Advice Request Custom system+data backup

[Hadden]

I'm considering an incremental backup solution, so I'm looking some of them to see what can I expect to do with that.

Start with the current situation.
> In C: I have both System and Datas which doesn't fit in other drives (~1500 GB of USB drives almost full).
> Probably a good start will be to partition C and have System (~500 GB) and Data (~1500 GB) or even better buy a new drive.

I'd like to do a custom system image (so with all its partitions) but without carrying in it the data part - which is the most consistent and to keep a "small" size by time with incrementals (with data part will be too big).

It's only possible via re partitioning or there are softwares that can take the GPT partitions (I'm on UEFI) of system drive without put in the image specific files? (documents, videos, pictures ecc ecc)

> However, this idea isn't applicable if restoring the system image MUST format the partitions, as I'll lose the data, so in that case is better to partition the drive BEFORE XD

 

[orangenbaumblatt]

I would start with partitioning the drive to separate the system and the files. Then you could select only the C: drive containing your Windows to backup and the data partition remains excluded from the backup. I personally use Veeam Endpoint Backup, which allows me to bare-metal recover only the partitions that I need.

 

[LASER_oneXM]

i would suggest you to use 2 separate drives. For example:

*) 500GB/ 1 TB internal drive for system/progams only
*) 2 TB for (personal) data only

As a backup solution for the bigger drive (for your personal data only) you could use the software "Free File Sync" to
synchronize/backup every 2-3 days your data with one (or more) external USB drives. For the smaller drive (1 TB for
system/programs only) you could use one of the free/paid image softwares to create incremental images one or two times in a month.
The advantage is: if your OS crashes (or the system HDD crashes: hardware failure) then you have all your personal data on a
second/separate internal drive.
This is/was also my backup solution in my two laptops: system/programs on a SSD (256 GB) and personal data on the internal HDD only.
I'm synchronizing the internal HDDs 2-3 times in a week with my external USB drives. Minimum once per month i'm making a full
system image of both SSDs.

 

[Hadden]

Another question....
Assuming I'll split my main drive (C) or buy an SSD for that:
> Let's say 250~ GB (system C) and 1,75 TB~ (Data D)
> Let's say C has still 200 GB of free space now
> Let's say D is almost full

The image is big as the drive (250~ GB) or only as the occupied space? (50~ GB)

 

[frogboy]

For a system image it would only occupy 50GB space.

 

[Hadden]

I did the splitting thing - 120 GB for System and 1.75~ TB for Data - and went back to MBR partition (GPT are a nightmare to handle, expecially on UEFI system).
I did a full backup with macrium (after win10 post install) and doing incremental backup daily. (but I hope I won't need them XD)

 

[LASER_oneXM]

if you have problems with free space on your drive D: (see post #04) you should read this post .

...a quote from this post:

D: drive only has less than 7% free space. Windows likes 15% free space in order to perform stuff "behind the scenes" without adversely affecting the system's performance. Please free up 15% on ALL hard drives (you can get away with 10% on larger drives and won't notice a large performance penalty). Low free space can cause BSOD's - but the actual amount depends on the files being used by the system.

 

[Hadden]

Thanks.
I'll look that, for now I've a plenty of free space both in C: (System) and in D: (Games&Programs). And yes, system is faster than before in this way.

I don't use DaemonTools anymore, but only clonecd virtual drive (which handle .ccd files).

For now I'm on latest 10240 as I had issues with 1511 version: slow shutdowns, hanging explorer, sometimes USB issues, programs hanging too often.
I had to lock the update with Microsoft tool. However, should be work now. But I don't trust it anymore =D

Probably I'll wait for a while and I go directly to Anniversary Update.

My USB drives (E and F) are almost full, but I'm trying to free them with the space recovered by removing leftovers of files I don't need anymore.

I started to use portable version of apps whenever possible.

Thumb drives/virtual drives now have a recursive drive letter order (starting from Z) so I'm sure they won't mix with other devices in explorer

I have a windows 10 PE thumb drive (with macrium and other goodies) for any inconvenient