Vista - Complete Pc backup (Image file)

The image file created to be stored on an external HD is the size of the
HD's imaged or is the image file smaller?
My partitions are 239 111 40 gig. Do I need an external hd of 400gig or
better to store the image file?

The amount of data actually on those partitions and how compressable it
is matters more than the partition size. Things like Word docs will
compress a lot. Music and pictures will not.

Mike



In article <#d0Fg2mHHHA.3616@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl>,
h.j.kennedy@sympatico.ca says...
> The image file created to be stored on an external HD is the size of the
> HD's imaged or is the image file smaller?
> My partitions are 239 111 40 gig. Do I need an external hd of 400gig or
> better to store the image file?
>
>

I've only done 1 backup. It was 48.6GB (on an 80GB drive), and the total
backup size was 39.3GB. So, about a 20% compression in my case.


"Kue2" <h.j.kennedy@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:%23d0Fg2mHHHA.3616@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> The image file created to be stored on an external HD is the size of the
> HD's imaged or is the image file smaller?
> My partitions are 239 111 40 gig. Do I need an external hd of 400gig or
> better to store the image file?