Windows 7 BackUp of Windows 7

[Anon_F]

Keep getting an icon come up about making a back up in case of the pc crashing. But not sure what size it would be, it does not fit on either a 8GB or 16GB USB Flash Drive.

Any ideas on what the back size would be?
Have got an 80GB external HDD or could buy a larger one from Maplins?

Cheers in advance folks.

 

[Ian]

What did the error message say, was it just a friendly alert from the troublshooter icon to remind you - or was it one saying that a hard drive failure could happen soon?

If you manually make a backup using the "backup and restore" centre (just search for that on the start menu), then it should let you know how big a full backup will be, IIRC. The size could be anything, as if it's a full system backup it will compress everything on your drive.

Personally, I much prefer to use Acronis - it's much better than the Windows backup tool. That tells you how much space you'll need and it may even be a free download depending on what make hard drive you have got (Maxtor, Seagate and WD have a free branded version, I think). If your drive is by one of these guys, let me know which one and I'll find the link for you .

 

[Anon_F]

Cheers for the reply Ian.
I get an icon "check back up disc size" come up.
Was going to get a 500GB External HDD and use that.
And will try out Acronis before doing anything.

I thought i was making a back up like you used to do with a FDD in the old days.
But i think this one is more likely to be of my whole HDD.
I'm only using 49GB of HDD out of a total of 931GB!!!
Hence on that thinking 50GB plus would be ok??

 

[Ian]

If you're main drive only has 49GB used so far then the backup won't use any more than that, your 80GB external drive should be plenty .

 

[Anon_F]

Dusting down the 80GB WD as i type!
Cheers for the quick replies Ian.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

It is a free download.

 

[V_R]

I dont bother backing up my windows drive, My docs, Steam folder, important data etc get backed up to the NAS and and External drive.