So I've decided to backup my HD partitions. I have 3 partitions: 50GB Windows 2000 Professional full of applications, 50GB Windows XP full of applications, and 100GB Windows XP with internet, games, etc. I've backed-up my main 2 partitions (the 50GB Win2k & 50GB WinXP) with Paragon Hard Disk Manager 5.5 and reformatted my harddrive to have 2x 30GB partitions and 130GB free. The problem is that now I am unable to recover the data to the partitions. I am thinking because I resized them to 30GB that it won't allow me. I've tried and given up. I now ask you all what is a good Partition backup program I could use? Also, I was wondering if it was possible to "mask" a partition when you are on a different partition (I am on D: drive Windows XP and mask the C: drive Windows 2000). Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I'm assuming that Paragon works like Ghost. It backs up the entire partition, and writes out the entire partition. If there's not enough space, it won't work. I would assume you'd have to reset your partitions to 50 and 50, 100 again. Do you really need 3 OS partitions? Two the same? Why not do the logical thing. 1: XP partition of about 10 Gigs -- or whatever you need for the system and apps... 10 should be plenty 2: All remaining space for data. This is where you'd save files created by programs on your C:\partition, mp3's, porn, etc. You can also take images of your C:\drive and store them on D:\. Get a virus, and just reload the image from the D:\drive.
I have always been partial to Partition Magic for resizing partitions without needing to reformat. For backing up, well that depends on what you need to backup. I don't care about the Windows and application installations, so I can back up only my data onto DVDR. As far as hiding a non-active partition, you can hide it from most programs (including Explorer) by effectively removing its drive letter mapping. Windows will always be able to "see" it though, but that lets you access the partition if necessary. To do so: 1) Go to Administrative Tools (either on the Start Menu or in the Control Panel). 2) Open Computer Management. 3) Go into Storage->Disk Management. 4) Right-click on the partition you want to hide and go into Change Drive Letter. 5) Remove the drive letter from the list.
