Fast, Easy Backups
For Win98 / ME / NT / 2K / XP
Copyright © 1997-2005 Fred Langa/ Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved.
6) A MORE RATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR YOUR FILES
The key to managing a large hard drive is “partitioning:” breaking the physical drive space into subsections called partitions, or “virtual drives,” each with its own drive letter. Like a well-ordered library, you can place files with similar backup priorities on the same logical drives; each logical drive would have its own backup set and schedule, which hugely simplifies backups--- and restores! Most times, your most important, most-changeable files will go on the C: drive, so you can just focus on that for your day to day backups. All less-important files will go on other partitions--- D:, E:. F:, and so on,--- where they’re out of the way of the high-priority files.
That in a nutshell is how you solve the problem of backing up a huge hard drive: Your 80GB or 60GB or 40GB (or whatever) drive can be broken into manageable chunks.
On my systems that run Win98/ME, I have things set up so my essential, core OS and user files are in one 2GB C: partition; I install nonessential apps and files on other partition(s). It doesn’t matter how large the entire drive is: It’s just that 2GB C: partition that I need to worry about on a daily basis. The rest of the drive--- tens or dozens of gigabytes--- does *not* need daily backup, and so doesn’t get in the way.
Win2K and XP are both bigger than Win98/ME, so I set things up differently. My copy of XP Pro, for example, with my essential, must-back-up user files and a normal complement of applications, currently occupies about 3GB of an 8GB partition. (I still have many static files and less-essential stuff out of the way on other partitions, separate from the files that need regular and routine backup.)
Win2K and XP also do a pretty good job of segregating user files into their own directory structure, and this further helps to keep backups manageable. For example, although my entire C: drive of essential XP files currently occupies about 3GB, the “C:\Documents and Settings\Fred” branch of the C: drive--- which holds my user data and many user-specific settings--- contains only about 450MB of files. Many of these are the files that change every day; it’s just this core of 450MB that needs daily backup attention. The rest of the drive--- tens or dozens of gigabytes--- does *not* need daily backup, and so doesn’t get in the way.
To get even more specific: My newest system has a 60GB hard drive, and it arrived (as most systems do) with one gigantic C: partition occupying all 60GB. As described above, I re-sized the C: partition to be 8GB, and left the core OS and user files there. I split the leftover disk space as follows: 20GB as the D: drive (used for storing daily backups, routine disk images, and other large files); 20GB as the E: drive (used for storing software, patches, updates, large downloads, and as an installation destination for lesser-used applications); and the remaining 12GB as an F: drive (used as a maintenance and repair area for storing the original factory configuration and perfect “as modified” images of the system, plus copies of setup files, BIOS updates, and such needed to restore the core system. None of these virtual drives is anywhere near full; I could have split the space in smaller increments if I’d wanted to. In any case, it’s only the relatively small C: drive that I need to worry about for my daily backups.
So, the first step towards getting control of your backups is to get control of your hard drive: Think about your files, and come up with an organizational plan that will work for you. Plan to put your essential, must-backup files and settings on one partition; place other, less-important or less-frequently-changing files on other partitions. (We’ll tell you how in a moment.)
[Expert users: Note that multiple partitions also let you mix partition types. You can, for example, create an NTFS partition for XP or Win2K, but have other partitions set as FAT32 or FAT16. These other partitions will be faster-performing than the NTFS partition (so you can, for example, place the swap file there). Or, you can use the multiple partitions to support a multi-boot system with several or many different operating systems on the same hard drive, each self-contained in its own separate partition. Once you get away from the “gigantic C: drive” syndrome, you’ll find a new world of operational efficiency and alternatives open to you.]
Once you have a plan for organizing your hard drive, the next step is to implement it.
Next: HOW TO SAFELY AND NONDESTRUCTIVELY
PARTITION AN IN-USE DRIVE
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