(03-09-2026, 05:49 PM)pstein Wrote: As previously said: I have already an additional backup file on an external hard disks .
Not only on the internal SSD.
And I don't want a full disk backup.
The backup file size for partitions 1 + 2 + 4 (see my initial post) is only 20 GB.
If I make a full Disk backup with partitions 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 then the backup file will have a size of compressed (!) about 400 GB.
Thats by far too much.
I would have to buy a new hard disk just for the backup.
And the backup or restore time would last 10 or 20 times longer.
If my Windows 10 crashes then a restore of partitions 1 + 2 + 4 will be sufficient
(as experience of 5 or 6 crashes in the past showed)
You can choose to back up the Windows system to Partition 3, but in this case, you can only use the "Restore to original location" option to perform the restoration. The limitation is that the "Restore to original location" option is only available if the original partitions still exists and their geometry (such as location, size, partition GUID, etc.) have not changed.
I don't understand why you must back up Partition 3 when backing up the Windows operating system to an external drive. According to your previous description, Partition 3 is a data partition, so a system backup will not automatically select and back up Partition 3.