Hi all,

I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I have
a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
drive is full and I can't do any more backups!

I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone know
what happened?

Thanks,
- Steve

"R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all,
>
> I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
> have
> a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
>
> I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
> know
> what happened?
It may be an error in NTBackup; the next time you run the backup it may not
be so large. The backup should compress the data so it takes up less space
than before, not more than the original uncompressed data.

--
Allan

R. Steven Kadish wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I have
> a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
>
> I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone know
> what happened?
>
> Thanks,
> - Steve
>
>
I know that zipping a zip file makes it larger because you can't
compress the data but you still need the zip overhead data and directory
info. Thus its larger. But 1% maybe 2% larger. Not 100%.
If you created the backup on the same drive that you are backing up, it
might be that the back is in the backup too.

Hi Allan,

Thanks, but I've done it three times with the same results. Also, I don't
believe that NTBackup compresses the data, especially with an ASR backup
where it uses the Volume Shadow Copy service.

Thanks,
- Steve

"Allan" wrote:

>
> "R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
> > have
> > a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> > Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> > created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> > drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
> >
> > I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> > Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
> > know
> > what happened?
> It may be an error in NTBackup; the next time you run the backup it may not
> be so large. The backup should compress the data so it takes up less space
> than before, not more than the original uncompressed data.
>
> --
> Allan
>
>

Hi Al,

Thanks, I am backing my data up onto an external drive, not on to the same
drive. (What would be the point of backing up onto the same drive?) I'm not
sure what you are getting at when you talking about "Zipping a ZIP file;"
there's no WinZIP or any other compression untility involved in this process.

Thanks,
- Steve


"Big Al" wrote:

> R. Steven Kadish wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I have
> > a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> > Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> > created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> > drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
> >
> > I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> > Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone know
> > what happened?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > - Steve
> >
> >
> I know that zipping a zip file makes it larger because you can't
> compress the data but you still need the zip overhead data and directory
> info. Thus its larger. But 1% maybe 2% larger. Not 100%.
> If you created the backup on the same drive that you are backing up, it
> might be that the back is in the backup too.
>

"R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi all,
>
> I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
> have
> a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
>
> I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
> know
> what happened?
>
> Thanks,
> - Steve

You are correct: ntbackup.exe does NOT compress files. While
the command does have a switch to compress data, that switch
is only a directive to the backup device (usually a tape drive) to
perform hardware compression. And while the zip argument
mentioned by Big Al is correct, it is irrelevant in your context.
Furthermore, it would add only a tiny amount to the overall size
of the file.

I am uncomfortable with your statement "According to Windows
Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive." Your first step
should be to verify this figure. You can do it like so:

Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc{OK}, then check both the
capacity and the amount of free space on drive C:. Subtract
one from the other. Does it give you around 77 GBytes?

Hi Pegasus,

Thanks; I verified using Disk Management as you suggested.

Capacity = 149.04 GB, Free Space = 76.98 GB, for a usage of 72.06 GB.
Percent Free is at 51%.

Thanks,
- Steve


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
> > have
> > a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to Windows
> > Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf file
> > created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my external
> > drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
> >
> > I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System and
> > Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
> > know
> > what happened?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > - Steve
>
> You are correct: ntbackup.exe does NOT compress files. While
> the command does have a switch to compress data, that switch
> is only a directive to the backup device (usually a tape drive) to
> perform hardware compression. And while the zip argument
> mentioned by Big Al is correct, it is irrelevant in your context.
> Furthermore, it would add only a tiny amount to the overall size
> of the file.
>
> I am uncomfortable with your statement "According to Windows
> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive." Your first step
> should be to verify this figure. You can do it like so:
>
> Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc{OK}, then check both the
> capacity and the amount of free space on drive C:. Subtract
> one from the other. Does it give you around 77 GBytes?
>
>
>

I suspect you used the "append" option in your backup job,
causing the new backup to be added to the previous backup.


"R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:1FD2BAAB-BA5D-433A-9EDB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Pegasus,
>
> Thanks; I verified using Disk Management as you suggested.
>
> Capacity = 149.04 GB, Free Space = 76.98 GB, for a usage of 72.06 GB.
> Percent Free is at 51%.
>
> Thanks,
> - Steve
>
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>
>> "R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>> message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
>> > have
>> > a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to
>> > Windows
>> > Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf
>> > file
>> > created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my
>> > external
>> > drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
>> >
>> > I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System
>> > and
>> > Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
>> > know
>> > what happened?
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > - Steve
>>
>> You are correct: ntbackup.exe does NOT compress files. While
>> the command does have a switch to compress data, that switch
>> is only a directive to the backup device (usually a tape drive) to
>> perform hardware compression. And while the zip argument
>> mentioned by Big Al is correct, it is irrelevant in your context.
>> Furthermore, it would add only a tiny amount to the overall size
>> of the file.
>>
>> I am uncomfortable with your statement "According to Windows
>> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive." Your first step
>> should be to verify this figure. You can do it like so:
>>
>> Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc{OK}, then check both the
>> capacity and the amount of free space on drive C:. Subtract
>> one from the other. Does it give you around 77 GBytes?
>>
>>
>>

Hi Pegasus,

No, I'm afraid it's not that simple. I am not using "append."

First of all, this was an ASR backup, and every time I do an ASR backup I
give the backup file a unique name. Secondly, after experiencing the
problem, I deleted the .BKF file and tried again; same result. Then I
re-formatted the backup media and tried a third time with the same result.
So you see, there was nothing to append to.

Thanks,
- Steve


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

> I suspect you used the "append" option in your backup job,
> causing the new backup to be added to the previous backup.
>
>
> "R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:1FD2BAAB-BA5D-433A-9EDB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi Pegasus,
> >
> > Thanks; I verified using Disk Management as you suggested.
> >
> > Capacity = 149.04 GB, Free Space = 76.98 GB, for a usage of 72.06 GB.
> > Percent Free is at 51%.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > - Steve
> >
> >
> > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> "R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> >> message news:4578B64A-03D1-44D1-B022-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >> > Hi all,
> >> >
> >> > I just performed an ASR backup of my computer using NTBackup.ese and I
> >> > have
> >> > a strange problem that I haven't encountered before. According to
> >> > Windows
> >> > Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive. However, the .bkf
> >> > file
> >> > created by the backup is 151 GB - almost twice the size. Now my
> >> > external
> >> > drive is full and I can't do any more backups!
> >> >
> >> > I've extensively explored my hard drive, including looking at System
> >> > and
> >> > Hidden files, but I am unable to explain this discrepency. Does anyone
> >> > know
> >> > what happened?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks,
> >> > - Steve
> >>
> >> You are correct: ntbackup.exe does NOT compress files. While
> >> the command does have a switch to compress data, that switch
> >> is only a directive to the backup device (usually a tape drive) to
> >> perform hardware compression. And while the zip argument
> >> mentioned by Big Al is correct, it is irrelevant in your context.
> >> Furthermore, it would add only a tiny amount to the overall size
> >> of the file.
> >>
> >> I am uncomfortable with your statement "According to Windows
> >> Explorer, there is 77 GB of data on my C: drive." Your first step
> >> should be to verify this figure. You can do it like so:
> >>
> >> Click Start / Run / diskmgmt.msc{OK}, then check both the
> >> capacity and the amount of free space on drive C:. Subtract
> >> one from the other. Does it give you around 77 GBytes?
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>

When problems appear unsolveable, one needs to break them
up into small components and deal with one component at a
time.

In your case this means that you should back up individual folders
(e.g. c:\Windows, c:\Program Files, c:\Documents and Settings),
one at a time, and compare the reported folder size with the size
of the backup file.

To see the names of all root folders on drive C:, including the
hidden ones, do this:
- Click Start / Run / cmd{OK}
- Type this command:
dir c:\ /ad {Enter}


"R. Steven Kadish" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:580BADC5-0635-4981-ACC4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Pegasus,
>
> No, I'm afraid it's not that simple. I am not using "append."
>
> First of all, this was an ASR backup, and every time I do an ASR backup I
> give the backup file a unique name. Secondly, after experiencing the
> problem, I deleted the .BKF file and tried again; same result. Then I
> re-formatted the backup media and tried a third time with the same result.
> So you see, there was nothing to append to.
>
> Thanks,
> - Steve
>