OneKey: Backup up entire "system disk" or just the "system partition"?
In my reading so far of OneKey, it keeps mentioning "system disk". My hard disk (HDD0) has 2 primary partitions: Partn1 = Windows+Apps+Data and Partn2 = data (which is not to be included in backups because its files are too huge and reproducible, like downloads or ISO images of CDs). I only want HDD0 Partn1 (C: drive) to get backed up to the recovery image. I do NOT want the entire HDD0 to get backed up because that will waste space to save files in HDD0 Partn2 that I do not want in the backup image.
Does OneKey only create backup images for entire disks (i.e., all partitions on the disk) or can the OS partition be selected to get backed up (well, MBR+Partition)?
Comments
Could not determine from the online documentation for OneKey if it backs up only the system partition or every partition (on the same disk as the system partition). So I installed OneKey and went through creating its recovery partition and saving a backup image there.
Well, a long time later and after it got done backing up drive C: (Windows, system partition), then I saw it was backing up drive
(data files that I do NOT want in the backup image). So I cancelled the backup and uninstalled OneKey, plus use Easeus Partition Master Free to remove the OneKey recovery partition (and enlarge the 
drive partition) that the uninstall would not offer to remove.
Too bad OneKey doesn't let me decide which partition to include in its recovery image. Obviously the purpose of partitioning is to provide separation of files, like OS from data or even OS+app+someData from other data that should NOT be included in a backup. Nice idea to hide the image in a hidden partition (no drive letter assigned), like Acronis' SecureZone and Paragon's BackupCapsule, to keep it safely away from the vast majority of malware, especially ransomware that can delete, rename, change file attributes, and even encrypt the backup files to make a restore impossible.
For now, I'll stick with using Macrium Reflect Free to save its backups on drive E: (2nd HDD with one primary partition for saving backups) and use a USB-attached drive for the occasional full backup to use for recovery in case malware attacks the in-the-open Macrium backup files on the E: drive.
Use Aomei Backupper instead of OneKey. More control over your backups and recoveries. As I see it, Onekey is a simple backup and recovery where the backup is placed on the internal disk (recommended) hidden partition and the emergency WinPE needed for recovery is also placed on that partiton. That is a bad idea. If there is a HDD hardware failure or the PC is stolen, than your backup is gone as well. It is best to place a system backup on an external medum and use CD or DVD made in Backupper for starting WinPE in case of emergency. More flexibel, more safely and maybe even faster: 1 drive for reading, 1 drive for writing.
Even if you don't have an WinPE DVD it can be made later on another PC. You can even use Linux CD if WinPE won't work.
I just tried OneKey, Backupped and the bootmenu was adapted. Then I uninstalled OneKey and OneKey was also removed from the bootmenu. I Installed OneKey again, backupped and this time OneKey was not added to the boot menu. The only way I could get it back, was: adding a letter to the internal hidden recovery partition. Use EasyBCD to add the WinPE iso in that hidden partition to the menu. Not simple. So why bother. With a CD/DVD there is no need for internal WinPE that won't show up in the menu. I see no advantage of OneKey over Backupper Standard....
Aomei OKR does not include your Partn2 (PotentialUser). However it says "backup up data". Exactly per partition processed there are three lines: Backing up of the volume n (N:)... Backup up data ... Backing up of the volume n (N:) done. Possibly you assumed data is your Partn2.
The pretension I do have (and it was not mentioned) is that the WinRE partition is not included.
By its idea OKR is an internal custom "factory reset", not an all-risk-backup solution. Usually the factory reset manager, of the computers I know, also had the option of creating DVDs or an USB stick, against the risks mentioned (Johnny).
When you install OKR and do an OKR backup (this is required), then OKR should be added to the boot menu, and the Press A/F11 boot option should be installed. It seems the OKR backup was not done (Johnny). After a restore the Press A/F11 boot option on UEFI is lost (by error), all other boot options should be intact.
By some backup theory all data is needed three times. The OKR recovery partition can well take the role of one of the copies. By some theory it is the quick-access near copy.
Peter, OKR is more than a factory reset. It backups your entire system, docs included. And Yes the second time I also made a backup first, but it did not show up in the Bootmenu. (The first time I backupd external, the second time internal). How I see it, again, there is no advantage of OKR over Backupper. I tested it today in a test evironment and threw it away afterwards. I won't use it.
Backupper OTOH is great. It saved me a test pc that I corrupted, last friday. OKR wouldn't have worked. Nothing worked. Even Windows recovery, install or Linux CD,DVD and USB sticks wouldn't start. And if they did not more than 1 time. Very strange. But Aomei WinPE and Restore did it.
When OneKey was saving its backup in its recovery partition, yes, it *did* say it was backing up Drive
. Drive C: (HDD0 Partn1) is the Windows+app+data partition that I do want in the recovery image. Drive 
has data files that I do not want in the recovery image. If OneKey is lying to me about backing up Drive 
then I still won't use a lying program. You can guess what it should have said but it did say that it was backing up Drive 
. So OneKey was backing up HDD0 with all partitions, not just a specified partition (because I cannot specify one), and not just the OS partition.
Why would it be telling me it was backing up data from one volume and then proceed to tell me it was backing up data from another volume? There are only 2 partitions on the first hard disk: C: and
. For it to show it was backup up 2 volumes means it had to be backing up more than the first volume (C:).
I was wondering why OneKey was taking so long. Then I noticed it said it was including Drive
in the backup. Cancelled and uninstalled OneKey.
I realize BackUpper is a more robust backup/restore program. Alas, space management for the backup location is not available in the free edition of BackUpper. Macrium Reflect gives me that so I don't run out of space in the backup location which would cause further backup jobs to fail.
I wanted something a bit simpler but OneKey is too simple: no choice which partitions to include in the recovery image. What does the "System Backup" job do in BackUpper? Does that also grab every partition on the HDD to include in the backup image? I was interested in OneKey because it would save its recovery image in a hidden partition which would hide it from the vast majority of malware, like ransomware. I've gone through the online help for BackUpper but they never describe what selections will be available for the destination path (step 2). BackUpper has a "Partition /Volume Backup" scheme where it looks like I can pick what partition(s) to include in a backup job (hopefully I can also specify to include the MBR) but can BackUpper store the backup image into unallocated space (that becomes a partition but with no drive letter assigned to it)? Will its boot program or rescue CD be able to find the backup image(s) in the hidden partition? To help protect accidental or malicious partition changes, can the hidden partition be giving a partition ID (type) that is non-standard (so it doesn't look like a FAT, NTFS, exFAT, or any other known partition type)?
Acronis TrueImage has its SecureZone as does Paragon Backup & Restore. Those save backups to a hidden partition: no drive letter assigned, non-standard partition ID. OneKey seemed to provide a similar feature (but for only one backup image which was okay with me). Acronis and Paragon let me specify which partition(s) to include in the backup. OneKey does not - and I do not want all partitions on the HDD included in the backup. Those are the only backup programs that I know that can use a hidden partition to where they save their backup(s). Does BackUpper do that, too?
You are right: Backupper can AFAIK only backup to visible partitions, folders. But if you wish you can manually or by diskpart scripts (shortcuts on desktop), unhide partitions before backup and hide them again after the backup. Examples:
Assign.txt
select disk 0
select volume 3
assign letter=Y
Remove.txt
select disk 0
select volume 3
remove
Why would it be telling me it was backing up data from one volume and
. For it
then proceed to tell me it was backing up data from another volume?
There are only 2 partitions on the first hard disk: C: and
to show it was backup up 2 volumes means it had to be backing up more
than the first volume (C:).
I wouldn't be sure on that. Depending on Windows there is a hidden small system partition. I'm still not convinced that it wanted to back up your
, however it could well be that it backed up two volumes.
You could verify if you had proceeded with OKR: assign the hidden AOMEI recovery partition a drive letter (diskpart or PA), run Backupper, and Explore the AMSysbackup.adi image that is there. You will see what partitions are in the image.
There is another possibility, that
contains system-relevant files. We had others in the forum that mentioned that "system backup" backed up another HDD, and it was found that Windows really had installed boot-related items there.
I would be helpful at this point in discussion to see the Windows disk management screenshot, or the AOMEI partition assistant screenshot. They show the attributes like "system", "boot".
I have 2 hard disks in an MBR/BIOS platform:
HDD0 (931GB):
2 partitions
Partn1 (400GB), primary, as C: (62GB used, 338GB free)
Windows, apps, some data [*]
Partn2 (531GB), primary, as
(146GB used, 385GB free)
Huge data files, reproducible, downloadable, NOT to include in backups.
HDD1 (698GB):
1 partititon
Partn1 (698GB), primary, as E: (473GB used, 225GB free)
Backups destination [*]
[*] Contains part of OS pagefile.
There are no hidden partitions (now that OneKey is gone and I removed its hidden recovery partition to give that space back to the
drive. I do not let the Windows installer create a hidden recovery partition.
When you install Windows 7 and specify unallocated space on a hard disk for its destination, Windows 7 will create 2 partitions: 100MB partition for the recovery partition and another partition for Windows. I don't want that. If I want to use Recovery Console mode, I can use the recovery CD. I don't need to waste a partition for that. The trick to get around the Windows installer creating 2 partitions is to NOT have any unallocated space on the target disk. Use a partition manager to create a partition (even if it doesn't span the entire disk) from the unallocated space and format it. Then tell the Windows installer to use THAT partition (rather than unallocated space) for where to install Windows. When Windows 7 is told to install into an existing formatted partition, it does not create the extra 100MB recovery partition.
The Windows pagefile is split across drives that are on different disks. The advantage is to allow reads on C: with concurrent writes on E: for the pagefile. Windows will give preference to the pagefile on E: until it needs space on C:. These are physically separate hard disks. There would be no performance gain if the pagefile were split across drives in partitions on the same hard disk. Pagefile splitting must be across physically separate devices.
No, OneKey was not backing up C: and E:. It was backing up C: and
(partitions on the same hard disk). Besides, the backup image should never waste space with the pagefile; i.e., the pagefile should never be included in a backup image (unless the user elects a sector-by-sector image backup - and I see nothing to even hint that OneKey will do a sector-by-sector image).
When OneKey is installed and when creating the first backup, it steals free space from
on HDD0 to create its recovery partition. So after installing OneKey and after using it which has it create its recovery partition at the end, partitioning changed to:
HDD0 (931GB):
3 partitions
Partn1 (400GB), primary, as C: (62GB used, 338GB free)
Windows, apps, some data
Partn2 (???GB), primary, as
(146GB used, ???GB free)
Huge data files, reproducible, downloadable, NOT to include in backups.
Partn3 (???GB), primary, no drive letter
OneKey recovery partition
??? is shown since I do not remember how much space OneKey decided to usurp from
to make its recovery partition. After uninstalling OneKey and using a partition manager to delete OneKey's recovery partition and reallocate the unassigned space back to 
(2nd partition), the partitioning of HDD0 is back to what is shown at the top.
PotentialUser , Onekey recovery just backup the partition which is related with the system.
You said that it backup C and D right?
Maybe the status of D is the system or the boot .
Microsoft calls the partition used to boot the OS the system partition, and the partition with the actual Windows install the boot partition. Yeah, just the opposite of intuition regarding naming. That would require you slice up the Windows install across multiple partitions. I never do that. For me, there is only one partition with the boot sector (the BIOS loads the MBR bootstrap which looks in the MBR partition tables to see which one is marked "active" and loads the boot sector for that partition which is the initial OS loader) and which is both the system and boot partitions for Windows. There is only 1 partition that Windows uses to boot and load itself (HDD0, partition 1, assigned as the C: drive).
To see what Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) shows, see the pic uploaded at (click on the pic to enlarge it to your web browsers window size):
http://imgur.com/chJfo4Q
I didn't bother showing the other storage devices or drive assignments because those are for removable devices (card slots which were currently empty, optical drive with no disc, and no USB drives were inserted).
Dear "PotentialUser", there was, but thanks for the screenshot in #10! Your
is the active and system partition (the one booted from BIOS, and contains the Windows Boot Manager and BCD, technically), and your C: is the boot partition (the one containing Windows). Both partitions are included in a system backup. I did mark up the relevant information in green and lila (red ink is yours), and OKR is right.
It is not true that C: is the system partition as in red ink, and there was no need to defragment. It is not relevant where the page file could be.
How you managed to install Windows, you described instructively in #8 .... I read thru the tricks that were applied to avoid the 100MB hidden partition, it seems Windows Setup striked back. Instead of 100MB for system, you got 531.51 GB for it. I don't know how to fix, but perhaps you shrink
taking out all of your intential data.
As the "recovery" you wanted to avoid, it is included at C:\Recovery and it would be otherwise a separate partition from 350MB to 500MB. (C:\Recovery is always present but could be not The recovery). The 100MB on the controverse is not recovery, but system, on a BIOS computer it is also what is called system-reserved partition.
I'm curious on your reply.
Peter.