Good Afternoon,

Some may remember tat I tried, and gave up, trying to write my own backup programme. What I have now done is to use a backup and a sync programmes. These work quite well but I would like some information about the use I am putting the backup programme to. I will not mention the programmes I am using at the moment because I think my questions are not related to the particular programmes I am using.

I did a ‘full backup’ of my ‘C:\’ partition, and what I had wanted to do was differential backups in between a full backup once a month. Well I now appear to have managed this except, I am not sure! When I did the first full backup some things appeared to be missing – such as ‘page file’ – and I would like to know if these should be recorded. Also the programme – backing up 3 ‘parts’ of my hard drive does these independently and then ‘merges’ them at the end. Is this something worth doing? I ask because the length of time this ‘merge’ operation takes is considerably longer than the time for the three ‘parts’ that make up the ‘differential backup’ takes.

The programme also reminds me that I should make a ‘recovery’ disk. Would this be better than using my OS? I have Windows 7 64Bit Home Premium? I know my Windows 7 utility for making a recovery disk still works, so I could use it, but is the programme likely to be better than MS? I am prejudiced – obviously against - as regards MS but I would like to know what other people think. Also when I make a recovery disk, should I then update it regularly, or only after every programme alteration that I make?

I have what are called ‘recordable’ CDs and DVDs, as I do not know what size this ‘recovery disk’ set of files are which would be the better? Also if a CD would be acceptable – in size – then is it OK to record straight over the top of an existing copy, or should I clean the disk – format or whatever – prior to it being re-used?

Sorry to be such a pain, but many thanks for taking the time to read this, and even more thanks if you reply.