ASR backup file is much to big

[Guest]

I want to backup my computer with all its installed programs and settings in
order to be able to recover from a crashed disc some time in the future.
According to the documentation the Automated System Recovery is the primary
tool for this task: It wil copy only the files necessary to restore system
state and I am explicitly warned that I should use other tools to backup my
data. However, when i run the ASR wizard it copies most of my HDD and starts
creating a .BKF file of more than 10 GB. Is there anything I can do to
reduce the backup filesize (i.e. bypass non-critical directories with data,
dowloaded files etc.) ?

 

[Guest]

I want to backup my computer with all its installed programs and settings in
order to be able to recover from a crashed disc some time in the future.
According to the documentation the Automated System Recovery is the primary
tool for this task: It wil copy only the files necessary to restore system
state and I am explicitly warned that I should use other tools to backup my
data. However, when i run the ASR wizard it copies most of my HDD and starts
creating a .BKF file of more than 10 GB. Is there anything I can do to
reduce the backup filesize (i.e. bypass non-critical directories with data,
dowloaded files etc.) ?

 

[Jim]

I want to backup my computer with all its installed programs and settings
in
order to be able to recover from a crashed disc some time in the future.
According to the documentation the Automated System Recovery is the
primary
tool for this task: It wil copy only the files necessary to restore
system
state and I am explicitly warned that I should use other tools to backup
my
data. However, when i run the ASR wizard it copies most of my HDD and
starts
creating a .BKF file of more than 10 GB. Is there anything I can do to
reduce the backup filesize (i.e. bypass non-critical directories with
data,
dowloaded files etc.) ?

You are confusion System Recovery with Automated System Restore.

The first method does what you want. System Recovery is a backgroung
process which will run without intervention by you. It only saves those
files necessary for the operation of the computer. It does not save other
types of files or folders.

Automated System Restore is a method for using ntbackup to restore all files
and folders in an operating system disk. That is what makes the ASR file so
big.

Jim

 

[Guest]

No, I'm not THAT confused yet. I am aware of the System Restore feature for
undoing changes in WinXP. It won't be very helpful if my HDD crashes.

So I am looking for a tool to backup my WinXP installation as it is - with
all programs, settings etc. but without data and other non-critical files.
With this backup I should be able to install a new, empty HDD and reinstall
WinXP as it was. When WinXP is up and running I should restore my data etc.
from other regular backups.

As far as I can read the MS documentation, that's exactly what the ASR
feature is made for. See e.g.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...-us/recovery_automatic_sr_recov.mspx?mfr=true

But it seems as if the ASR backup process has difficulties in deciding which
files and folders are important. So it copies almost the entire HDD creating
a 10 GB .BKF file that I can't save and make available for the ASR restore
process.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

No, I'm not THAT confused yet. I am aware of the System Restore
feature for undoing changes in WinXP. It won't be very helpful if
my HDD crashes.

So I am looking for a tool to backup my WinXP installation as it is
- with all programs, settings etc. but without data and other
non-critical files. With this backup I should be able to install a
new, empty HDD and reinstall WinXP as it was. When WinXP is up and
running I should restore my data etc. from other regular backups.

As far as I can read the MS documentation, that's exactly what the
ASR feature is made for. See e.g.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...-us/recovery_automatic_sr_recov.mspx?mfr=true

But it seems as if the ASR backup process has difficulties in
deciding which files and folders are important. So it copies
almost the entire HDD creating a 10 GB .BKF file that I can't save
and make available for the ASR restore process.

Use Symantec/Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage or BootItNG...

A lot of people have wondered about how to completely backup their system
so that they would not have to go through the trouble of a reinstall..
I'm going to voice my opinion here and say that it would be worthless to
do for MOST people. Unless you plan on periodically updating the image
backup of your system (remaking it) - then by the time you use it
(something goes wrong) - it will be so outdated as to be more trouble than
performing a full install of the operating system and all applications.

Having said my part against it, you can clone/backup your hard drive
completely using many methods - by far the simplest are using disk cloning
applications:

Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage

BootItT NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html