By Randall Deetz, on Mar 13, 2021
BounceBack software, now Rescue Drive, pioneered creating mirror backups of PCs that were bootable. This remains the ultimate form of backup for any PC because it backs up the entire PC, not just documents and data. If a disaster like a hard drive crash or virus infection occurs, users can reboot their system and start from their backup drive. This is true even if the system drive has a mechanical failure. No other backup solution in existance allows instant recovery from these types of disasters. The PC will run the same from the backup drive, including access to the internet and installed applications. Your PC might run a little slower on some drives, but the latest external SSDs may actually run faster. Once booted from the backup, Rescue Drive makes it easy to restore the system once a new drive is installed. In the meantime, you can continue running from the backup drive and continue your work. Any changes made while running from the backup drive will be included in the recovery process. This is an incredibly powerful solution, and anyone who’s ever suffered through a failure knows the pain associated with re-building a crashed PC.
However… creating a Rescue Drive mirror backup has one significant drawback. The backup drive needs to be dedicated only to backup as the entire backup drive is erased prior to creating a new mirror. Maybe even more significant, large capacity backup drives will have a tremendous amount of free space that will go unused.
Default Partition Structure for a Full-System Backup (no Data Vault)
In the example above, we’re backing up a 250GB system drive to a 500GB backup drive. Rescue Drive can perform incremental backups to update changed files in the mirror at any time. In this scenario however, there will always be a minimum of 250 GB of wasted space on the backup drive that will never get utilized. Why you might ask? Because each new full-system backup will erase the entire contents of the backup drive. Hard drive capacities now go as high as 18TB, which is more then 70 times the capacity of the system drive above, and that assumes it’s filled to capacity. So how do we regain that unused space on our ginormous new backup drive… create a Data Vault!
One switch in the Rescue Drive UI allows you to create a Data Vault.
Rescue Drive UI for Data Vault
Rescue Drive will mirror the system to the backup drive with the same capacity for each partition. The remainder of the drive is reserved for the Data Vault and assigned a drive letter. By clicking Yes to edit the target drive configuration, users can change the Data Vault size larger or smaller according to their needs. The lower limit of the adjustment is the size of data on the system drive. By default, the drive configuration is hidden.
Drive Configuration
Note: By splitting the the available space, Rescue Drive will allow you to create multiple Data Vaults!
Prior to launching the initial backup, the entire contents of the backup drive will be erased. The first full-system backup will then create the bootable mirror. As with the default installation without a Data Vault, the backup drive can be booted at any time.
Now that your Data Vault is created, you can store anything on the drive. Rescue Drive supports file versioning, so you can target your Data Vault for data-only backups. This allows you to create and schedule separate backups of folders containing financial information or other work-related documents. You can move items, such as pictures and videos from your system drive to the Data Vault. This is also a great place to sync OneDrive, Dropbox, or any of your cloud-based services. You can even create a share on your private network to allow other PCs access to your Data Vault.
What happens when you launch another full-system backup?
Rescue Drive will recognize that the backup drive contains a Data Vault and will not erase the entire drive. It will instead erase only the partitions that also exist on the system drive. The Data Vault is left intact and a new full-system backup is launched.
Drive Structure During the Second Full-System Backup with a Data Vault
During the Rescue Drive install, if you select full-disk encryption your Data Vault will also be encrypted with BitLocker. When booting an encrypted backup drive, the same password that unlocks the system will also unlock your Data Vault.
With Data Vault, there’s no longer a need to create a full-system backup, and a data-only backup to separate backup drives.