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System Image Size - why so fat?
Just yesterday installed Win7 Backup&Restore on my Lenovo M72e desktop with 1TB hard drive -- and proceeded to back up and create a system image on a 1TB external drive. It's not my first time backing up a computer, but it is my first use of the Win7 utility and I've not previously made use of system image.
I was initially confused to find that while my internal hard drive had roughly 325gb used (i.e., about 650gb of free space left) the external (backup) drive was using nearly 600gb for the backup. Was it backing up everything twice? Digging just a little bit deeper, I learned that the backed up data matched the C:-drive data in size, but that the system image was about 300gb.
Why so fat? Is this normal? Does the system image contain all of the documents and data all over again? If so, it appears that if/when I add substantial data to the hard drive (well, OK, that'll probably take a little while), I'll need a 2TB external to back up a 1TB internal. Is that so?
I searched this forum before posting, but didn't find much in the way of queries or explanation about system image size. So I'm just looking for confirmation that this is the way it is, and perhaps a bit of basic education and advice (in layman's language, please) about this. (e.g., Will subsequent backups create additional versions of the system image -- as well as the data backup -- and will I therefore have to be careful about monitoring and managing the backup disc?) Thanks for any hints and help in this regard.
Ernie