Solved back up files

hi vista forums

i was just about to think of backing up my files to save everything in case of some disaster so i inserted a blank disk then i was wondering how big the back up files would be on a disk

i have a 584GB hard drive with about 116 GB used

could you roughly guess how big the back up file would be? because if i know , i will know how much CD-RW's i will need for this.

Trust me, it will take forever and take more a dozen or more DVD*. Buy a good external hard drive. I tried to back up on CD, it jammed half way. Others had the same problem.


*(Depends on the capacity of your CD.

richc46 said:

Trust me, it will take forever and take more a dozen or more DVD*. Buy a good external hard drive. I tried to back up on DVD, it jammed half way. Others had the same problem.


*(Depends on the capacity of your CD.

Click to expand...

ok maybe i'll think of another way to handle this situation lol your info doesn't sound good

I have 43 GB used on my machine, it would have taken 7 CD

Capacity 4.7 GB

Hello Poolwizard,

Unfortunately there is very little compression used with the included backup features in Vista. You would be using quite a few CD-RW's (over a 100 if they are 750MB CD-RW's). Plus, with that many you will almost be guaranteed to have one fail on you when trying to restore from them.

If you are able to, you would be much better off shrinking your 584GB drive in half and creating a new partition, then saving the backup to it instead. You would be even better off to save the backup on a separate hard drive though. It will be a lot more reliable as well.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95398-disk-management-shrink-partition.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

i second brinks suggestion but if the whole drive fails then sadly so does the backup

i havent used the backup feature in vista, i use macrium reflect free edition, it save then entire drive and creates a image and the compression is good.

the vista backup i saw just saves files right?? so if you need to restore cause something went bad with the operating system the backup vista create cant help???

Yeah, since Windows Complete PC Backup is only available in the Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business editions, you would need to use a program like the one Eldinv posted above to create a image backup of your hard drive.

Alternatively, you could use an online backup service. Carbonite allows users to upload their documents for encrypted backup on their servers.

Online Backup, Computer Backup Software & Remote Backup

There is a free trial period, but after that you will have to pay a fee of £41.95 per year to use them.

Tom

ok thank you for all the suggestions i will have a hard think about it then decide what i should do

Wish you luck.

You're welcome. Please let us know how it went.