Backup is way too huge

[Guest]

Hey Guys,

I have a external HD of 80G. Less than 10G is being utilized. When I try to
back it up, it tells me that the backup is too big for the volume. What is
making it so huge?

When I backup my C drive - 24G in a 60G HD - I get the same message. It says
the backup is 48+G, which it cannot handle. I'm sure I'm doing something
wrong but can't seem to figure out what it is.

Thaks for any help

Holly

 

[Richard Urban]

Which of the dozens of backup programs are you using? What are the file
systems on the drives you are using. What are you trying to backup - your
internal drive to the external drive?

Write again and give complete information "plus"! You give nothing to allow
others to assist you.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

What file system is the external drive using? If FAT32 and the backup file
exceeds 4GB, this won't work. This is a file size limitation, you would need
to use NTFS.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Dear Richard and Rick,

Thanks for responding to my problem. I'm backing up/ghosting an NTFS system.
There are no partitions, etc., and I'm using the standard Windows backup
because that's all I know about at this point. If there's something better,
shout.

I'll try to make my question more targeted: C, NTFS, which has 24 G worth of
files, is what I want to back up (the complete, whole shebang). I have a
second NTFS drive, D, which has a fresh, no frills installation of Windows
and few critical files copied from C, and contains 48G free space. When I
attempt to backup/ghost C onto D, at or near completion it kindly informs me
the backup, C, is too large for the D drive.

When I try to backup/ghost C onto C (maybe that's a no-no?) I get the same
answer, and no wonder to both. The backup is double the size of the original
files.
All I really want is to have either 1) A drive to boot into when C becomes
unstable, and to at least have the OS, my core apps and their associated
files OR, 2) Have a way to access C when things are so screwed up Last Known
or even Safe Mode doesn't help. I'm not very experienced at troubleshooting
and I'd welcome any plan that's idiot-proof.

Thanks

Holly