2010 + Rebit
I am planning to upgrade to 2010 very soon but due to the importance if backup I am thinking about also using a 2nd backup I recently discovered called REBIT. To those in the know, does this sound like a good idea and is anyone familiar with REBIT and if so can you offer any pros and cons.
Thanks
PS: Is there a good way to backup just the operating system, independant of all else, and perhaps keep it current by backing it up from time to time? I have a problem now that is either related to the operating system or maybe sectors on the hard drive going bad. Don't mind replacing the hard drive but if there is a problem with the operating system that would cause me to have to go back and install a new operating system and 10 billion programs and tinker with settings for years to come....farwell computing and McDonalds here I come for a career change to eternally flipping burgers.
Bodgy,
Thanks for the reply! I use one external hard drive for back up and nothing more. I do nothing to the drive in the way of partioning, don't know how, so I assume that entire hard drive would be considered one partition. Would you be saying that by partitioning I could put just the operating system (would that include the registry?) on one partition of that single harddrive and create a 2nd partition, on that same harddrive, for all else? If so, how would you get just the operating system and registry on that one partitiopn and would you somehow go back from time to time, perhaps when you add a new software that changes the registry and do a backup of just the partition that contains the operating system?
Your reply to my reply has confused me a little.
If you just have a 'C:' drive, then you most likely have only have one partition. The exception to this is if your PC is a brand name such as Dell, HP etc and has a 'Recovery' option in which case you actually will have two partitions, just one is hidden to your normal viewing.
With TI if you select the disk number to image, which in your case would show as DISK 0, then everything that is on that drive will be contained in your image. As the registry is part of the OS install and all your OS files will live on the 'C:' partition, every time you make an image the current registry contents will be in the most recent image.
Ah I've just reread your answer and now understand your question :)
You can indeed make another partition and install your OS on one and all your data in the other. As an example I have two physical hard drives, the faster and smaller (in capacity) of the two I have partitioned into 3 and have two XP's and a W7 installed. My second drive is partitioned all over the place and contains almost ALL my programs and data files including a separate partition for the page file.
Note though that if you follow this type of layout, you will always have to use the advanced or change option when installing new programs as otherwise they will always default to C:\Program Files. Some programs that for example use the dotNet system cannot be persuaded to install elsewhere.
However, having a partition for the OS and programs and a separate partition for your data files such as pictures, movie clips, documents etc is the easiest way to go.
I have two imaging tasks, one does the main OS partition and the other does the second drive with all the data etc on it excepting the page file and image partitions.
Once a month I make a complete drives image.
With 2010 there is the new inbuilt NSB (Non Stop Backup) which is designed to image your OS drive to another drive at regular intervals.
If you are not interested in creating a second partition then another way to go is to exclude files/folders from the backup. For example, if you always save files in "My Documents" you could exclude the folder "c:/Documents and Settings/" and schedule a second task to take care of your saved documents more or less frequently.
If you have backups of all your program installations and you wouldn't mind reinstalling, then you could also exclude "Program Files"
Then if you have lots of time on your hands you can look for other junk data that your OS and/or programs leave behind.
If you are comfortable with your TI setup you could disable Windows System Restore which takes up a lot so space.
There are lots of ways of doing it with pros and cons. IMO, breaking things up too much usually means you have to pay a bit more attention to your backup scheme so things don't get out of sync.
I like to take a middle road. OS and most applications on C. This keeps the program files and everything else together. Yes, I said "most" applications. My exception is to put large games like Flight Simulator on a different drive. These files rarely, if ever, change so there is no point in imaging them over and over which would happen if they were on C.
From my perspective, the worst thing is to have your data files mixed with the OS and apps on C. It is nice being able to blow away C at anytime without having to worry about losing any important data. The reduction in size/time also means that youl will likely be more inclined to image more frequently.
Rebit review by PC Mag:
Thanks to everyone for responding. I lost my hard drive for the first time ever a few days ago and TI saved me from becomming a burger flipper. Now, more than ever I want 2 bullet proof vest