Backup
Under tasks are listed "My System" and "OS". What backup provides the most complete record--the total contents of the computer? Also, if I select the option to shut off cptr when finished, does that take care of "safely removing" hardware and can I simply remove the external disk after the cptr shuts off? Thanks.
Under tasks are listed "My System" and "OS". What backup provides the most complete record--the total contents of the computer? Also, if I select the option to shut off cptr when finished, does that take care of "safely removing" hardware and can I simply remove the external disk after the cptr shuts off? Thanks.
To be safe, ignore this prepackaged backup setups. Depending on your system, they may not do what is needed.
First thing, right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management. What comes up is the view of your disks. Ideally print a screenshot of what you see. Inspect the disk that has an active partition. At least on active partition should be on the disk where C:\system is. You might have other partitions here (Eg system reserved, recovery, OEM, IBM/HP recovery, etc.). It is possible that the active partition is NOT on the same disk as system.
Then use ATI to create a disk and partition backup (not a file backup) of the entire system disk. Include all the partitions of the system disk and make sure the active partition is in there.
If the backup is too big, you can exclude *folders" from your backup (for example big video folders). Note that if you do that and you restore the backup, the excluded content will have disappeared. So, be sure to backup your excluded content some other way. Many users end up creating a "system" disk or partition, and put all their content on some other disk/partition. This way, the system disk backup can be compact.
Follow these guides to create your backup. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618 The guides are mostly for ATI 2012, but they will help.
After you have finished your backup, make sure you create your recovery CD, and you test it: boot your computer on it and recover a couple of files from your backup onto the system disk. This will ensure that the recovery CD will be useful to you when you need it!