Back up my hard drive to a Passport

Allen, if you still have the backup task that wrote to your 1TB Passport drive in the ATIH 2015 program backup list, then there should be no issue in running the task again to update the data on the Passport drive.  If there have been significant changes to the source drive in the period since the last backup, then the new backup archive created on the Passport may be as large as the original one if you are doing either an incremental or differential backup.

The backup task will only overwrite what's on the Passport drive is the task settings are configured to do so, otherwise they will follow what is configured - you may want to go into the task settings to check this.

I am not sure that I understand your last sentence "I would then like to overwrite the hard drive with the latest information" - if you are backing up the hard drive to the Passport drive, why do you want to then restore that backup back and overwrite the drive it came from?

Hi Steve - I don't remember if I created a task, I just plugged in the Passport and clicked on 'disk partition and backup', then clicked on 'switch to disk mode' and specified the Passport as the destination and it started writing out my C: drive - Is creating a task necessary?

What I meant to say in my post was that after I back up my computer to the Passport, I want to restore that to a spare hard drive that I have. That way if I ever have a hard drive crash I can pop in the spare

Thanks,

Allen

Allen, if you did the original backup from within the Windows ATIH GUI then chances are that a task was created and would have defaulted to using an Incremental backup scheme.  If so, you could either delete the task settings and start a new task, or else keep the task and delete the old Passport drive backup which will force the task to create a new Full backup archive on the Passport when it is executed.

Thanks for clarifying the restore to hard disk - that makes more sense if you are creating a duplicate drive using a spare disk.  With regards to being able to popping in the spare drive, please ensure that it is of the same type in terms of drive connector, i.e. both drives are SATA and can connect exactly in place of each other.

Steve - When you say delete the old Passport, do I need to delete all the files on it manuallly from Windows, or will starting a new backup auitomatically delete them?

One more question - To restore the Passport files to my spare hard drive, will I boot from Acronis boot disk I created last time and then do a  Recover to the spare drive and will it overwrite the conents with the new files

Allen, you should only need to delete the original Acronis full backup archive file(s) (with .TIB file extension) from your Passport external drive.  You can do this from within Windows.  Starting a new backup would not automatically delete them.

To restore from the Passport drive to your spare hard drive, it depends on how the spare drive will be connected.

If you only have the option of removing the normal boot drive and replacing it with the spare drive, then you would definately need to boot from the Acronis bootable rescue media. 

If you can connect the spare drive as either a second drive or as an external drive along with your Passport drive, then you can do the restore from within Windows using the Acronis GUI application.  When you restore the backup image from the Passport to the spare drive it will wipe and overwrite the contents with the new image data.

The important point in doing the restore is to ensure that you restore to the correct target drive, i.e. your spare drive and not to any other drive you may have.

I think I will have to take out my c drive and pop in the spare for doing the restore because I don't think I can add a second drive and I don't have an adaptor to make it an external drive.

My next project will be to set up some type of incremental bakup so I don't have to go through all of this again

Do you recommend a newer version of Acronis or does 2013 do everyhing needed for backups and restores?

Thanks, Allen

Allen, before you start taking out your c drive, do a dry run with the Acronis boot rescue media and make sure that it both boots successfully and also allows you to see your current C: drive (and any partitions it contains) along with your Passport external drive.

With regard to setting up incremental backups, please be aware that for incrementals, you need to have the initial full backup image plus ALL incremental backup images to make a successful restore.   With differential backups, you only need to have the full plus the last differential for a restore.

You will need a newer version of Acronis if you are going to run Windows 10 as only the 2015 and above versions are supported for Windows 10.  Note: If you are thinking about upgrading, then ATIH 2017 is likely to be available sometime in the Autumn if it is released at a similar time to previous versions.

Steve - Thanks for all of the great information, especially about the dry run and incremental v differential!

In the future I am going doing a restore to an SSD and practice the differential.

Would it be possible to get your email for an occasional one-off question, I won't be a pest!

I had to wait days for a response on Acronis Forum, they don't seem to like newbies

Allen, you are welcome to send me a Private Message should the need arise, though I cannot guarantee a rapid answer as I am just another user volunteer here in the forums and have to answer to my wife & family for how much time I spend in the forums!

Sorry that you had to wait days to get a response in the forums, that is not always the case but depends on how many of the other MVP's or regular users are available to help answer new posts.

Steve - Thanks for all your help