Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
Keep up the courage. Partitioning is easy if done properly.
Leave all your programs on the C: drive. Only shift data from the C: drive,
ie thing you have created like photos, music, video, downloads, Word
documents etc. Put all future data on the D: drive. (the future Data drive
might well be labelled E: drive by Windows. Accept that.) You have a 250 GB
hard drive so instead of 120 GB for the new partition I'd make it 180 GB.
That's 180,000 MB to enter in Partition Magic. This will make your C: drive
around 50 GB which is plenty.
Forget about writing images to CD's or DVD's direct from Second Copy or
Acronis, it's unreliable, as you have found. Image (Acronis) the C: drive to
the Data partition. Second Copy selected data on your Data partition and
send it to a Folder on the same Data partition. The image and Folder can be
burnt to CD/DVD at your leisure.
The following is from dg1261's former post. It's an excellent overview. Read
it several times.
"Okay, that's helpful to know--it doesn't affect the question at hand
(creating a new partition), but helps people understand what your goal is.
Partitioning a HD creates segments which you can treat as separate "drives"
in which to load/store different things. This can be confusing for newbies
because you have to be careful to distinguish drives in the logical sense
(e.g., "drive C:" or "drive E:") from drives in the physical sense (e.g.,
"Seagate drive" or "slave drive"). There's a backgrounder on partitions on
my website at www.goodells.net/multiboot that may be helpful. The site is
really about multibooting, so the info may be a bit overwhelming, but maybe
you can glean something from the backgrounder on partitions that will help
you put the PM guide and Brian K's instructions into context.
As shipped, most computers come with a giant "C: drive" that contains both
the OS and the user's data--so if you have to reformat and reinstall the OS,
you lose everything in the partition, which includes user data. But if
partitioned into more than one logical drive, you can shift user data to the
non-OS partition--then when you have to reformat/reinstall the OS, you're
only touching the OS partition and not losing your data, which is tucked
away on the other partition. However, both partitions are on the same
physical device--so if the motor or something else on that device conks out,
you lose all logical drives on that device, not just the OS partition.
> Another Question? What backup program do you use to backup to
> you CD/DVD. I have Record Now but it isn't a very good backup.
> I would like one I can back up my financial program and others and
> it would copy over and add to the existing backup. I have to erase the
> CD now before I can add the new backup. Also backing up the OS on
> CD is a good idea, but I don't think possible with my backup program.
IMHO, Record Now is an adequate CD-burning program, and is perhaps a bit
easier for the new user than the more fully-featured programs like Roxio or
Nero. The problem is you're trying to turn it into a backup program, which
is a separate function from CD-burning. Like Brian K, I backup onto the
hard drive and then burn the backup file to CD, as two separate steps.
You should give some deliberate thought to your backup strategy rather than
just hoping some backup program is going to tell you what to do. First,
there are two different things to backup: the operating system and your
data. Then there are varying tiers of backup based on risk factors (which
are principally user error, OS error, hardware malfunction, and theft/fire).
Partitioning is a first step because it allows you to start separating your
data from the OS. Then you can use different approaches for backing up
each. Your OS is gigabytes huge but doesn't change much daily, so
time-consuming backups can be done less frequently, using an imaging program
(Brian K's Acronis recommendation is a good one). Your data is (typically)
not as large and should be backed up more frequently. When separated from
the OS, backing up data can be relatively quick and you can use a different
approach--backing up the files rather than the whole partition as a unit.
Brian K gave you one recommendation, while I use my own homegrown scripts
that backup my data automatically once a day without any intervention.
Where you put the backups depends on the degree of protection you're after,
and can range from separate partition (on same hard drive), to second hard
drive, removeable media (hard drive/CD/DVD/zipdisk), or even offsite
storage. A comprehensive strategy would cover multiple tiers--backup CDs
stored offsite are great protection against fire and theft, but not very
convenient when you just need to restore an Excel file you accidentally
overwrote. As an example, at home my strategy for data includes automatic
daily incremental backups (only files that have changed) on separate
partition, automatic full backups (all data files, changed or not) every 10
days, all backups (I don't overwrite--each daily backup is separate from
other days) manually copied to network share on home LAN once or twice a
month, and network share manually copied to CD every 3 months. These
timeframes reflect my perceived vulnerability to the various risk factors
mentioned above."
Let's know how you are progressing.
Brian
"david" <chevie@mail.com> wrote in message
news
PdRd.50422$Th1.40910@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Hi Brian,
> Your right I should of made the new partition "D" a while back. I just
> wasn't sure what I should move into the new partition and what I should
> leave in my "C" drive. In your reply you mentioned images. Should I move
> the program I have the photos in to the new D drive? Is 120MB about right
> for the partition? I guess I can increase it later on if I have to. I will
> download Acronis and soon as I make the new partition which will be
> tomorrow.
> Also being a senior citizen it takes a while for the information to sunk
> in. Like when you say "forget about writing images to CD"s of DVD's direct
> form the app. Backup to the Hard Drive. Came you elaborate on this a
> little?
> Thanks for the great help I really need it.
> david
>
>
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