Backing Up

[Jonny_S]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk. I guess an option
would be to back it up to C:\ with the hard drive disconnected and then copy
that file to the hard drive. Might that work? Any other ideas? Many thanks.

 

[Jonny_S]

So that I am not accused of cross-posting - I also listed this question here
because I did not get the successful post confirmation screen.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...da5-7c6af02b5dc1&cat=&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=&p=1

 

[JD]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk. I guess an option
would be to back it up to C:\ with the hard drive disconnected and then copy
that file to the hard drive. Might that work? Any other ideas? Many thanks.

What program are you using to make back ups?

 

[Roy Smith]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk. I guess an option
would be to back it up to C:\ with the hard drive disconnected and then copy
that file to the hard drive. Might that work? Any other ideas? Many thanks.

First, what program are you using to backup your system? Instead of
doing a complete backup, do a partial backup selecting everything except
the F drive.

--

Roy Smith
Windows 7

Timestamp: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:39:22 AM

 

[Don Phillipson]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk.

1. MSBackup and its precursors were coded when hard drive
space was expensive, thus rare: it is now so cheap that most
users simply copy directories or drives.
2. Instead of copying, IMAGING may meet your requirement
to "create the back up disk." You can google for this function
or consider Acronis or similar disk-imaging software.

 

[Jonny_S]

Thanks

 

[Rick Merrill]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk. I guess an option
would be to back it up to C:\ with the hard drive disconnected and then copy
that file to the hard drive. Might that work? Any other ideas? Many thanks.

Start the backup wizard and select "let me choose" then
choose just the C drive TO the external drive.

This same issue was driving me crazy
because each successive backup DOUBLED in size!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

This seems so ridiculous but how do I back up with out backing up my
backup?
I have an external hard drive - "F." When I run the back up utility and
select - back up entire system, it factors in F into the back up and it
backs
up everything. I just want to back up the C drive. I would like to run
the
full back up so that it will create the back up disk. I guess an option
would be to back it up to C:\ with the hard drive disconnected and then
copy
that file to the hard drive. Might that work? Any other ideas? Many
thanks.

There's really little need to back up the entire drive. You really want to
make a backup of the drive, and then do incremental backups of the data.
There are a number of system files that *will change* every time the system
runs (the pagefile, for instance) and you do not want or need these backed
up.

Use a modern backup tool, such as TrueImage. This is not expensive and
works very well.

HTH
-pk