Hi, I have just upgraded to Win7 64bit and knowing how important backing up is, I need to buy a new hard drive space for backing my C: However, I am a complete noob to Win7 backup & restore. So I would like to ask: 1. If the size of my C: hard drive is 1TB but only about half full, when I use Windows Backup to save a drive image, would I still need the backup drive to be 1TB? Or would it only need 500GB? i.e. Does Win Backup need to copy like for like including the empty space for the image. 2. Although I don't expect to use a lot of hard drive space in the future, what is the ideal size for the backup drive bearing in my mind my C: is 1TB. Would I need my backup drive to be slightly larger like a 1.5TB as there would be incremental save and restore point? 3. Is it sufficient to just let win 7 do a backup without choosing to do a full drive image as this would save alot of space over time?
I asked the same question, about a couple of months ago i think. 1) The ISO image size will br the size of your used hard drive space. So if your hard drive size is 1TB and you have used 20 GB, then the ISO image will be 20 GB(or less if you use compression). 2) The windows restore will only restore the windows OS settings to the time the restore snapshot was taken (Some one correct me if I am wrong). I think a 1.5 TB hard drive would be a good choice, as your backup hard drive will probably begin to full up quickly if you do backups regularly(dependent on which backup type). 3) This depends entirely on you, how often you work on your PC, how often do you want to save, do you want a back up of an ISO image and without an ISO image or not ? I suppose the question you should be asking is, if your windows OS buggers up(does not work), will you be happy with installing the OS, and all your applications again ? If not then I would suggest using the ISO image back up.
thx to mrhrk01 for the comprehensive answer I was also wondering, if i choose to backup without a full drive image; as you said it means I have to reinstall OS and apps should I need to restore, but what about all the data files, movies and game saves I have?
No worries we are all here to share knowledge and learn Your data files and movies would stay intact whether you store them on a usb external drive, online storage, ISO image etc ... (as long as they are not corrupt when copied/moved). You games would also be the same, the game saves would depend on how they were saved, i.e with the application or a save file/folder i think. For the game saves i think that is dependent on the actual game you are playing, but if you backup by copying data to another source such as an external USB drive. I would suggest using a batch file(.bat) and creating a scheduled task. This will mean your backups will run on a regularly when you choose. And you should be able to zip up your backups using a batch file thus saving space and backing up your data!!
thx all. I now know my options Regards the ghosting, do u use Windows backup to make a drive image (which is ghosting right?) or some 3rd party programs? I have heard of many users having problem with Acronis True Image in Windows 7 so thats why I am sticking with Windows backup. Shame, Acronis used to work great in XP...
Ghost images are created by norton ghost (the only symantec product that works IMO). If you use hirens there is a version on there with USB support for backing up to external storage
