Backup File Size

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FHembree
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Backup File Size

Post by FHembree »

I'm backing up my computer to an external hard drive and after backing up some directories I noticed something strange. The backup file sizes are very close to the same for the source and the backup except that the size on the disk is very different. See the attached image. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening? :?
The size of the original C-drive that I'm backing up is not that way.
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trueBlue
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Re: Backup File Size

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Re: Backup File Size

Post by FHembree »

Thanks,

I hate to do it at this point, but I think I need to reformat my back up external 3-Terabyte drive to use 4096 kilobytes instead of 1024 kilobytes otherwise, this 3-Terabyte drive will run out
of space trying to backup my 750 MB C-drive. :roll:
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bitkar
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Re: Backup File Size

Post by bitkar »

its normal if you have too many small files.
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Re: Backup File Size

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I ended up using 2048 and finally got it backed up. I noticed that the drive is formatted as exFAT and not NTFS but I don't think is a problem.
When I turned my computer off and rebooted it would not reboot until I disconnected this external hard drive. When I did that it booted up ok.
I just have to remember to disconnect it after using it before shutting down. :roll:


Also when backing up my antivirus program flagged a Truespace file as having a virus and moved it to quarantine.
TS still works so I don't know that this creates a problem.
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bitkar
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Re: Backup File Size

Post by bitkar »

owner draw menu.exe is not a part of trueSpace imo. So you may indeed have some viruses (or at least just this one). So I guess AVG is right.

Booting: I guess you can have it connected. You just need to tell BIOS what is your primary boot drive. I guess that BIOS wants to boot from the external for some reason (its set that way?)
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Re: Backup File Size

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It has to be something to do with this particular 4 Terabyte, (WD MyBook), external hard drive. I have another 2 Terabyte, (also a WD MyBook), external drive, and if I leave it connected when I shut down my computer and restart there is no problem starting up. If I remove this 2 Terabyte drive and then connect the 4 terabyte after computer is up and running and then shut down computer and leave the external drive connected and try to restart, computer does not boot up. The monitor just displays a blank screen. I'm not really all that concerned about what the problem is as long as I now know both external drives will work. I just need to disconnect the USB cable after I finish doing any backups or copies. My guess is that there my be some missing hidden driver file that is missing from the 4 Terabyte external drive or a hidden file on the drive causing this to happen. Don't know if doing a quick format of this drive really clears all hidden files or not.

I didn't check the boot sequence as I a little bit nervous about even looking at it for fear of hitting wrong key accidentally. ;)

I had a Mac-book computer 6 or 7 years ago and I was using a MyBook external drive and I left it connected all the time as the Mac-book had a program that automatically backed up any changes instantly to the backup drive. It worked really great. (You could even go back using a calendar type interface and get a file that you deleted a few days ago but would still be there in the backup months ago). I Sold the Mac-book as I'm a windows user and I remember searching for a program to do the same on windows. But after trying lots of software I could not find any program that could do this for windows. Yes there are programs out there claiming to do continuous backups but they totally pale in comparison to the Mac. It must have something to do with the operating system. So now I just every few weeks try to remember to back up or copy important changes.

Thanks :)
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Re: Backup File Size

Post by bitkar »

i think windows itself has some backing up functions... i dont know, i dont use those features too much. I just sometimes backup my stuff somewhere, randomly :)
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Re: Backup File Size

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Win 10 may have something like that but I'm using Win 7 and have no desire to upgrade to 10. If I ever really need to use Win 10 I will purchase an inexpensive laptop computer. I saw a wins 10 laptop at Best Buy a couple of months ago for $225 and it had a 1 terabyte drive, but had no DVD drive. I'm sure you probably could add an external DVD though.

I found Win 7 has a create image file and that is what I plan on doing but I need to purchase another had drive of 1 or 2 terabytes as I'm getting worried as my computer and hard drive are getting old and I don't have any Win 7 disc as windows came preinstalled, (with out any win 7 disc), when I purchased it years ago, (8 or 9 yrs). That way I can just plug in the image disc as a replacement and keep working. :D
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Re: Backup File Size

Post by bitkar »

DVDs are no more... i guess there is no now PC (incl. laptops) that has DVD drive. USB DVD drive will work for sure.

I think you can download and burn (or use USB flashdrive) legaly. MS has a download page for Windows installations (not sure if Win7, which is old by now). But with some googling, maybe you can find an official ISO file to burn. Should not be a problem as you should enter your serial number during installation and it should know its OEM license.
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