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Best to Use Partitions or Folders for System Image Backups?

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I have a new 2TB USB external hard drive that I want to use to store system images and data file backups, as follows:

(1) Use Acronis 2016 to create system image of primary drive (an SSD)

(2) Use Macrium Reflect to create system image of primary drive

(3) Use SyncToy to backup selected data files

 

My question is this.......Given the above three tasks, should I create three partitions on my new drive or create three folders on a singular partition?

Thanks in advance.....

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My personal preference would be to create separate folders for each of your destination images / file sets as this will give you the greatest flexibility in terms of allowing for different backup file sizes.

If you go for separate partitions then you run the risk of needing to resize these later if you start running out of space in any one partition.

Thanks, Steve. That was my thinking also. I did folders on another external drive for the very reason you stated. But then I got to wondering whether there was an advantage to using separate partitions that maybe I was missing. So I decided to ask my question.

I appreciate your rapid response.