can a restore image be compressed?

Kieran28 · 07 Feb 2014

Hi there, I'm working on a fresh install of W7 Ultimate for my net-top HTPC (Foxconn NT-A3500).

It's so tedious to go though this process, since my W7U iso is pre-sp1, so there are TONS of updates to download and install, not to mention virtually every driver. So once I get it "dialed" I'd like to make an restore image.

However, my system drive is 230GB. I don't have any "spare" media that size just laying around. But only about 30GB or so is used once the system is all set up. Does a backup image really take up the whole size of the drive you are imaging? If so, can it be compressed in any way?

Thanks,

Kaktussoft · 07 Feb 2014

Only used blocks will be backed up, but not compressed as far as I know. Hibernation file and page files and a few more won't be backed up.

You better use macrium reflect free as backup program. It does compress and has a lot of features, but very userfriendly and simple!

whs · 07 Feb 2014

If you image this system with free Macrium, you will get about 65% of the data on the partition - for 30GB of data around 20GB for the image. But the image should be written to another physical harddrive (internal or external).

Imaging with free Macrium

Computer0304 · 07 Feb 2014

I do not think it compresses your image. But i reccomend not to manually compress it since that may cause problems.

whs · 07 Feb 2014

Computer0304 said:

I do not think it compresses your image. But i reccomend not to manually compress it since that may cause problems.

Images always get some compression. It depends of the type of files in the data. E.g. the pagefile or hiberfile are not recorded in full size - just a descriptor which is uncompressed during the restore.

Kieran28 · 07 Feb 2014

OK, I have no "desire" to compress the image. I just want it to fit on the media I have: I was going to burn the image to a 50GB Blu-ray disc. If only used blocks are backed up, then it should fit right?

Is there a problem backing up to a Blu-ray disc? I don't have a spare HDD laying around.

This PC is a tiny net-top with only a single SSD (no optical drives of any kind). I'm going to have to write the image to a 64GB thumb drive, then burn it to blu-ray on my desktop PC. Anyone see a problem with this?
Thanks!

whs · 07 Feb 2014

Just leave it on the thumb drive. You may even fit 3 images on 64GBs. The idea is to make images frequently so that it is always up-to-date. Once you hae 3 images, delete the oldest and put a new one on. You also need a small thumb drive for the recovery program - 1 GB is ample.

Not sure whether Blue Ray would work. I guess you could copy it back and forth. You could also keep the images in a folder on your desktop disk (if you have room). The Macrium images can be moved around without problems.

I have an ASUS Transformer with a 32GB SSD. The OS is appr. 16GB. I make images to a 32GB MicroSD card that is permanently in the machine. My recovery program is on a USB thumb drive. I also use an additional external disk to make more images. But those stay at home whilst the MicroSD card is always available.