How to create an un-formattable partition

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necomputers

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I wish to make a two-partition harddrive system with O/S in one partition and data stored in a second partition. The second or data partition would be "write-protected" or otherwise armored so it does not get destroyed by a disc format operation. My strategy is to back up my O/S from time to time as an image so I have a means for restoring it in bootable form in event of corruption or damage. As far as I know, the process of restoring an image (or cloning directly from another disc) to create a bootable O/S requires a full format of the disc which is receiving the image or clone hence if the data partition isn't protected I will lose it.
 
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Putting your OS backup on the same drive is not smart.

First of all it takes much more time to create or restore the backup becasue it is from the same physical drive so it has to fill the cache with data from one partition, spin to the next partition, write data from cache to that partition, spin back to the other partition to read more data, and so on and so forth, its much more work for the drive and if anything will wear out the motor faster.

Secondly, if that one drive had a failure, then both your OS and your backups of the OS are gone.

Aside from not paying for an additional hard drive, there is no pros in having your backup partition on the OS drive, only cons. There is nothing to gain by having the data "close to the OS"...
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necomputers

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I tried to take a shortcut in my description of the problem but I apparently should not have. I understand the use of
external (or internal, if you have room; I don't) harddrives or whatever for storage for data and I have 3 external drives now carrying backups of data at various levels of archivedness. THe purpose of the partition with the data on the same drive as the O/S is simple convenience and speed in day to day use. This partition is, from time to time, synched or backed up with an external drive. It would be nice to have the data closer to the O/S------
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Putting your OS backup on the same drive is not smart.

First of all it takes much more time to create or restore the backup becasue it is from the same physical drive so it has to fill the cache with data from one partition, spin to the next partition, write data from cache to that partition, spin back to the other partition to read more data, and so on and so forth, its much more work for the drive and if anything will wear out the motor faster.

Secondly, if that one drive had a failure, then both your OS and your backups of the OS are gone.

Aside from not paying for an additional hard drive, there is no pros in having your backup partition on the OS drive, only cons. There is nothing to gain by having the data "close to the OS".


I use a combination of file backups and disc images. Take an external and dedicate it to your backups. You can use syncback free to backup all of your personal data, and keep it scheduled, synchronized and nice. You can then use mecrium reflect to schedule disk images. Both of these programs are completely free and work very well. The only thing you will need to do is either manually delete the old images or use a batch file (I can send you the one i use) and schedule it to run to automatically clear out all but the 4 newest images in a folder.
 
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necomputers

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May 2, 2014
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4,510


 
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necomputers

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The O/S image is not stored on the internal HD, it is on an external drive. Many thanks for your wisdom and suggested imaging and backup programs. I'll take a look and see if I prefer them to the ones I use--Acronis True Image and Goodsync. If you send me the batch file and tell me how to set it up I would be very appreciative. I assume it can be run manually, ie I decide when to strip out all the "older" files?
 
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