SOLVED One external hard drive for 2 seperate backups?

[julio99]

I have a Verbatim 931 GB external drive that I use to make backups on my laptop using Acronis TIH 2012. I also have another laptop with Windows 7 on it that I was wondering if somehow or someway use the one external hard drive to make image backups that I will be able to restore if something goes wrong. I gues I would have to split the 931GB into 2 seperate partitions or drives or something. This is what I'm asking. Is it possible to use this one big external drive to make backups on 2 seperate computers? and if so how?

 

[Core]

Yes. In fact, Windows Backup should be able to do this. I'm not sure if you even need two different partitions, I doubt it. Just share the external drive on the network and select it as the backup destination.

 

[julio99]

What do I do? Just open Acronis and choose the location and start the backup? Will it not Overwrite the one from the other machine?

 

[TrainableMan]

I don't use Acronis True Image Home so bear with me. From what I can see you can specify a folder for your backups so you put the backups of one in a folder called Backups-L1 and the other in a folder called Backups-L2. It shouldn't need a separate partition if you can simply point them to different folders off the root of the backup drive.

Bigger issue I think is ...
Are you 1. planning to move the drive back and forth and manually plug it into each machine or are you 2. planning to plug it into one machine and then have it feed the backups across a network from the other or are you 3. planning to hang the Verbatim 931GB hard drive off your router and use it as a NAS device.
... The reason I ask is because in doing some research I see mention where some Acronis backup software doesn't like mapped network drives, so you might run in to an issue where you have to play around a bit to figure out how to do option 2 from the machine it is not connected with directly and for both machines in option 3.

 

[julio99]

I don't use Acronis True Image Home so bear with me. From what I can see you can specify a folder for your backups so you put the backups of one in a folder called Backups-L1 and the other in a folder called Backups-L2. It shouldn't need a separate partition if you can simply point them to different folders off the root of the backup drive.

Bigger issue I think is ...
Are you 1. planning to move the drive back and forth and manually plug it into each machine or are you 2. planning to plug it into one machine and then have it feed the backups across a network from the other or are you 3. planning to hang the Verbatim 931GB hard drive off your router and use it as a NAS device.
... The reason I ask is because in doing some research I see mention where some Acronis backup software doesn't like mapped network drives, so you might run in to an issue where you have to play around a bit to figure out how to do option 2 from the machine it is not connected with directly and for both machines in option 3.

I have done the suggestion of plugging said extern. into #2 machine and using a different folder to see how it works. The thing is the first laptop the drive letter is G. On #2 it is D. On the first the name is My Partitions(default name). On #2 it is "Randy's partitions. In about 20 minutes it should be done validating, so I'll prbabbly have my answer soon enough whether this way will work. If not, it'll be off to a different suggestion.
Thanx Train. I will ge back to you with results in a bit.

 

[Digerati]

Your drive should have come with software that you install on any system you want to back up. The software will sort out for you how the backups of various systems are saved on the drive.

 

[julio99]

Your drive should have come with software that you install on any system you want to back up. The software will sort out for you how the backups of various systems are saved on the drive.

It did come with something but it was just used to format with. I'm just using the one drive for 2 different laptops both with Acronis installed. It seems to be working once I made a separate folder for each laptop.

 

[julio99]

I don't use Acronis True Image Home so bear with me. From what I can see you can specify a folder for your backups so you put the backups of one in a folder called Backups-L1 and the other in a folder called Backups-L2. It shouldn't need a separate partition if you can simply point them to different folders off the root of the backup drive.

Bigger issue I think is ...
Are you 1. planning to move the drive back and forth and manually plug it into each machine or are you 2. planning to plug it into one machine and then have it feed the backups across a network from the other or are you 3. planning to hang the Verbatim 931GB hard drive off your router and use it as a NAS device.
... The reason I ask is because in doing some research I see mention where some Acronis backup software doesn't like mapped network drives, so you might run in to an issue where you have to play around a bit to figure out how to do option 2 from the machine it is not connected with directly and for both machines in option 3.

Looks like it worked by making a separate folder for each laptop.

 

[Digerati]

Great! The most important part is that you are actually doing backups. You should, however, make yourself familiar with the restore process now, just in case.

 

[julio99]

Great! The most important part is that you are actually doing backups. You should, however, make yourself familiar with the restore process now, just in case.

I have used Acronis to Restore backups many times. What I wasn't sure about was the single external for 2 separate laptops. Now that I've created backups on both I know that it works.

 

[Digerati]

Great! Thanks for the follow up.