Backup Schemes -- Partition vs. Disk
I am a registered user of the full version of Acronis 2012. I have used your products for many years.
Concerning Acronis Home 2012:
1. Can someone please, very simply, explain the difference between the two (2) backup schemes – Partition vs. Disk Backup? The both appear the same.
i.e.>
My system is as follows:
Drive C: is a hard drive
• It has two (2) partitions on it made by HP when they built the system: Drive D:\ - a Recovery partition & a small System FAT 32 Partition.
a) I first chose the Partition method. Acronis gave me the choice of selecting C, D and System. I chose them all and named it “My System Partitions”.
b) I then chose the Disk Method. I assumed it would give me a choice of C only since that is the only physical Disk and it would automatically include all partitions. Such was not the case as it again yielded the same choices as the Partition Backup Method – C, D and the System.
c) Both backups are basically the same size.
d) This seems to conflict with the verbiage in your “Help” section. I believe this should be explained clearer.
e) As I do not want to have two (2) redundant backup schedules, what is the difference and which one should I be doing?
2. When do you plan on fixing the incessant “Starting” & “Stopping” of NON-Stop Backup when it has never been enabled. I was told there would be an update to fix this.
3. Further, 30-days of phone or email support for the product leaves a lot to be desired and borders on shameful.
Generally speaking, assuming adequate storage space, the safest approach is to make your backups all-inclusive and then be selective as may be required when you need to restore anything. That means that the backups may take a bit longer, of course, but if they're done overnight who cares.
This is very good advice. Having everything included in the backup provides the most choices also when you need to restore to a new disk. If all partitions are checked, it becomes a disk backup by default. Note the attached images which shows the backup choices. I prefer to use the disk option backup as shown at the bottom of the picture labelled as Image 4.
Windows 7 can contain multiple partitions and when restoring to a new disk, if you do not have all the partitions backed up, then the movement to a new disk can be very time consuming and difficult. You are never wrong when you make full and complete backup.
My system is as follows:
Drive C: is a hard drive
• It has two (2) partitions on it made by HP when they built the system: Drive D:\ - a Recovery partition & a small System FAT 32 Partition.a) I first chose the Partition method. Acronis gave me the choice of selecting C, D and System. I chose them all and named it “My System Partitions”.
b) I then chose the Disk Method. I assumed it would give me a choice of C only since that is the only physical Disk and it would automatically include all partitions. Such was not the case as it again yielded the same choices as the Partition Backup Method – C, D and the System.
In disk mode, ATI 2012 would show you a list of disks, not of partitions. See photo attached. Selecting a disk is strictly equivalent to selecting all partitions on the same disk in partition mode.
e) As I do not want to have two (2) redundant backup schedules, what is the difference and which one should I be doing?
They are equivalent when all partitions are selected for a given disk.
Wrt to redundant backups, it is important to have some redundancy and location/disk/backup software diversification for content that you cannot replace (eg: family pictures). Although you can reinstall an OS, an application, buy some music/movies back if you were to lose them, you won't be able to reinstall, buy again some content. You'd better make sure it is overly protected.
Thank you, all for your comments and suggestions. In principle, I understand what was said. However, to reiterate, both backups yielded the same choices. It seems that partitions are considered disks when selecting the partition mode of backup. This is what is still a bit confusing. Is this normal? I thought by selecting, for example, C the partitions (System & D) would automatically be selected and grayed out so as not to be "unselected". What am I missing folks? Is it just that the MBR gets copied when selecting the Disk backup mode of operation? Thank you and regards, ATDB23
To backup a bit, a physical disk may have one or more partitions on it. When you select the physical disk you are asking for all of the partitions contained on that disk. When you select a partition you are asking for that partition and not the other partitions that are contained on the same physical disk. Part of the problem is that we loosely call partitions disks such as "copy the file to disk C" or "drive C" rather than the more correct "copy the file to partition C".
The C partition only refers to that single partition on the disk, it knows nothing about the other partitions.
Thank you, Seekforever.
And, thank all the other people who took the time to respond.
Best regards to you all.