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Backing up the laptop hard drive + a connected external hardrive to a second connected hard drive dedicated to backups only?

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I have just had my new Acronis True Image 2016 product installed and used it once so far to backup.

My files are partially on the laptop's hard drive (C). But I also keep most of the files on a permanent external 2-Terabites hard drive (E).

I have also installed a second external hard drive (F) that is supposed to receive the backed up files from both (C) and (E).

When the backup job was completed, I noticed that Acronis did not recognize Drive (F) which was specifically attached to receive nothing but backups. It just dumped the backed up files from (C) and (E) on the external hard drive (E). i.e. the backed up files were added to the same hardrive that has the originals!

How can I get Acronis do backup both the main hard drive (C) as well as the external hard drive (E) on the second external hard drive (F)?

I can always call you if you wish.

Many thanks;

H a s s a n

 

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Well, the first thing I would do would be to use the laptop's  Windows Disk management console and permanently assign letter  E  to the 2T drive.

As external drive letter assignment can be variable, you need to prevent the possibility of Windows assigning E to some other device such as a printer or flash drive or camera, etc.

Next, would be to permanently assign the letter Z: to the backup storage drive. Reason=same as the 2T. You don't want Windows changing the drive letter assignment.  Note the permanent letter assignment is only effective  when the two externals are attached to this specific laptop.

Note that when TrueImage (any version) creates a backup task, the task will only succeed if there are no changes of disks or drive letters. The same source disk(s) and target disks must be attached with no drive letter changes. If you change the target disk, the backups will fail.

So much for the preliminaries.  Now, what are you intentions?  Do you want your backups to be able to create a replacment disk if the laptop disk fails?

If yes, then the type of backup must include all partitions on the laptop such as "Entire C".

What about the 2T drive E?. Do you want to back up its entire contents, or just specific folders?

Probably the best choice would be to back up the laptop separately into its own "Entire C" disk image backup; and then have a separate task to back up the 2t-E.  (Also see Note 1.)

either as a partition type backup (all contents of E), or optionally, a files/folders type backup where the backup contents must be selected via individaul folder selection.

Note 1: It would also be possible to create one task  to backup all of C and all of E, and that backup type would be to select "disk & partitions" and then select all partitons of drive C plus the partition associated with drive letter E.

Good morning;

Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to provide various alternatives to resolve the issue I have raised. Together with my associate, we will decide on which way to go to ensure we do not lose anything.

If you wish, I could advise you eventually as to which choice we made and the results.

Most appreciated;

H a s s a n

Yes. Please post your results.

Hello GH-Storage;

Thanks for your patience. My associate seemed pretty confused as to what to do, so I asked him to abstain. Since I am afraid of doing something that would mess up my computer and its contents, I think I better contact Acronis directly with the hope that they have reasonable customer support service for first-time clients that can either walk me through the procedure, or do it remotely for me.

Your help has been truly appreciated.

H a s s a n