Multi pc back ups

[technood]

I have three pc's and would like to keep a system back up of all of them on an external HD. I have tried to do two but when I backed up the second then the first pc's back up vanished or deleted, I put the three back up files in a folder and titled it and was going to do the same with the second, it created the files on the drive but the previous folder was empty. Can only one pc be backed up on a drive or does the back up only show up for the specific pc when its connected,is there something im not doing right.

 

[Mattios]

How exactly are you creating the backups and putting them on the disk?

 

[technood]

I use the Windows back up and restore then when the files are done I drop them into a new folder and name it after the pc then the second pc creates the back up files on the external disk next to the previously named folder, I never create a system image or back up into the same place as the previous ones as I know they would overwrite but I thought they would be safe in their own named folder.

 

[Mattios]

I should imagine that Windows is getting confused because as far as I know it is only possible to use backup and restore for one PC on one drive - not multiple PCs on one drive.

 

[hang-the-9]

Can't you select the folder for the backup during the process? Why are you manually moving the files? Don't see why you can't keep backups on the same drive for as many systems are you want, just select the proper folder when doing the backup. Are those files actually missing from the drive when you do another backup or are you just looking at the backup/restore program? If you just look at the drive, the old backup you did is actually missing? Or is it only not shown when you select Restore?

 

[technood]

When I created my first pc back up I pointed to the external drive and the three files/folders were created, I then made a new folder and dragged them into it and then renamed the folder. Upon trying the second pc the back up created again outside the 1st pc folder but when I looked inside it was empty, I thought maybe renaming the folder would prevent the back up process from deleting but it seems not.I think I will try again but this time rename the folder and the back up files inside and see if they are detected, If I need to restore I would just rename the folders before starting.

 

[hang-the-9]

Don't rename the folders, when you do the backup point the location to the correct folder in the backup app. If you are renaming them manually it is likely to confuse the program, and since you can select the folder to keep the backup, moving it manually is just extra work. Although the MS backup may be badly written and it just wipes any other backup is sees on the disk but that does not make sense as you should be able to have several backup files created.

 

[technood]

When I made my back ups I did try to point to the folders on my external HD but I couldn't, it just showed the ex. drive but would not show inside it.

 

[hang-the-9]

When I made my back ups I did try to point to the folders on my external HD but I couldn't, it just showed the ex. drive but would not show inside it.

Odd, I did a bit of playing around with the Windows backup utility and it let me select subfolders for the destination.

What are you using for backup, the Windows program or something else?

Try using EaseUS Todo Backup Free that may work better.

 

[technood]

I used windows back up and restore connected to an external HD via a usb cable. I may try another program and see if that works better, basically I wanted all my pc.s back ups on one drive but if I have to put one per drive then I will do that.

 

[Mattios]

What I do is just drag and drop my folders into PC specific folders on the drive, like you're trying to do. I think the issue here is Windows backup and restore not liking multiple PCs on one drive.