Size of disk images

rmg1

Hi all

I've just about my PC working as I want it to and I want to make sure I can restore it quickly if it all goes a bit pear-shaped.
I've got a copy of Acronis True Image and and I'm going to be getting an external HDD for putting the images on.

Now for the questions:-
The HDD in the PC is 1TB so how big would the disk image be (so I can buy an appropriate-size external drive)?
Would Acronis image the entire disk or just the used section (about 70GB so far)?
Can I set up Acronis to make regular backups (weekly/monthly) automatically and save it as a new image (I haven't really looked at the software as yet, it was recommended to me)?

Toxteth_OGrady

Disk imaging apps generally use compression when creating an image although this can be turned off. If compression is turned off the back up image will be exactly the same size as the disk/partition you are imaging. With compression level set to 'normal' it will be about 70% of the size. If the disk you are backing up has lots of free space you can select to just image the disk sectors that have data on them. This uses a lot less space than a physical sector by sector mirror image of the whole disk that copies the free space allocation as well.

You can set TI to make scheduled incremental updates to an image that will just incorporate the changes. Each incremental image is a small delta file to the original image, so you can choose which point in time you wish to go back to (a bit like System Restore).

As with any back up solution it is only any good if you are confident the restore will work. Make sure you create a rescue boot CD. Get a spare hard disk and try to see if you can successfully restore an image to it.

andy2004

As a fan of True Image, and i use it usually weekly, my windows C partition is set to 21gb and is usually 50% full, my backup images are around 5gb, so more like 50%, compression depends on the data that being compressed.
I would suggest moving any files which you have downloaded onto your main drive to the backup drive without imaging it.
infact I would partition the 1tb internal drive to something smaller, maybe 100-200gb, and leave the rest of the drive for data being downloaded.

You only have to create a backup image of the C partition not the whole drive. keep the backup image on the 2nd drive/external, and a copy of your downloads as well.
as i looked at prices for drives yesterday, you can get a 2tb Samsung sata internal for £60 and a usb 3.5 sata enclosure for £15 from novatech, or for £16 more buy a already built 2tb external which would be pretty identical to the self built.
I bought my hdd from novatech and my enclosure from ebay due to the fact it also came with E-SATA connection for the same price as the standard USB only case from novatech.

rmg1

At the moment, everything's on one partition (OS, programs and documents, etc) which suits me nicely.
I'll be setting Acronis just to backup the used portion of the drive which should keep the image sizes down (from what Andy's just said).

My backup drive will probably be 2TB and will definitely be an external so I can disconnect it when I've finished and keep it somewhere safe.

Looks like I'll be going through the options and help files on Acronis to set up the backups (probably with stupid-looking questions on here as well).

closed

It will be somewhere between 50% and 100% of the size of the used space on the drive. (Compression usually halves the size of data unless it's already compressed - mp3/zip/cab/mpg etc). Free space isn't backed up.

The paid for version of acronis lets you shedule backups, the free ones available of WD and maxtor/seagate site don't

Test that the recovery cd works and can see your usb drive.

rmg1

I may be wrong (and please correct me if I am), but it was my understanding that if everything was to go pear shaped, I could just reinstall the OS (if necessary) and then use the created image to restore the computer to where it was in a few minutes rather than having to reinstall all the drivers, software, etc.

Toxteth_OGrady

No. The image already contains the OS for you from when you created it. It's a snapshot or copy of everything that is on the disk including the OS.

Full disk images are normally used in the event of catastrophic hardware failure of a disk.

You get a new disk and the load your archived image to it.

It is normal to do a disk image as soon as you have installed an OS on a disk, done all the updates, installed correct drivers and basic programs that you need (Office, Antivirus, mail client and browsers of choice) . This is your baseline that you know will be trouble free and can always go back to. You could equally just fit a new diisk and do a fresh install of Windows and then go through all the updates etc. The image restore method will take minuts rather than a Windows fresh install that can take hours.

You then do incremental images as you add data and programs. If your disk gets trashed by malware, you can go back to the original image or an earlier incremental image before you were infected (again simialr to System Restore).

As I said in post #2

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

As with any back up solution it is only any good if you are confident the restore will work. Make sure you create a rescue boot CD. Get a spare hard disk and try to see if you can successfully restore an image to it.

rmg1

I see (I think).
So my first image is a full one (i.e. an image of the entire disk) and then subsequent images just snapshot anything that's changed (so these should be smaller images).
And I use these smaller images in case I need to roll back to a previous point in time?

closed

If you've got a big drive, with plently of space, it's safer to do full images occasionally.

Toxteth_OGrady

rmg1 wrote: »

I see (I think).
So my first image is a full one (i.e. an image of the entire disk) and then subsequent images just snapshot anything that's changed (so these should be smaller images).
And I use these smaller images in case I need to roll back to a previous point in time?

Kind of. The incremental images describe/contain what has changed (added or removed) since the last full image.

If you select an incremental image to restore it pulls everything that hasn't changed out of the full image and adds/removes whatever has changed as recorded in the incremental image. It is automated in the background so you don't have to do anything other than select 'restore from incremental image.' The program looks after the rest.

You cannot however delete the last full image from your backup medium and just restore from the smaller incremental file by itself. It won't work.

rmg1

I see.
So if the worst was to happen, I choose the smaller image I want to restore to (for a given date) and the program gets the full image and does all the updates to get it to the image I want. But if I delete the big image, then it's all a waste of time.
That makes sense.

Closed: I'll be making a full image every 2 or 3 months with incremental images probably weekly.

What size drive would you recommend for putting the images on?