Should I compress my c: drive before doing a backup

Question

Should I compress my c: drive before doing a backup

Anonymous

I don't understand why it's taking so many disk to do my backup. My C: drive has 71 GB Used and 381 GB still available. I'm on disk #7 and it hasn't even reached 50% yet.

I started this backup at 12:43pm today and it's now 10:18pm.

Oh yea, can someone tell me what is downloaded when you create a recovery disk? I know that when you do a backup, it copies files, folders, pictures, music, favorites, desktop, my documents and all that. I just need to know how to make sure that windows and important things like that get downloaded becuase my Toshiba L566 didn't come with any disk at all. After spending over 700 dollars for the computer, I didn't even get restore disk, Microsoft office, or anything

Anyone's help is greatly appreciated.

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Answer 1

Compression will not save you any time or space. You should consider an external USB drive for storing Image Backups, its faster and you only need one DVD (Recovery DVD) to restore Windows to the hard drive. Disc also have a disadvantage in that you need to number them (1,2,3,4,5,6,7, .... 'Last") as you will need to know the sequence in order to perform a restore.

There are third party solutions that in general are far more reliable than Windows 7's built-in backup and restore.

Norton Ghost version 15 - has a 30 day trial available

http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost

Supports: CDR/RW, DVD+-R/RW, Blu-Ray devices,USB and FireWire® (IEEE 1394) devices,Iomega® Zip® and Jaz® drives

(Note: Trial does not allow you to create a Bootable Restore CD which you will need to restore the image)

http://www.symantec.com/norton/downloads/trialsoftware/register.jsp?pvid=ghost15

User's Guide: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/15/manuals/ngh_15_user_guide.pdf

Version 15 does not support Windows 8

Acronis True Image 2013 - has a 30 day trial version available, trial Key send via Email.

(Note: Cloning and drive initialization (creating a MBR) are not support in the trial version)

Install Acronis and then create a bootable Restore/Rescue Media CD before you start creating your first image backup

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/

30 day trial : http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/#tryorbuy

True Image User Guides and documentation:

http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/index.html

Supports Windows 8

Free alternatives:

EASEUS Todo Backup Home V5.0

(Note: Install Todo and then create an "Emergency Disk" before you start creating your first image backup)

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software-features.htm

Version 5 supports Windows 8

J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com

Answer 2

71 GB= ~17 DVDS. Dvd's are not a very good media to back up to for if one of them gets a scratch the entire set is junk.

DVD's also take forever to both back up and restore in an emergency. Not the ideal situation.

You can get an inexpensive 250 gigs HD for under $50 and that would be far better both in terms of security and speed.

Answer 3

You can compress the drive but it won't make the least amount of difference, because it will be uncompressed before being backed up. In fact the update may take longer. As for what you did and did not get when you bought your laptop that would be between the seller and you - Microsoft does not have any control over what is and is not provided other than requiring that a means to restore the computer to "factory new" condition must be provided.

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