Macrium Reflect - A Question

bod1467

If you use this to create a disk image, does it compress the image or is it a one-for-one copy of the source media?

e.g. HDD is 500GB [approx 450GB actual] which shows 170GB free space, so 280GB used. What minimum size backup media (e.g USB HDD) would be needed?

closed

yes it compresses

approx 140GB-280GB, it depends on the nature of the data, already compressed files won't compress any further

bod1467

Thanks.

I should have said that I realise that any compression would depend on the nature of the files contained on the disk.

Well at least it rules out the possibility of using my spare 120GB (111GB actual) HDD for the image.

emmelle

Sorry if I have hijacked this thread but I don't know how to start my own.

I have used reflect for a few years doing a weekly backup to my external hard disk. I also backup my husbands to the same disk.
Usually the size for my backup is around 74GB which means I can have 2 backups on the disk at the same time but when I backed up yesterday the size was 108GB. I rechecked and did another backup after I had deleted the first as there wasn't room for 2 and it was the same.
How can it have grown so much in a week?
In the past I have done restores a couple of times and it has worked perfectly
Hope some one can help

closed

has the data size grown on the source disk

emmelle

Thanks for answering.
I can't think of any thing that could have added to it
According to my hard drive I am using 153GB out of 582GB

closed

difficult to say, assuming a mixture of already compressed files, eg mpg, video, jpg's, and exe's it's not a bad compression ratio

all you can do is to have a cleanup using ccleaner, and identify what's using 150GB up using wiztree or similar

and/or buy a bigger external drive, fairly cheap nowadays.

emmelle

I downloaded wiztree and there are 40 files in system volume information that add up to 47.4GB the majority dated in the last couple of weeks.
can these be dealt with?

closed

empty recycle bin either manually or with ccleaner, turn off system restore, turn it back on again, then create a restore point. The directory should shrink significantly as a result.

emmelle

Thank you Closed
Did what you suggested and the backup is now 84GB as opposed to 106GB
:T