In message , Patti Barden
writes:
Thanks DL.
I have a disk of Acronis True Image 10 Personal I got in a magazine.
In my mind this is what I understand I should do:
1. Partition my 500 GB C drive.
2. Partition my 1T GB Fexternal hard drive.
3. Copy my C disk with Acronis to my Fexternal hard drive.

Assuming this is part of your wanting to partition (really, add further
partitions to) your internal hard drive, I would do any partitioning -
_if you need to_ - of the external drive _first_, making sure you're
happy with what has been done, _then_ do the backup (imaging) of your C:
drive to (one of the partitions on) the external one (making sure that
you know how you are going to restore the backup to your HD if for any
reason Windows won't boot - probably using the boot disc that Acronis
will create), and only _then_ think about partitioning your internal
hard (C) drive.

4. then when I do a incremental clone/backup it should be saved to a
separate partition on the Fexternal Hard Drive??

Am I close?
Thank you, Patti
[]
Getting there, but not quite a cigar ...

Clone, if the term is used correctly, copies an entire partition to
another partition - including all the unused space. Not really
necessary, in most cases. The term is often misused, however.

Backup/image copies the _used_ space: depending on the backup software
used, it may copy them as individual files, but most backup/image
software just makes one huge file (or sometimes several huge files, to
allow for maximum file size limitations of assorted operating systems).
These don't _have_ to be put in a separate partition, though it's
probably a good idea.

Incremental backup just saves (again either as individual files or by
putting them into one or few big files) the files that have changed (or
been added) since the last full or incremental backup. It is therefore
faster (and needs less space); the penalty is that, should you ever have
to do a restore-from-backup, you have to restore the full backup, then
from all the incremental backups in turn, which takes longer (and is
more prone to error) than restoring from a full backup only.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"Mr. Spock succumbs to a powerful mating urge and nearly kills Captain Kirk."
- TV Guide description of Amok Time Trek episode.