Windows 7 - System Image Backup (OS says 70GB, folder size is 32GB)

Hi All,
I have a question about System Image Backups. (Win 7 Ultimate, 64-bit).

I have setup System Image Backups to my external 1TB eSATA drive.

I have chosen to allow Windows to manage the space used for backup history, Windows says it will use up to 279GB (which is fine).

The properties on the actual "Windows Image Backup" folder on the external drive shows the size as 32.6GB. However The Windows backup menu "Manage Windows Backup disk space" shows "System Image: 68.90 GB."

Primary Question:

Is Windows Backup storing my system images somewhere else in addition to this folder, or is the menu just plain wrong?

Additional Question:

Is the Windows Backup utility capable of doing differential backups for the system image, or is each backup a full backup? The GUI menus are not giving me enough information. Based on what I see, it looks like System Image backups are always full, and data files are incremental or differential.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hi andrew and welcome to seven forums

Primary-- nope all stored there. I wonder if the difference is size might be that there is 1 restore point, plus 1 restore point in the recyle bin. Check to see how many restore points are set.

Add-- Not sure suspect so. I dont use the built in backup and restore. I use and recommend Acronis. Im sure someone will know

best backup-- the one you use religiously

Ken J

This is just a maybe for I do not know. I use Windows Home Server for my backups. Sounds like managment has a daily and a weekly and a monthly back up saved.

I've not used this tool yet, but is it possible that the backup is actually compressed, hence the difference in reported sizes? The backup program will report the actual size of the data image, whereas the properties of the folder where this data image is stored will only report the actual size of that folder.

These are great ideas -- I checked my system and I have a ton of restore points, including many related to backups. I need to figure out where I can see the restore point data on disk to see if it adds up to ~30GB. I also think the compression idea could be right.

Drew