. It is the very reason that particular procedure is recommended. The only real risk to that data would be hard drive failure or, as Ziggie pointed out, a serious infection. The risk of hard drive failure, although low, is always present...even with an external hard drive. Also, the total capacity of the 'F' drive is irrelevant, it is the amount of used space which is important.

My own personal backup strategy includes imaging plus backing up any [i:3dhwu665]important[/i:3dhwu665] personal data to either CD/DVD or USB flash drive. Mind you, I have everything on just the one main hard drive, no separation of system files and personal data to different partitions.

There are heaps of free backup programs available, including Cobian and FBackup....however, I have never understood the need for dedicated data backup software. If I have any photos, documents, music, etc which are important to me I simply copy those files to a flash drive or burn them to a data CD/DVD. I don't need any 'extra' software to do that.

In your case, with all you personal data stored on a separate partition I cannot see any reason you could not use Macrium Reflect to create separate images of both partitions. An image of the main (boot) partition would allow you to restore the system in case of disaster. An image of F drive would include [i:3dhwu665][b:3dhwu665]all[/b:3dhwu665][/i:3dhwu665] the personal data on that partition. Macrium Reflect free will not back up individual files/folders but it will backup an entire disk. In other words, all the personal data on F drive in one go, which is what I thought you were after?? From then on, you can just backup any additional personal data to CD/DVD as you go along or periodically create/save a fresh image of F drive and delete the older one.

Your Maxtor is plenty big enough to hold images. The images are used space only, no unused sectors are included so the total capacity of the source drive does not come into the equation. Also, Macrium Reflect [i:3dhwu665][b:3dhwu665]compresses[/b:3dhwu665][/i:3dhwu665] the image so, even though the used hard drive space may be quite large, the resulting image will be a much smaller size. From memory, there are three levels of compression to choose from.

To finish up, let's give an example of why an image of the main (boot) drive is so useful : Your system crashes, it will not operate properly and cannot be fixed. You have personal data only backed up. You would then need to; re-install the operating system from scratch, download and install all the program files, download and install all updates (from the very beginning), re-configure all program settings (e.g. email, browser, internet, etc.).
Now the same scenario with a backup image; restore the image, download and install any updates only since the time the image was created....all done!!

Cheers mate.....JIM

[i:1pmbc84a]"A disk image is a single file containing the complete contents of a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive. A disk image is usually created by creating a complete sector-by-sector copy of the source medium and thereby perfectly replicating the structure and contents of a storage device. Most modern disk imaging utilities omit unused file space from source media and compress the disk they represent to reduce storage requirements."[/i:1pmbc84a]

Hey Marci - That is a quote (edited slightly) from Wikipedia on disk imaging. I couldn't put it any better so I plagiarized it....

I think maybe the terminology is confusing you somewhat....substitute 'clone' for 'image' and that may help. Putting it in the simplest terms possible...a disk image is an exact and complete copy of a hard disk's content, excluding unused sectors, compressed and saved to a single file.

There are only a few basic steps involved:
1) Select source drive (the drive you wish to copy)
2) Select destination media (generally external hard drive which, when connected, is recognised by the imaging software).
3) Create and save image.

Here is a link to an article I wrote for the DCT news letter. It's a basic guide on how to create and save an image using Acronis but, as I said before, Macrium Reflect is very similar:
https://davescomputertips.com/newsle ... 081115.php

I recently introduced a mate of mine to disk imaging and, ironically, just afterward he experienced a horrible issue with Windows Updates which proved very difficult (if not impossible) to fix. The update did not complete properly and his computer got stuck in a continuous loop as it attempted to finish installing it. He could not access the operating system, not even in safe mode. Once it became apparent there was no easy way to overcome the problem he just restored an image which he had created earlier, all is well again now.

If more people used disk imaging software they would just about put the local computer repair shop out of business...

cheers......JIM

Hi Marci - Are you reading right through my replies mate??? It is the amount of [b:uw37qu0q][i:uw37qu0q]used[/i:uw37qu0q][/b:uw37qu0q] space which is relevant and [b:uw37qu0q]not[/b:uw37qu0q] the [b:uw37qu0q][i:uw37qu0q]total capacity [/i:uw37qu0q][/b:uw37qu0q]of the drive.

Firstly, when you say 273GB I think you are still talking about the [i:uw37qu0q]total[/i:uw37qu0q] disk size and not just the amount of used space?? I can't see you having 273GB of data....e.g. my main disk (C) shows: Total Capacity = 233GB ----- Free Space = 171GB. Now, if you deduct the amount of free space from the total capacity you will get the amount of[b:uw37qu0q] [i:uw37qu0q]used [/i:uw37qu0q][/b:uw37qu0q]space which, in my case, amounts to just 62GB.

The Free (unused) Space is not copied which means only the used 62GB would be copied to an image.

And secondly; Yes, the program will compress that 62GB so the resulting file will in fact be much smaller.

If I am wrong and you do actually have 273GB of data then I humbly apologise.

Cheers Marci......JIM

[b:29gi58vk][i:29gi58vk]"my old age and missing brain cells fault!"[/i:29gi58vk][/b:29gi58vk]

Now [i:29gi58vk]that[/i:29gi58vk] I can relate to mate!!!!

Funny thing is I can remember something from 20 years back but ask me what happened 18 seconds ago and.....forget about it!!!

My dearly beloved better half reckons I have the memory retention of a retarded tadpole....

So Marci, I need to know...how much used space[i:29gi58vk][b:29gi58vk] is[/b:29gi58vk][/i:29gi58vk] on that drive??????? I won't sleep until you tell me!!!!

cheers and beers....JIM