Windows 7: Why is my Backup data bigger than it's source

Hi, I wondering if anyone can help answer a problem I am experiencing with using Windows 7 own backup tool.

I have two 500GB hard drives in my system. Drive 0 is partitioned with 390 GB as the C: drive containing Windows 7 and user data, the remaining space is unallocated ready for me to install Ubuntu 9.10. Drive 1, as D:, is the full 465.8GB and is planned to store backups. Before my initial backup this drive was empty.

In the past I've used Acronis to backup, but my version is old and before purchasing the latest version I thought I would try Windows own backup as I have got the impression that it's pretty good.



However, backing up my C: to D: takes up more space than I expected it too.
C:
Size: 390GB
Used: 185GB
Free: 205GB

D: after initial backup (drive empty before then)
Size: 465.76GB
Used: 320.01GB
Free: 145.75GB

Is there something I doing wrong? or is there a reason why it is nearly twice the size? I chose the recommend option and let Windows decide what to backup, was that the wrong decision?

If it helps these are the three files/folders I see at the root of D:
MediaID.bin, WindowsImageBackup and LIANLI-QUAD (my computer name)

Hi there
why bother upgrading -- I'm still using an old version of Acronis true image.

To make it run in Windows 7 just change the executable name from AcronisTrueImage.exe to TI.exe (only do this if you get "Compatability prevented this program from running).

My version of Acronis true image workstation gave this message but there's 100% no reason why it is incompatable.

With the TI.exe fix I've backed up and restored 100's of images and files - no probs whatsoever.

Don't spend money unless you really have to - especially in these times.

Cheers
jimbo

Disk image. That's what it looks like.
You have the backup and also an image of your system disc.

Thanks Jimbo,

Would Acronis True Image Home 10 be too old?

I was just going by Acronis' website and the Windows7 upgrade advisor utility listed that as being the only item not compatible, so to be honest I haven't bother even installing it. However, I'll give it a try (including the workaround if needed) before upgrading.

Just as a side note. I want daily backup (I'm doing a photographic course and photos are being added/modified pretty much daily) so I scheduled Windows backup to daily. Since my first post Windows has backed up for the second time, consuming 53.15GB. As far as I know nothing has changed since turning off my computer after the first backup and this second backup, I would have thought the daily increment would be smaller.

Hi tbernstein,
Does that mean that by letting Windows Decide what to backup, it will:

• Take an image of the C: drive, which I my case is everything, system + apps + users data.
• Take another image of just the user data

If that the case it's backing up user data twice, that makes it 336.9GB which is near to 320GB of the first backup. Maybe I shouldn't go with the recommended settings.

Note that an image is just that, an image of the disk - to include not only system + apps + user data, but the free space as well. The image file is not 1 for 1 the same size as the disk because there is some compression.

Not sure from your description quite what you did there - you may have made a system image and also backed up your user files.

I would agree with Jimbo here.

You will probably be better off using something else.

There are a couple of excellent free apps.

Macrium Reflect (free) . You can make and restore images of any partitions or combination you choose. Good choice of compression levels- and it is the by far the fastest you can get. You can also schedule , and mount the image to copy back chosen files - if you don't want to restore the whole image.

It can back up at a rate of about 2gb per min. - on the High Priority setting - double the cpu usage of the Paragon - but at double the speed, that's pretty good.

Much better than the Windows one - and extremely efficient.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

There is also the Paragon Drive backup and Recovery 10. Huge range of features for a free app., including scheduling and differential imaging. It doesn't have a High speed setting - and on my system backs up about 1gb per minute of used space - pretty decent for a normal priority setting.

It is low on resource usage, too and doesn't run a load of services in the background.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition - Overview

I have tested several of these backup apps on my system , including ATI 11 - the least efficient , but that may not bother you - see which you prefer.