Why the 4 Gig limit on backup?

[Michael Horowitz]

Why can't MS Backup for WinXP backup more than 4 gig? - Mike

 

[Richard Urban]

You are likely trying to put your backup on a drive/partition that is
formatted as fat32. This file system has a 4 gig file size limit. If you
direct the backup to an NTFS partition/drive you will not experience this
limitation.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

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 \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

It's not a WinXP limit, it's a limit of the file system you are using in the
backup medium. A FAT32 volume can only go up to 4GB. You would need to
format the backup media as NTFS to create larger files.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Michael Horowitz]

Richard/Rick - Thanks for the reply.
I have D: devoted to my back-up and files I can afford to lose.
It's a 40Gig drive of which only about 10 gig is used.

Can I partition that drive so that it has both types of file systems?
I'll figure how to do it, just need to know if it's do-able - Mike

 

[Richard Urban]

Using a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic (latest version please -
for safety) it can be done. You would shrink the existing partition, which
will free up unallocated space. You then create an NTFS logical partition in
this free space.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

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!

 

[Michael Horowitz]

Two versions out there. One by PowerQuest another by Symantic.
Recommendation? - Mike

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Why can't MS Backup for WinXP backup more than 4 gig?

Richard/Rick - Thanks for the reply.
I have D: devoted to my back-up and files I can afford to lose.
It's a 40Gig drive of which only about 10 gig is used.

Can I partition that drive so that it has both types of file
systems? I'll figure how to do it, just need to know if it's
do-able.

Using a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic (latest version
please - for safety) it can be done. You would shrink the existing
partition, which will free up unallocated space. You then create an
NTFS logical partition in this free space.

Two versions out there. One by PowerQuest another by Symantic.
Recommendation?

No - no there isn't. PowerQuest was bought out by Symantec years ago. If
you get the PowerQuest version - you are getting an older version.

I don't understand why you don't just convert to NTFS for the whole system -
but... That is your choice.

Some more information on system backups..

You can either manually copy your important files, folders,
documents, spreadsheets, emails, contacts, pictures, drawings and so on
to an external location (CD/DVD - any disk of some sort, etc) or you can
use the backup tool that comes with Windows XP:

How To Use Backup to Back Up Files and Folders on Your Computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308422

Yes - you still need some sort of external media to store the results
on, but you could schedule the backup to occur when you are not around,
then burn the resultant data onto CD or DVD or something when you are
(while you do other things!)

Another option that came to my attention as of late:

Cobian Backup
http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

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

 

[Kerry Brown]

Richard/Rick - Thanks for the reply.
I have D: devoted to my back-up and files I can afford to lose.
It's a 40Gig drive of which only about 10 gig is used.

Can I partition that drive so that it has both types of file systems?
I'll figure how to do it, just need to know if it's do-able - Mike

I have had good results resizing FAT32 partitions with the free Partition
Resizer at http://zeleps.com/ As always when doing something like this
there may be problems. Back up any data on the drive before doing anything.

Kerry

 

[Dick Cardy]

Two versions out there. One by PowerQuest another by Symantic.
Recommendation? - Mike

Unfortunately Symantec bought Powerquest!

Dick

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Michael

PowerQuest is now owned by Symantec.

You can convert FAT32 to NTFS and it should not
result in loss of existing files but this can not be
guaranteed.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Mike]

I'm reading MS database article 309000 "How to use Disk Mangement to
configure basic disks in WinXP" and it reads like what I want to do.
Since no one has quoted that article, I'm concerned I"m reading into
it.
Wassa matter with following artilce 309000? - Mike

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

The Article covers partitioning a new unformatted disk not
changing one which has data on the disk.

Convert the disk from FAT32 to NTFS as suggested earlier.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~