How do I put more than one backup on the same external hard drive?

[Baitball Blogger]

According to the internet, I can put as many backups on a hard drive as I have space. But I tried to back up two computers and one overwrote the other. Though frankly, I assume that is what happened because I can find one backup, but not the other.

[ucrdem]

1. 2 suggestions

1) partition the external drive into however many machines you want to back up, so that each can set up its partition however the backup software wants to, and it seems to want a free drive; or

2) use an SD card, which can hold a lot, as a 2nd backup drive. That should do the job unless you're backing up ginormous media files.

p.s what kind of backup software?

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I'm using straight microsoft software.

Though, what I'm preparing for is another hacking job. If it happens I want to be able to reformat the drive, make the restore and move on.

I haven't done this in years so I'm probably going about it all wrong. Feel free to correct, if that's the case.

[ucrdem]

5. In that case I'd go for the partition route.

That way you can choose the drive at the start of the backup and if you've split your external drive into 2 or 3 smaller ones they should show up as separate empty drives at the "choose drive" stage of the backup. The amount of free space in each partition should also display so you can keep track of which ones you've already used in case the drive letters change.

To partition your external disk you can use freeware, like Minitool Partition Wizard, which is very good, or the Disk Management console in Windows, which is also handy, though not as full-featured as Partition Wizard.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. If it's free, I'm there.

[ManiacJoe]

3. The answer will depend on what software you are using to do the back-up.

Partitioning the external HD into multiple drives is one option. Placing the back-ups into multiple directories is another.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I used basic software from windows/microsoft.

There was no option to direct it to a sub-directory.

[ManiacJoe]

6. You mean the backup-restore from the "control panel"?

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Yes.

And it has occurred to me that if my computer is hacked, I probably won't have a functioning control panel to work from.

What is the usual procedure to get around this?

[jrandom421]

9. Create a system repair disk

Go to Control Panel, Click on Backup and Restore, Select Create System Repair Disk, Put a blank CD in the drive, and let it create a System Repair Disk.

If your system can't boot, use this to boot your system and you can do things like select a restore point or restore a backup from your backup media.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Good. I did make one. I just didn't realize what it was.

Thanks!

[jrandom421]

11. Just make sure

you create a system image for your backup

[Baitball Blogger]

12. I did that, thanks.

[wandy]

13. At least for Win 7 Pro system image it may be a matter of PC names........

On the backup drive Windows will create or find the folder.......
WindowsImageBackup
You will need Administrator authority and click yes many times to look into this folder.

Each Pc will then find/create a sub folder of it's own in the WindowsImageBackup folder.
Having multiple PC's on one backup drive isn't a problem.
However the image sub folder's name is the machine name. Each PC needs to have a different name.
You can check/change the name like this.

WinKey+Break -> Advanced System Settings -> Computer Name

If you need to keep multipal generations of one PC's image then you must partition the backup target drive as the backup image will be overwritten each time. Image1 to partition1, Image2 to partition2.

These images can be accessed by the restore disk that you will be prompted to create after the image is taken......
Each PC should have it's own repair disk with appropriate labeling.
Their is a difference between 32 Bit and 64 Bit repair disks.
The repair disk will usualy fit on a CD and need be done only once for each PC (If kept in a safe and remembered place).

[Baitball Blogger]

14. Thank you for the info.

I used Partition Wizard. Easy Peasy.