Need advice on disk partitioning and imaging

[Francisco]

Hi:

 

I downloaded a free version of Paragon Exact Image 7 from computeractive. I regularly backup my data (files and photos and such), but I've never backed up my entire hard disk. I've read that this is important to prevent reinstallation of the OS in case of disaster. The help file in Paragon says that the easiest way to do this is to create a separate partition called the "backup capsule". It also says that once you create the partition "it will not be possible to undo the changes".

 

I don't know much about computers, so I don't know if creating such a partition will slow down my computer or prevent me from installing new software or something of the kind. The total size of my hard disk is 74,53 GB, with 33,23 GB of used space and 41,29 GB of free space. The estimated size of my hard drive image would be 23,27 GB using the best level of compression.

 

So, what do you think? Is it safe to create a backup capsule? Or is it better to backup on CDs/DVDs? Any piece of advice will be welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Humpty]

With the amount of data taking up near on half the disk space I would be inclined to hook up a slave drive of the same or larger size and backup to there.

[Glenn]

Use an external hard drive. You can get a USB 80GB (or bigger) for less than $100. Keep multiple images, replacing them alternately.

 

With a hard drive, you can run the backup unattended.

 

Store the drive in a safe place. I keep my 160GB in a firesafe.

[Eldmannen]

Store the drive in a safe place. I keep my 160GB in a firesafe.

 

Yupp, with an strong cascade encrypted disk image cleverly stored steganographically on a fully encrypted partition. In a bullet-proof, burglar-resistant, fire-resistant, air-tight, water-proof, radiation-shielded multi-factor authentication safe - made of space-grade metal alloys. Concealed under the floor or in the wall of a secret vault/strong-room filled with extremely lethal VX gas, located in the center of a secret floor located at the bottom of steel-reinforced secret underground bomb-proof facility located in the desert, under a lake or under a mountain of an obscure isolated private island heavily guarded 24/7 by redundant security systems incorporating CCTV, radar, sonar, satellite, tripwires, lasers, motion-detectors, vibration-detectors, sound-detectors, smoke-detectors, heat-detectors, nightvision, infra-red sensors and heavily armed security guards. Add some turrets and SAM-sites too... and sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.

 

Though if an underground facility on a private island isn't exactly what you're looking for, then perhaps an underwater base on the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 10911 meters depth would be something?

Or perhaps something similar but on a black-coated stealth space station equipped with thermonuclear warheads, hidden far away in deep space?

 

My tinfoil hat has triple-layered tinfoil coating with rubber on the inside.

[Francisco]

Thanks everybody. I'll definitely get myself an external drive.

 

As for a safe place to store it... I think I'll bury it in my garden with the corpses that I keep there. Nobody has found them yet.

[Humpty]

This thread was showing Eldmannen as the last poster.

 

Have seen it happen before.Must be a glitch somewhere.