Windows 7: System Image file is using 100 GB of my hard drive

Hey guys I'm kinda annoyed because in the backup and restore panel it says that my system image is using 110.30 GB in my hard drive. How can I minimize the space it uses? And does it affect the performance of my laptop? Thanks a lot.

It's a good practice to back up to an external drive. If you have the system backup on the same drive that gets hit with a virus or has a failure, there's a good chance the restore image will be inaccessible or corrupted.

Hard drive prices are high lately, but until recently storage was a bargain.
Also as a benefit you don't have an image file just sitting there as dead weight.

A way to save when buying more than one external drive is to buy ordinary internal hard drive and get a USB docking station. The drive slides in the slot in the dock.

Just to give you an idea what they look like if you're not familiar with them:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ations&x=0&y=0

How much space is occupied on the partition from which the image was made? If the original partition has a lot of occupied space, you have limited choices.

If you want to reduce the space taken up by the image you could:

1: use a higher compression ratio in the imaging program, if available

2: try another imaging program

3: reduce the number of partitions contained in the image

4: reduce the occupied space in the partitions in the image before you make the image.

The image is just another file and should not affect your laptop performance unless the drive on which the image is stored is now very near full capacity--at least 90%.

A full screenshot of "Disk Management" would help. Describe what you are imaging and where you are storing the images.

HDD prices have skyrocketed but I think you can get a 500/750GB WD portable for under $100 (just). If you can afford it I suggest you buy one. I can't imagine a laptop without one amd this is where you should store images.

The thing is sometimes the free space of my hard drive becomes 400 MB because of these backup files. And I'm really clueless what a vhd file is because I just found out that one of those files is over 100 GB. Can I simply delete it or will it ignite a chain of events that will utterly destroy my laptop? Sorry if you think these are dumb questions I'm just a kid.

You still haven't told us the occupied space of the partition you imaged. If it has a lot of occupied space (150 gb or more), then you should expect an image of it to be over 100 GB.

If you run Virtual PC or Virtual server, all files on the virtual disk being compressed into one big file. Your VHD file

-DG

To upload the required screenshot Type "Disk Management" in the bottom search box and upload using the tutorial.
The little vhd is probably the image of a system reserved and the big one is you OS image. You are probably imaging a lot of data which should be in another partition or ext HDD.