Well, I bit the bullet! I ended up having to reformat the external drive. It takes a ****ed long time, during which I have no backup. As you can imagine I'm sort of nervous during the format process: it is only a 50% right now. Once it completes I still have to make the actual backup itself, for which I use Norton Ghost, which seems reliable also slow -- taking about two hours to make the actual backup.

Under XP I had previously used Partition Magic, but they decided to not come out with a Vista version. A very bad decision in my opinion!

Ross

"Ross M. Greenberg" <greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:jgHZj.47765$7a.425@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
> I'm trying to extend a volume on my external USB drive. Attached is a
> Disk Management Console snapshot of the various disks. I am trying to
> extend "Backup Vista" with the free space next to it.
>
> However when I try to extend it I get the warning message, also
> attached. I do not wish to change to a dynamic disk. What should I do?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ross
>

"Ross M. Greenberg" <greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:490%j.22360$255.10769@bignews8.bellsouth.net. ..
> Well, I bit the bullet! I ended up having to reformat the external drive.
> It takes a ****ed long time, during which I have no backup. As you can
> imagine I'm sort of nervous during the format process: it is only a 50%
> right now. Once it completes I still have to make the actual backup
> itself, for which I use Norton Ghost, which seems reliable also slow --
> taking about two hours to make the actual backup.
>
> Under XP I had previously used Partition Magic, but they decided to not
> come out with a Vista version. A very bad decision in my opinion!
>
> Ross
>
> "Ross M. Greenberg" <greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> news:jgHZj.47765$7a.425@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
>> I'm trying to extend a volume on my external USB drive. Attached is a
>> Disk Management Console snapshot of the various disks. I am trying to
>> extend "Backup Vista" with the free space next to it.
>>
>> However when I try to extend it I get the warning message, also
>> attached. I do not wish to change to a dynamic disk. What should I do?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Ross
>>

I've never used Norton Ghost and haven't read much about it. I hope
it's working out well for you. I use Acronis True Image Home 11 and do full
backups only to an external drive, overwriting the full backup each day with
a new full backup. These are automatically copied to a second external drive
and overwritten on that drive also. I also do a full backup each day and
have it done in a secure zone on my internal drive. These are also
overwritten. Each backup takes appx. 12-15 minutes. I've also made an
Acronis bootable rescue disk in case I can't access my drive.
I choose to do full backups only because it takes much less time to
restore a full backup as opposed to incremental or differential backups. It
takes appx. 20-25 minutes for me to do a full restore. When I do a backup I
backup the entire drive.
It's always a good idea to validate your backup upon completion. It's
also a good idea to restore your system occasionally just to make sure
everything is working properly. Of course, you're probably already aware of
this.
I'm also sure you're aware of the fact that if you have important data
or files you should put these on DVDs. Although I use two external drives I
don't really trust them to always be functional. Again, I'm sure you're
aware of how imaging software works. I'm merely pointing out the simplicity
of using Acronis True Image and the speed of the backups and restores.

C.B.


--
It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged
and unfortunate among us.

On Tue, 27 May 2008 18:44:57 -0400, "Ross M. Greenberg"
<greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>Well, I bit the bullet! I ended up having to reformat the external drive. It takes a ****ed long time, during which I have no backup. As you can imagine I'm sort of nervous during the format process: it is only a 50% right now. Once it completes I still have to make the actual backup itself, for which I use Norton Ghost, which seems reliable also slow -- taking about two hours to make the actual backup.
>
>Under XP I had previously used Partition Magic, but they decided to not come out with a Vista version. A very bad decision in my opinion!

Take a good long look at Acronis Desk Director Suite... if you like
it, but it at Newegg for a significant savings.

>
>"Ross M. Greenberg" <greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:jgHZj.47765$7a.425@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
>> I'm trying to extend a volume on my external USB drive. Attached is a
>> Disk Management Console snapshot of the various disks. I am trying to
>> extend "Backup Vista" with the free space next to it.
>>
>> However when I try to extend it I get the warning message, also
>> attached. I do not wish to change to a dynamic disk. What should I do?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Ross
>>

Just downloaded the demo and am in the process of trying it out. It indicates that my backup of my full C: disk will take about 90 minutes, not a significant improvement over the two hours of Norton Ghost. One thing I do like about the Norton product is that it allows me to set what percentage of my system will be used by the backup/recovery process.

I'll take a look see at what the Acronis backup is like as compared to the Norton backup and report back.

Ross

"C.B." <notreallyc.b.mullen@windowslive.com> wrote in message news:E99CCBF2-D501-4860-B1EB-5ED60E72FB75@microsoft.com...
> I've never used Norton Ghost and haven't read much about it. I hope
> it's working out well for you. I use Acronis True Image Home 11 and do full
> backups only to an external drive, overwriting the full backup each day with
> a new full backup. These are automatically copied to a second external drive
> and overwritten on that drive also. I also do a full backup each day and
> have it done in a secure zone on my internal drive. These are also
> overwritten. Each backup takes appx. 12-15 minutes. I've also made an
> Acronis bootable rescue disk in case I can't access my drive.
> I choose to do full backups only because it takes much less time to
> restore a full backup as opposed to incremental or differential backups. It
> takes appx. 20-25 minutes for me to do a full restore. When I do a backup I
> backup the entire drive.
> It's always a good idea to validate your backup upon completion. It's
> also a good idea to restore your system occasionally just to make sure
> everything is working properly. Of course, you're probably already aware of
> this.
> I'm also sure you're aware of the fact that if you have important data
> or files you should put these on DVDs. Although I use two external drives I
> don't really trust them to always be functional. Again, I'm sure you're
> aware of how imaging software works. I'm merely pointing out the simplicity
> of using Acronis True Image and the speed of the backups and restores.
>
> C.B.
>
>
> --
> It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged
> and unfortunate among us.
>
>

After trying out the Acronis demo, I found it to not offer any real advantage to the Norton Ghost backup to external/USB disk: I generally you run it to automatically when I sleep (every other day including weekends) and the incremental backup Trueimage is not reliable enough for me.

Ross

"Ross M. Greenberg" <greenber@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:vkd%j.18538$hv2.7451@bignews5.bellsouth.net.. .
Just downloaded the demo and am in the process of trying it out. It indicates that my backup of my full C: disk will take about 90 minutes, not a significant improvement over the two hours of Norton Ghost. One thing I do like about the Norton product is that it allows me to set what percentage of my system will be used by the backup/recovery process.

I'll take a look see at what the Acronis backup is like as compared to the Norton backup and report back.

Ross

"C.B." <notreallyc.b.mullen@windowslive.com> wrote in message news:E99CCBF2-D501-4860-B1EB-5ED60E72FB75@microsoft.com...
> I've never used Norton Ghost and haven't read much about it. I hope
> it's working out well for you. I use Acronis True Image Home 11 and do full
> backups only to an external drive, overwriting the full backup each day with
> a new full backup. These are automatically copied to a second external drive
> and overwritten on that drive also. I also do a full backup each day and
> have it done in a secure zone on my internal drive. These are also
> overwritten. Each backup takes appx. 12-15 minutes. I've also made an
> Acronis bootable rescue disk in case I can't access my drive.
> I choose to do full backups only because it takes much less time to
> restore a full backup as opposed to incremental or differential backups. It
> takes appx. 20-25 minutes for me to do a full restore. When I do a backup I
> backup the entire drive.
> It's always a good idea to validate your backup upon completion. It's
> also a good idea to restore your system occasionally just to make sure
> everything is working properly. Of course, you're probably already aware of
> this.
> I'm also sure you're aware of the fact that if you have important data
> or files you should put these on DVDs. Although I use two external drives I
> don't really trust them to always be functional. Again, I'm sure you're
> aware of how imaging software works. I'm merely pointing out the simplicity
> of using Acronis True Image and the speed of the backups and restores.
>
> C.B.
>
>
> --
> It is the responsibility and duty of everyone to help the underprivileged
> and unfortunate among us.
>
>