Prefered Backup Policy for dual drive system
I would really appreciate if someone can help me with coming up with a backup policy for a dual drive system.
System info;
ATH 2012 (or 2011, I still have that and considering all the issue with 2012)
OS Windows 7 64bit.
Boot drive Sandisk 120Gb SSD, Data drive 1TB HDD, Backup drive 1.5TB HDD
As you can see I plan on using the SSD for OS and Applications to boot up from and use the data drive for pure data (Docs, Pics, Vid...). I will use the 1.5Tb drive as a backup partition. I will not be running any RAID configuration with these drives.
My Questions;
1) Can I backup Boot and Data drive to one backup image? Will ATH know to restore data to the right location ( drive) if I need to restore from that single image?
2) would it be better to restore Boot and data drive to separate backup images using different backup tasks and schedule?
3) would it be better to use windows restore for the boot drive and use Acronis for the data back up?
As you can see I am a bit confuses (lost), Any help and any other feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Thanks Tuttle!
Just a couple of follow up questions.
So to do what you suggest, do I need to set to two separate backup tasks, one each for SSD and the HDD?
Would it be OK to use one HDD (separate from the above two) for backing up both drives?
Will ATIH then keep track of each back up or do I need to partition the drive for each back up first? I would like to avoid partitioning if I don't need to.
On a separate note, is there a theoretical or functional limit to the number of back up task one can run in ATIH?
Thanks again for your help.
Yes, I would create a separate task for each backup.
Sure, you can backup both drives to the same HD. As backups are saved as separate binary files, .tib files, you can easily backup multiple devices to a single drive. As long as you have sufficient space on the backup drive, there's no problem at all. I do this all the time, backing up multiple PCs to the same external HD.
No, you wouldn't need to partition the backup HD. It would be prudent to create separate folders for the backups from the different drives. e.g. "System disk backups" and "Data drive backups", or "SSD backups" and "HDD backups", or whatever makes sense to you.
I'm not aware of a limit to the number of backup tasks. Someone more knowlegeable can comment if there is. :)
Thank You Tuttle!
This is very helpful and I do appreciate it. My apologies for keeping this thing going, nonetheless, this is very helpful and I hope you don't mind :)
After posting my comments, I looked around and saw many horror stories about using ATIH with SSDs. Discussion about misalignment and all that I am not familiar with.
So I just want to make sure that if I can avoid problems with some knowledge upfront and better housekeeping in setting up and maintaining by back ups, hopefully I can avoid headaches later. I have used ATIH before but never with an SSD.
I will be using ATIH 2012 ( I also have ATIH 2011 if using that is better)
I am planning to do a fresh OS (Win7 64 PRO) install to a new SSD- I have upgraded the firmware and secure wiped the SSD so it is factory fresh with no partition or drive letter. I will let windows configure it at the time of install.
I will use an HDD to back up this SSD - following your suggestions above. No I don't plan on making a clone, sorry, my attempt at humor, saw your comments regarding cloning in another post:)
My questions
1) Is there anything I need to do different upfront or as I set up my backup task? Or just follow ATIH prompts?
2) Are there any issues in backing up an SSD to an HDD and then if needed restoring back from an HDD to SSD? In this case HDD will only be used as a backup media.
3) Is there anything different in restoring a partition to an SSD than restoring to an HDD?
4) Is there anything else I should be aware of?
Thanks again for your help.