Using Two HDD's and One Backup Possible?

So I just got the DV6 in my sig. Thinking about a 500/750gb Seagate Freeagent eSata 7.2k drive for speed and portability (2.5", no A/C), and then I want a reasonable way to backup both of those. Saw the great deal on the WD 2tb drive so my question is this...

Is there a reasonable way (not me copy/pasting every night) to automatically backup the 160gb SSD and the 500/750gb drive both onto the 2TB drive? It would seem reasonable to create two partitions, one 160gb and one 500/750gb, and allow them to backup to there... but maybe it is simpler, more complicated, or not even possible?

Thanks.

 

You could use Backup & Restore in Win7 to create a system image. That image could contain both of your drives and would write it to one backup folder on your WD 2TB. Within the backup folder, each partition included in the image will be shown as a virtual hard drive. Any of them can be mounted as a virtual drive in Disk Management and you'll have access to all of the data there.

You can schedule a system image to happen nightly if you wanted.

 

Sweet thanks! I had to pull the trigger on the 2tb drive on NewEgg, I tried my hardest to convince myself not to, but I could not! Could not see anything close to it when comparing price, storage, and reliability/reviews.

Now the question is whether or not I really need an additional 2.5" drive. Part of me feels like yes for critical stuff (so desktop drive can be backup), part of me says I have never backed things up before and never had a problem .

 

You don't need to create partitions for your backup - although it won't hurt.

What I recommend is running SyncToy so that your notebook, your 2.5" external and your 2TB external are always synced.

Simply create two directories on the 2TB drive (lets say NB for notebook and EX for external), use SyncToy to link the NB directory to the directories you want backed up on the notebook and once again do the same to link the EX directory with the directories you want linked to the 2.5" external.

Then, run a 'Sync All' command from SyncToy and let the system back itself up each night or whenever you want.

Good luck.

 

Having extra drives and storage lying around is never a bad thing, as long as you can afford it.