How can I set up two backups on different drives?

[DaveKennithson]

I want to set up a backup for both my C:/ drive and my D:/ drive on different external hard drives. I have already have a backup for my system drive (C:/) and I want to use a separate external hard drive as a backup for my less important files (D:/). I've considered only using one drive, but I can't afford a big enough drive and I think its better to not keep all your eggs in one basket anyways ( I couldn't resist that Easter joke 😀).

Thanks in advance.

 

[ArtPog]

So since you already have a backup system involving your C:\ drive, what's stopping you from purchasing another HDD with sufficient disk-space capacity to contain the contents of your D: drive (or partition)?

If you were working with a USB external enclosure you could utilize different drives to accommodate the data from different drives/partitions if that's what you want.

You didn't indicate whether you're working with a single drive with C: & D: partitions or two drives - one C:, the other D:. And you didn't indicate the volume of data involved.

 

[RolandJS]

What I do is have two dedicated usb ext 1TB HDs for each computer, each computer's OS and Data partitions are made and stored on said two HDs. That way, if one of the two ever develops a "read" problem, the 2nd twin is very likely to be aok. Long ago, I used to do something similar as what you're thinking of doing -- however, one day, Backup HD A was ok with Laptop A, however, Backup HD B for Laptop B developed a "read error" that forced a format to become usable again. Hence, I changed my Backup idea.

 

[DaveKennithson]

My C:/ drive is 250GB (with 160GB filled) and the backup drive is 250GB

My D:/ drive is 500GB (with 380GB filled) and the drive i want to back it up to is 500GB

C:/ and D:/ are different drives and so are the drives i want to back them up to.

I'm using windows 7 ultimate

Hope this helps!

 

[RolandJS]

I still vote you put your C and D full images on twin external hard-drives. You only have to experience one "logical" read error, especially when beginning a restore operation, on any one of those HDs to appreciate what happened to me. Hence, my duality.

 

[ArtPog]

My C:/ drive is 250GB (with 160GB filled) and the backup drive is 250GB

My D:/ drive is 500GB (with 380GB filled) and the drive i want to back it up to is 500GB

C:/ and D:/ are different drives and so are the drives i want to back them up to.

I'm using windows 7 ultimate

Hope this helps!

Do I understand that you currently have two additional drives that you can utilize to back up your two internally-connected C: & D: drives?

You seem to be indicating that you are presently using a 250 GB drive as a "backup drive" for your 250 GB C: drive; then you indicate that you also have a 500 GB drive that you can use to backup your 500 GB D: drive. Is all this correct?

If that *is* the case (and I'm beginning to wonder that it *isn't*!), why can't you simply "back up" the 500 GB D: drive to the other 500 GB drive?

Of course we have no idea what your "back up" methodology/program is, but be that as it may, you seem to be indicating that you have sufficient disk-space capacity with your 250 GB & 500 GB drives that can be utilized for backups of your entire system. If this is so, what is the problem here?

Frankly, I'm at the point where I believe I don't really comprehend your present drives' configuration + your objectives but I don't understand what I'm missing.

 

[DaveKennithson]

My C:/ drive is 250GB (with 160GB filled) and the backup drive is 250GB

My D:/ drive is 500GB (with 380GB filled) and the drive i want to back it up to is 500GB

C:/ and D:/ are different drives and so are the drives i want to back them up to.

I'm using windows 7 ultimate

Hope this helps!

Do I understand that you currently have two additional drives that you can utilize to back up your two internally-connected C: & D: drives?

You seem to be indicating that you are presently using a 250 GB drive as a "backup drive" for your 250 GB C: drive; then you indicate that you also have a 500 GB drive that you can use to backup your 500 GB D: drive. Is all this correct?

If that *is* the case (and I'm beginning to wonder that it *isn't*!), why can't you simply "back up" the 500 GB D: drive to the other 500 GB drive?

Of course we have no idea what your "back up" methodology/program is, but be that as it may, you seem to be indicating that you have sufficient disk-space capacity with your 250 GB & 500 GB drives that can be utilized for backups of your entire system. If this is so, what is the problem here?

Frankly, I'm at the point where I believe I don't really comprehend your present drives' configuration + your objectives but I don't understand what I'm missing.

To answer your first question, yes I have 2 external drives and want to use them to back up my 2 internal drives. And I am using the standard windows backup program. The issue comes when I want to set up 2 separate backups, from what I can see, you can backup both internal drives to 1 external drive, but you can't back up the same 2 internal drives to 2 separate external drives.

 

[RolandJS]

Consider converting to one of many 3rd party backup / restore / cloning utilities such as AOMEI Backupper, EaseUS ToDo, Image for Windows, Macrium Reflect, to name just 4 of the many available, free and fee.
ArtPog is one of the several grandmasters here, whatever he suggests, do. Me, as a grasshopper in here, I can only suggest you make full images of both C and D (as you describe them) onto both of your external hard-drives used for your backup.
Windows built-in Backup/Restore program has been a boon to many and a bust to others. Consider going with a reliable 3rd party utility.

 

[ArtPog]

1. Since your TOTAL volume of data on the two drives exceeds the disk-space capacity of your 500 GB drive that you would be using as a backup it's best to utilize both the 250 GB & 500 GB external drives for the backups as you planned.

2. Rather than use the Windows (so-called) "backup program" - IMO a poor substitute for a comprehensive backup program - I would accept Roland's suggestion to utilize a third-party disk-cloning program to backup each of your drives to the two destination drives. The ones Roland mentions are all decent programs and will do the job for you. The Macrium program is quite good.

3. Now please understand that my advice is based on the fact that you have two internally-connected drives that comprise your system and you do not have a single external "destination" drive that would have sufficient disk-space capacity to accommodate the total data contents of both internally-connected drives. If, for example, you possessed a 1 TB drive that you could use as the destination drive, you could use that drive as the single destination drive to receive the cloned contents of your two "source' drives since you have indicated the total volume of data contained in those drives comes to about 540 GB. In that scenario you would create two partitions on the 1 TB HDD and utilize a disk-cloning program to clone the data from each source drive to its designated partition on the destination drive. Capiche?