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I want to back-up my computer completely so I'm going to put everything on an external hard drive. Then, every so often I plan on doing a complete back-up to update the external hard drive. My question is should this external hard drive be dedicated to the system image backup -or- can I also use the remaining space to store videos too (ones that won't be on my computer)? What I'm wondering is every time I do a system image update does it first wipe the external hard drive clean? Because if it does then maybe I should keep my video library separate? Thanks!
Last edited by Live-life; 01-25-2019 at 09:20 PM..
^ depends on the progam. dd can be set to overwrite the content on a partition; and also, it can be set to save as a regular output file so that other files can be saved on the same disk.
Also, consider that one of the most likely "catastrophes" an average person will suffer is to get a Trojan malware.
Most of those will find all connected hard drives, internal AND external and encrypt them to be held for hostage.
If your external backup drive is connected at the time of infection, it too will get locked.
I currently back up my entire system to an external hard drive, using a program that makes a duplicate files rather than a drive-image. It deletes old files and copies over only the newer ones so it's not a new mirror each time.
(And, of course, my computer has a top-name anti-virus and anti-malware program running, updated, and kept current).
Here is my process:
Disconnect my computer from the Internet. Re-boot it.
Next, connect my backup drives to my computer and do the backup.
Afterwards, I disconnect the backup drives from my computer.
Then I reconnect my computer to the Internet.
Also, consider that one of the most likely "catastrophes" an average person will suffer is to get a Trojan malware.
Most of those will find all connected hard drives, internal AND external and encrypt them to be held for hostage.
If your external backup drive is connected at the time of infection, it too will get locked.
I currently back up my entire system to an external hard drive, using a program that makes a duplicate files rather than a drive-image. It deletes old files and copies over only the newer ones so it's not a new mirror each time.
(And, of course, my computer has a top-name anti-virus and anti-malware program running, updated, and kept current).
Here is my process:
Disconnect my computer from the Internet. Re-boot it.
Next, connect my backup drives to my computer and do the backup.
Afterwards, I disconnect the backup drives from my computer.
Then I reconnect my computer to the Internet.
Ok, got it!
What about using the same external hard drive to store a video collection? The system image backup won't affect that or would it?
What about using the same external hard drive to store a video collection? The system image backup won't affect that or would it?
First: "System Image" is a specific term that refers to taking the entire contents of a drive and duplicating it on another AS A SINGLE FILE. "Back Up" is a much looser term, that can mean several different things.
See: What is the difference between Windows Image and Windows Backup.
I personally have used several Imaging Programs, and when I had to restore them, I had difficulties so I no longer trust them. Now I just cope each individual file. When I do my weekly backup, I have a program that looks at what has changed and copies the new, deletes the old, and renames what had been renamed/moved. I suspect it takes longer, but if my primary system died, I can just plug in my backups and keep going. No "restore" process needed.
Next: You can use your backup drive's extra space for storage, but keep in mind my thoughts about what catastrophe is most likely to happen. Drive failures, burglary, fire are all possible but (IMHO) lower chance than a virus hitting my PC and then jumping over to any drive that's connected.
If you use your backup drive for video storage, and you get hit with a Trojan-blackmailer, some will encrypt your attached drives as well as your PC. Meaning your backup just became unusable.
To be safer, you NEVER have your external drive connected to the PC at the same time your PC is connected to the Internet. If you are OK with disconnecting and reconnecting each, every time you want to watch the videos, then you're fine.
I want to back-up my computer completely so I'm going to put everything on an external hard drive. Then, every so often I plan on doing a complete back-up to update the external hard drive. My question is should this external hard drive be dedicated to the system image backup -or- can I also use the remaining space to store videos too (ones that won't be on my computer)? What I'm wondering is every time I do a system image update does it first wipe the external hard drive clean? Because if it does then maybe I should keep my video library separate? Thanks!
I use Acronis for this. It will do either incremental or differential image backups on a schedule you create, once a day, twice a week or whatever. You can also have access to individual files from the image backups, so if you just need a file or two, you copy and paste them back to your hard drive. You can also restore the whole system, OS and apps in one step. If you get hit by ransomware, you just go back to the latest clean backup. Most ransomware does not encrypt all of your files, it concentrates on personal documents such as word documents, music etc. It's also important to keep your backup drive offline most of the time to reduce the chance of cross-contamination. You could do backups over a network to shared drive or NAS but it's important not to map drive but use UNC paths instead. This will protect you as well.
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