Recovery plan for backup from 3 source drives
Hi all,
I have recently returned to ATI19 after a few years away. I trying to create an excellent backup and recovery plan at a time when I am problem free.
On page 146 of the ATI19 manual in pdf format,
11.3 Making sure that your bootable media can be used when needed:
I like the excellent advice to make a "test recovery" on pp146-148. I note the suggestion that the recovery be made to a new (meaning unused, non-essential) disk, which seems like a good precaution.
My computer is organized with Windows, program files, and all the essential files that make everything run smoothly on SSD Drive: C, with 500 GB capacity. Most of my data is on internal HDD Drive D, with 1 TB capacity. Because I am a photographer, all my image files are on Drive: I, a large 8 TB drive
As I went through the exercise, it appeared that I would be able to recover my daily Acronis incremental backup that includes all 3 of these drives. However, for each of the source drives in the backup, I am asked to pick a new destination drive. As soon as I choose one, it gets formatted as a preparatory step, and after it has been used to recover, say, the C: Drive, it is now unavailable for duty as a destination for the D: and I: Drive recoveries, even though it has huge capacity.
One additional wrinkle is that the I: Drive has a large 8 TB capacity, although I only use a few hundred GB of that capacity now. It seemed to me that some of the recovery messages were suggesting I needed an 8TB or larger drive to recover to, so I skipped the I: Drive recovery exercise altogether.
So, I wonder if any of you have simple solutions. I hate to buy 3 additional spare drives to have around simply for a recovery that may never be needed.
A couple ideas I had:
1. Partition the I:Drive to include a smaller "active partition", gradually increasing in size as photo files grow in number, then try to restore only this smaller partition. I can't really tell if True Image's recovery rules makes that step important.
2. On the destination drive for this recovery, create 3 partitions, one each for the C,D, and I drive backups.
In years past, I simply recovered directly onto the original source drives, hoping for the best. As I get older and wiser, that seems like a reckless plan now, and I do like the idea of recovering to a new drive as an intermediate step.
This is a great forum. Thanks for any thoughts members may have.
Leander


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Thank you, Enchantech. That is exactly the kind of help I was hoping for. I will give all you ideas a try. Seem sensible and I hope easy.
Thanks,
Leander
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