Problem compressing files

[Guest]

I have WIN XP Pro. Here is what I would like to do but I am not succeeding.

My objective is to save the contents of my C: \Documents and Settings folder
to a compressed file and then save the compressed file to a writeable data
DVD. I'm thinking that I will save time by saving a compressed version.

When I right click on the Doc and Setting folder and select send to
compressed file it begins and then quickly returns a message that a file
cannot be found or no read permission found. The first file it stops at is a
system file. I have alreadt been successful at copying my Doc and Setting
folder to data DVD, but would like to speed process if possible.

Can anyone tell me if I can achive my objective, or are their boundless file
types that cannot be compressed?

Also, does anyone have a suggestion on how the entire contents of the C
drive cand be saved to writeable DVD media. My C is currently at 10.3 GB so
it would rquire 3 data DVD's. Any known shortcuts??

 

[Bob Harris]

Some of the files within Documents and Settings are in use when XP is
running, thus normal copy/compress may not work as expected.

Instead, try using the Microsoft routine called Ntbackup.exe to save a copy
of the Documents and Settings area. Be sure to save "all users" not just
the current user. This routine can only save to internal hard drives, or
removeable magnetic media. it can not save directly to CD or DVD. If you
do not have Ntbackup.exe installed, you can get it from the XP CDROM:

To manually install Backup:

1. Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file in the following location
on the Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM to start a wizard that installs
Backup:

CD-ROM Drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP

2. When the wizard is complete, click Finish.

However, Ntbackup.exe is fairly limited in a home environment, since it can
only be run if XP is running. You might wan to consider some third-party
backup software that can run within XP to make an image, but can restore
from outside of XP. Such software almost always offers compression as an
option, and will often divide the image into multiple files of some
convenient size, like 650 Meg for CDs or 4.7 Gig for DVDs. My favorite is
Acronis True Image, version 8; Norton GHOST version 9 might also be worth
examining.

 

[Guest]

Thanks but the NT backup option seems very inefficient. I began to run it and
it estimated over 35 minutes to complete, and that was a copy just to another
C file. I copied my entire Doc and Set to a DVD in less than that. What
pupose does this NT program serve? The only destination options it offers is
my floppy A drive or my C drive. If I complete a NT backup file to my C drive
can it then be copied to a DVD??

 

[Rock]

Thanks but the NT backup option seems very inefficient. I began to run it and
it estimated over 35 minutes to complete, and that was a copy just to another
C file. I copied my entire Doc and Set to a DVD in less than that. What
pupose does this NT program serve? The only destination options it offers is
my floppy A drive or my C drive. If I complete a NT backup file to my C drive
can it then be copied to a DVD??

Ntbackup will not backup to DVDs. It will backup to a single CD if you
have 3rd party CD burning software intalled but it will not span CDs.
Yes, if you create the backup to a file on the drive you can burn it to DVD.

 

[Alex Nichol]

When I right click on the Doc and Setting folder and select send to
compressed file it begins and then quickly returns a message that a file
cannot be found or no read permission found. The first file it stops at is a
system file. I have alreadt been successful at copying my Doc and Setting
folder to data DVD, but would like to speed process if possible.

That will be ntuser.dat, which is the user part of the registry, and you
should *not* try to compress it. I would start your backup further
down, on the *folders* and folders only that are inside
C:\Documents and Settings\Yourname
And really I would do backup with a decent third party backup program,
eg BackUpMyPC from www.stompinc.com rather than in this manual manner.
That will handle the registry too.

Note that a lot of your data files will be so compressed anyway that
they will not get any smaller - attempts to compress again might even
result in expansion

 

[Guest]

You can use Firestreamer-DVD to back up with NTBACKUP directly to DVD
with compression. http://www.firestreamer.com/fsdvd/