Laptop backup - using Acronis

Hello...
I would like to do a backup image of my laptop HD.

The HD is partitioned C and D.... plus hidden partitions with the
factory settings - (Windows 7)

Acronis appears to let me just image the C drive.... but should I do a
backup of the entire hard drive including all the partitions? One
backup image with everything on it.

I feel a bit uneasy about just doing the C drive and what will happen
when (if) I come to restore the image.

Thanks

alo wrote

I would like to do a backup image of my laptop HD.

The HD is partitioned C and D.... plus hidden partitions with the
factory settings - (Windows 7)

Acronis appears to let me just image the C drive....

Thats not right. You just need to use what Acronis calls the
rescue CD, boot off that and image the entire physical drive.

but should I do a backup of the entire hard drive including all the partitions?

Yes, that is best if you want to protect against the hard drive dying.

One backup image with everything on it.

I feel a bit uneasy about just doing the C drive and what
will happen when (if) I come to restore the image.

It will work fine if say you just mangle the install and want to recover from that.

alo wrote:
Hello...
I would like to do a backup image of my laptop HD.

The HD is partitioned C and D.... plus hidden partitions with the
factory settings - (Windows 7)

Acronis appears to let me just image the C drive.... but should I do a
backup of the entire hard drive including all the partitions? One
backup image with everything on it.

I feel a bit uneasy about just doing the C drive and what will happen
when (if) I come to restore the image.

Thanks


Typically, you do an image backup of the system partition and file
backups of the other ones. The hidden partition may not be
easily backed up, dependiong on how it was creates.
That said, you backup each partition individually, unless you
want a (large) sector-image of the wohle drive.

I would expect any reasonable backup programm to
allow you to point it at any partition and say "back this up".
Maybe Acronis just has a bad GUI.

Arno

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Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email:
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
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Arno wrote:
alo wrote:
Hello...
I would like to do a backup image of my laptop HD.

The HD is partitioned C and D.... plus hidden partitions with the
factory settings - (Windows 7)

Acronis appears to let me just image the C drive.... but should I do
a backup of the entire hard drive including all the partitions? One
backup image with everything on it.

I feel a bit uneasy about just doing the C drive and what will happen
when (if) I come to restore the image.

Thanks


Typically, you do an image backup of the system partition and file
backups of the other ones. The hidden partition may not be
easily backed up, dependiong on how it was creates.
That said, you backup each partition individually, unless you
want a (large) sector-image of the wohle drive.

I would expect any reasonable backup programm to
allow you to point it at any partition and say "back this up".
Maybe Acronis just has a bad GUI.

Or maybe it can do it fine.

On 1 Jul 2011 15:45:58 GMT, Arno wrote:



I would expect any reasonable backup programm to
allow you to point it at any partition and say "back this up".
Maybe Acronis just has a bad GUI.

Arno

Sorry I did not put it over too well.. Acronis will let me backup
either the entire HD, or the seperate partitions that it is divided
into.

I have now backed up the entire HD and its various partitions.

Thanks