external HD as boot disk and also regular backups?

[jlittle]

I put an external HD on my wife's new laptop to make a first backup, and chose the source option that starts out "C: [boot] recommended for disaster recovery..."
I got a question asking me if I wanted to make the drive bootable. I would love that, but if I do then can I also do regular backups on that same drive? I usually run different backup jobs; one for system recovery, one for photos, etc.
Thanks

[Barry]

You may use the disk for backups from other computers; indeed the other computers may be booted using the same drive - try it and see.

Please ensure you are using the latest version of AISBackup as there was a problem with bootable external drives and previous versions of AISBackup.

Barry

[jlittle]

To be sure I understand: I can use the HD for other backup jobs without messing up it's "bootability", right?

[Barry]

Yes, and do not make the drive 'bootable' on the other PC's as it already is bootable.

Barry

[jlittle]

The drive will actually be used on only one computer, but with several different jobs, such as one for the whole system, another just for photos, etc. So the way I envision it working is this:
Scenario 1: Total system crash, either hardware or software, I can boot up from the external HD, restore the system, and then restore the other jobs also.
Scenario 2: The system is fine, but I do something stupid and lose all my photos, so I can restore just the photos job.
Is that correct? If so, that's very exciting!

[Barry]

You may have several jobs backing up to this drive.

Once you have done this boot from the drive and you will see that you can restore from any of the backup jobs, even jobs that do not backup to the same drive, for example CD/DVD/Blu-ray.

I must get around to updating the online help videos to demonstrate these options!

Barry

[jlittle]

Okay, that's great!
Thanks a lot, Barry.