How can I partition my external HDD into 3 separate partitions and backup with Casper?

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ophaq

ophaq

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Aug 14, 2012
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Does Casper provide a partitioning tool or do I have to do that in computer management?

I recently ordered a 2TB external Seagate HDD to backup my C: drive SSD which contains my OS files and photos/some programs and my 1TB HDD. I want to partition the external HDD into 3 partitions like so:

1st partition - C: Image backup which will be at most 256 (or 260) GB. This is in case I need to restore my entire OS from a previous state.

2nd partition - My 1TB HDD which contains games and other files like game mods/other games which would be hard to find and redownload. It would also be a pain to not just have all the save data there. So I just want to do a basic backup of all that. Total space for that should be a TB at most.

3rd partition - A basic backup of my C: drive containing all my music, photos, documents, system settings, and other programs I want to keep so I don't have to redownload them.

How can I achieve all of this?
 
I believe Casper will backup a drive (or partition) to an image, which can simply reside in different folders. 1 for each drive.

I know Macrium Reflect does this.
An 'image' of a drive is a single file.
 
you can use windows disk management to create those partitions.
Right click Computer (This Computer) > Management > Disk Management > right click the disk and create partitions as you like.
 


It is a partitioning tool, not a backup and imaging tool.
Unless you have paid for Casper and already have it, look into Macrium Reflect.

From my main system, each drive (or partition in your case) gets its own folder on the backup location.
In that folder (for each drive) are images. Full, incremental, differential...(incremental only available in the paid version)
All happens on whatever schedule you select.

I tried Casper for a while, but the scheduling part kept screwing up.
 
I'm a bit puzzled re your drive's configuration so perhaps you can clarify.

1. Your boot drive is an SSD; unfortunately you didn't indicate the total disk-space of that disk. What is it?

2. You currently have a secondary HDD of 1 TB containing programs not installed on your SSD (assuming there are programs so installed on the boot drive besides the OS) and other data.

3. Now you're going to be installing a 2 TB USB external HDD for backup purposes.

4. So would not the 2 TB external drive's disk-space be sufficiently large enough to contain the cloned contents of your ENTIRE system, i.e., the SSD boot drive + the data on your secondary 1 TB HDD?

I realize it would depend upon the size of the SSD boot drive. But assuming the boot drive is not larger than 750 GB, so that at most the TOTAL data in your system would be well below 2 TB, would not the 2 TB HDD be able to serve as the destination disk for the ENTIRE cloned contents of your system?

 
My SSD is 256GB. My SSD has my OS, drivers, documents, photos, music, and small programs like OBS, Fraps, WinRAR, Steam, etc. My 1TB HDD has all games and game mods from steam or outside games.

Also, I won't really be doing a schedule. It's going to be a one time backup or a bi monthly backup at most. I have a thumb drive I use to backup my documents and Firefox bookmarks exclusively which is backed up usually monthly. Since I've always used that, I am a bit unfamiliar when it comes to full system backups. Considering my PC is 5 years old, I may need to get a new one in a few years so I thought I should backup just in case.

I thought I had to partition the external HDD so it would be more organized in the event of needing to back up. I.E if I need to restore my OS I can use the image. Or if I get a new computer I can use the backed up files that aren't saved as an image to be transferred to the new drives.
 


Acronis/Macrium/Casper....all (i think) will simply do an image out to a folder on another drive.

Each drive or partition gets its own image, in whatever folder you designate.
You also create a Rescue CD or USB.


If you need to recover, you boot into whatever Rescue CD or USB thing you made.
Tell it which Image, and which drive to recover to.
Simple.

My systems all have a base Image, made on day 1 of its OS install. That lives in its own folder.
And then a rolling set of images. Full/Incremental/Differential....whatever.
Unattended, hands off, on a schedule.
 
No need to partition the external. Just set up a folder for each image you are going to be making. I don't even set up folders because I can name the backup whatever I want, and even write notes about the backup (I use Acronis True Image Home).
 
What if I'm only making one image and then the rest is just a normal backup? Won't I need to make at least two partitions for the separate drives that aren't going to be images?
 


What do you mean by "normal backup"?
 
Oh, sorry for not being specific. I meant "normal backup" as in a non imaged state. The general method of backing up files without making an image of everything.
 


For secondary, non-OS drives, you can simply create a folder (appropriately labeled) on the external.
Copy/paste whatever you need into that folder.

However, the above mentioned tools make doing this trivially easy.
 
Alright, I'll give that a try when it comes in the mail. Thank you all for your help. I'll use Acronis or whatever is the free way to do it. 😀
 
I'm providing you with the following detailed instructions as they apply to the Casper disk-cloning program which you have inferred you will be using to clone (comprehensively backup) the contents of your system.

Please note these instructions refer to the commercial version of Casper - not the Trial Edition. While the Trial Edition can be used for straight disk-to-disk cloning operations, it does not have partition-to-partition cloning capability. Note that many disk-cloning programs also do not posess this capability.

1. After installing Casper you would boot to your system with the SSD boot drive, with the 1 TB HDD and the 2 TB external (USB) HDD both connected. There is no need to initialize, nor partition, nor format the 2 TB USBEHD - it can be left in its out-of-the-box "virgin" state.

2. Using Casper, you would begin the operation of cloning the contents of the SSD boot drive to the 2 TB USBEHD that's the intended destination drive . On one of the opening windows - "Select the source" - select (highlight) the SSD 256 GB boot drive and click Next.

3. The "Select the destination hard disk" window opens. Click on the listing of the 2 TB USBEHD that will serve as your destination drive, i.e., the recipient of the SSD clone, and click Next.

4. The "How would you like to use the additional space on Disk 👎?" will soon appear. Select the option "Let me specify how the additional space is to be allocated" and click Next.

5. The "Specify how you would like to use the space on Disk 👎" window appears. Here you can set the size of the partition on the destination drive (USBEHD) to serve as the recipient of the cloned contents of your 256 GB boot drive. Ensure that the C: partition has been highlighted (it will be the default) and then enter whatever partition size you want. Presumably you would select 256 GB as the partition size, however, you could choose another size should you desire to do so. Click Next and then "Perform the copy now".

6. After you've completed this disk-cloning operation, shut down the PC. If it's practical, temporarily disconnect the internal boot drive (your SSD) and boot to your Seagate USB external HDD. Casper has a unique ability to boot to the OS that's been cloned to a USBEHD particularly if the PC is a non-OEM machine. No guarantees - but worth a try to determine that the clone is indeed a bootable drive when connected as a USB external device. Note that many systems will not permit a boot to the OS from a USBEHD.

7. In any event, if the system does boot to the USBEHD, access Disk Management where you will see the cloned drive listed as C: residing in a 256 GB partition (assuming that's the partition-size you chose during the disk-cloning operation). Note the drive will bear the same name/info designation as the source disk. You can change this to whatever label you desire in the Disk Management Properties.

8. The remaining disk-space on the 2 TB USBEHD (asside from any Recovery/EFI partitions, if applicable) will be Unallocated - that's the disk-space you will be using as a recipient of the cloned contents of your current 1 TB secondary HDD.

9. This initial disk-cloning (partition-cloning) operation will probably proceed quite slowly, however, future cloning operations will proceed much more rapidly because of Casper's SmartClone capability. So you will have a decided incentive to utilize Casper fairly frequently to clone the contents of your system so as to maintain a reasonably up-to-date comprehensive backup of your ENTIRE system.

CLONING THE CONTENTS OF THE 1 TB HDD TO THE 2 TB USBEHD...
1. Boot to your SSD boot drive with the 1 TB HDD connected. It's best that the cloned USBEHD be powered-off or disconnected at this point.

2. After the system has booted to the OS, reconnect or power-on your USBEHD.

3. You'll use Casper to clone the contents of your 1 TB secondary HDD to the USBEHD's unallocated disk-space.

4. On the opening "Select the source" window, select the 1 TB HDD as your source drive by clicking the "+" button beside the 1 TB HDD listing and selecting the drive. Click Next.

5. On the "Select the destination" window that opens select the "Upartitioned space" on the USBEHD and click Next.

6. On the next window select the default option to "Make the new drive as large as possible" so that the entire Unallocated space on the USBEHD will be utilized to hold the cloned contents of the 1 TB HDD. Click Next.

7. Casper will copy the contents of the 1 TB HDD to the Unallocated disk-space of the USBEHD.

So as a result of the above cloning operations you will have a USBEHD that contains the complete contents of your system - your SSD boot drive and your 1 TB secondary HDD residing on two separate partitions of the USBEHD. Hopefully, the USBEHD will also have the added advantage of being a boot drive although (depending upon your system) this is not always possible.

FUTURE CLONING OPERATIONS...
By & large you can use the above instructions for the future cloning of the contents of your SSD boot drive and your 1 TB secondary HDD to the 2 TB USBEHD. Obviously this assumes the USBEHD will contain sufficient available disk-space to accommodate the total data contents of both source drives.

As I mentioned above, if you're using Win 10 as your OS in a non-OEM environment there's a very good chance you will have the luxury of a bootable USBEHD - always a desirable feature in our estimation. Virtually every non-OEM ("generic") Win 10 OS system in which we've employed the Casper disk-cloning program using a USBEHD as the destination drive, the USB external drive booted to the OS straightaway. And in many Win 7 & Win 8.1 systems as well. Not a given - but we've experienced a good deal of success in this area.

But the important thing is now you will have the kind of peace-of-mind that comes with knowing that you have at hand a COMPLETE COMPREHENSIVE BACKUP of your ENTIRE system including your SSD boot drive and your internally-connected 1 TB secondary HDD. So should your boot drive become defective or hopelessly corrupted you have the wherewithal to return your system to a bootable, completely functional one with little effor or time on your part. What could be better?
 
Thanks for the instructions! But I don't have Casper... I could use the free trial but I don't want to buy the full version since I'm only doing this one time. How can I do all of that with a free trial of any of the programs? Like Acronis, for example...

Also, my OS is Windows 7.
 


The free version of Acronis or Macrium will create an Image off to another drive and folder, or a Clone of a whole drive or partition, into another drive or partition.
 
I just got my external HDD in the mail today. Will the free trial version of Acronis copy and paste all of my HDD's files without creating an image as well? How do I make an image of my SSD with Acronis free trial and how do I copy both my SSD and HDD files to different partitions or folders? I watched some tutorials but it all looked confusing and it seems like it requires a lot of reboots.
 


Stop.

What, exactly, are you wanting the end state of this operation to be?

Whatever it is, I can talk you through the steps in Macrium. ArtPog can talk you through it in Casper.
Acronis is probably similar.

But....what exactly are you wanting to accomplish?
 
I want to:

- Make an image of my whole SSD drive which contains my OS, pictures, docs, etc onto my external HDD (2TB).

- Copy all of my SSD's file contents in a non-imaged state onto my external HDD in case I just need to extract specific programs onto a new disk without having to completely restore the OS (I.E getting a new SSD with a new operating system and needing to copy a program like WinRAR or something to the new SSD without having to restore any older OS files).

- Copy all of my 1TB HDD's contents in a non-imaged state onto my external HDD so if I get a new HDD, I can just drag and drop all of the contents of my 1TB HDD to the new HDD (it's all just steam games and other games/mods).

I want to do all of this or most of this on the same external HDD I just bought if possible.
 


1. Image of the SSD.
No problem. The Macrium interface shows you exactly how to do this.
Just select all the partitions on that drive, and tell it where to create the 'image'.
It will result in a single file....whatever.mrimage

2. Copy all of my SSD's file contents in a non-imaged state
Windows File Explorer. Find what you want to copy, and copy/paste that into a folder on this external

3. Copy all of my 1TB HDD's contents in a non-imaged state
Again, Windows File Explorer. Simple copy/paste of ALL the files/folders on that 1TB, into a new folder on this new external.
 


- Do I need to create two different partitions on my external HDD before making an image of my SSD (one partition for the image and the other for the other files)?

- Also, I'm using Acronis but the clone disk option isn't available in the free trial. Does Macrium allow image making for free in its trial?

- Would I need to use Macrium to restore the image or can I use Windows Restore to restore from the image file Macrium makes?
 


You're confusing Clone vs Image.
A Clone will consume a whole drive, and/or multiple partitions.
An Image is, via Acronis/Macrium/Casper...an Image of whatever partitions you've selected. This can reside in a single file or folder.

What is the desired use (or future use) for this Clone or Image?
 
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