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Windows 10 OS Backup and Restore from one partition only

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Guys I always had Windows on only 1 HD partition and I always did and restored backups without any problem, I backed up the entire HD, my doubt is that I now have an HD with 2 partitions, one with Windows 10 in C: \ and the other with data on D: \, and I am backing up only the C: \ partition, as a backup of my Windows 10 in case I have a problem with viruses, worms, or something else that renders my OS inoperable, as has happened in the past, but I would like to know if this happens, and I can restore this backup only from this partition that has Windows 10, c: \, and it will be bootable without losing the D: \ partition, where do I have my data?

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Druid®.

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Normally a Windows 10 results in the following partitions:

  • the OS partition
  • a recovery partition
  • and if you are booting in UEFI mode (required if you have NVMe drive), a UEFI partition.

Malware and viruses can damage all three of these. Also, there is a danger that you data partition could be targeted by malware or a virus.

While it is possible to have one backup task for all partitions, I would be inclined to have separate backup tasks for partion D and the other partitions. You can then tailor the frequency with which the backup is made taking into account how often the data on the partitions is modified. For example I have two partitions that contain archived data and installation files, which do not change often, so I only do a backup when I have added files, however I do regular backups of my OS drive (the NVMe drive only has OS, UEFI and recovery partitions). You could also consider doing regular backups of you user files, either using a files and folders backup or possibly non-stop backup (the latter is probably overkill).

Ian

Ok my friend Ian, but my main question is: having backed up only the C: \ partition that contains my bootable Windows 10 Enterprise 1909 OS, when I restore it I risk losing the D: \ partition with all the data, Acronis True Image assures me that it won't happen?

I will explain the reason for my doubt: I have a lot of MKV and ISO Blu-ray movie files in this new partition and I would not like to have to verify after restoring the backup of my Windows 10 Enterprise 1909, that I lost my D: \ partition with all the data on it, because currently I have no space to back up these files, since I never had Windows OS on one partition and data on another partition on the same disk and I don't know how ATI 2020 works in this case; as I said above I always used the backup and restore to disk with Windows in a single partition, and when I used the restore of this backup of ATI of entire disk (not partition) it killed the partition D: \ of the HD with little data that had in it and I had backup, when I returned a backup of the other machine that burned the motherboard and I had to buy another computer, which is the current one and now has two partitions.

Att.

Druid®.

Druid, if you select to recover your backup at a Disk level, then you would wipe the whole drive, including your D: partition, but if you recover it at a Partition level, then you can select to restore only the one partition.

I have done the latter a number of times on a dual-boot laptop with multiple partitions for both different OS's and my data.  If done carefully, there should be no risk of data loss.

I would definitely highly recommend getting yourself a good high capacity backup drive - you don't need an expensive SSD type drive for this, a spinning HDD drive is fine for backup data.  Having either a backup or a copy of your data before doing any recovery is going to be well worth the peace of mind it gives you that your data is protected.

Thanks for the direct answer about my question, friend Steve Smith, that is exactly what I would like to know.
I remember that when I returned the backup I had from the old machine, I didn't see it and it returned the entire backup of the disk and consequently wiped the D: \ partition leaving only C: \. As I now have a partitioned disk (2 partitions), with Windows 10 Enterprise OS and Data, I backed up the OS only partition, and when there is an unsolved OS problem, I return the backup only to the OS partition. SO in C: \.
Of course, the ideal is always to have backup of important information such as documents, photos, personal videos and etc., but at the moment I'm out of money for this and it will have to be that way, so my fear of tomorrow having to restore it of my ATI OS and lose the D: \ partition where I have movies, shows, lossless audios, and programs downloaded from the WEB, which often take a considerable amount of time to download and we also can't find any more to download.
And yes the ideal is to have a SSD of about 240 GB for Windows OS and I hope to be soon capitalized for that.

Att.

Druid®.