Copying backup file to dvd

  • Thread starter Thread starter julie
  • Start date Start date
J

julie

After receiving great help from this newgroup re: using
the backup utility with XP home edition, I am trying to
copy or move the backup file from my hard drive to a
DVD. The file is 13G, so it would need to go to multiple
DVD's. When I use the Drag n Drop, it gives me an error
message that the file is too big. How do I get around
this? Also, does it matter if I use a DVD-R or DVD +R?
Thanks so much. Julie
 
Many backup programs have an option you can set to automatically split the
backup into smaller files. I usually set the file size to 600 or 650 MBytes
that way I can put one file per CDRW or 7 on a DVD+RW. I'm not sure if the
Backup Program that is supplied free with XP can do this. Try looking up
"split" or "split file" in the help.

13 GByte is a large file. It sounds like you are tying to backup everything
on your computer rather than just what is in the My Documents folder? To be
honest I don't consider the backup program supplied WinXP to be very good
for this. It's OK for backing up individual folders (eg My Documents) but I
don't think it can cope with backing up everything on a computer. For
example I suspect it won't be able to backup and restore some system files
that are in use when the program is running. This means that if you have to
do a full restore some system files may not be reloaded.

If you are trying to make a complete backup of your entire system it might
be better to use a program like Drive Image from PowerQuest. DI is quite
easy to use and can be configured to split the backup image into smaller
files as I mentioned above. However I don't think DI can put the backup on
the same hard drive that it's backing up - you have to burn direct to DVD or
to another hard drive (like an external USB 2.0 hard drive).

It took me ages to work out a good backup strategy for our two PC that I
felt was reliable. In the end I purchased a large (120GByte) USB 2.0
external hard drive and a copy of Drive Image (the alternative Norton Ghost
I found harder to use).

I set up DI to:

a) run every night at 2am and backup my C: to the USB drive (about 13GBytes)
b) keep only the last five nights worth and one weekly copy (stops the drive
filling up)
c) Split the backup into approx 20 x 600MByte files

Then once a month I copy a backup set to DVD.

This strategy means if I never really have to remember to do a backup, nor
do I have to sit around waiting to change DVD's more than once a month. The
down side is the cost. It's not a cheap set up unfortunately. I choose an
external USB drive because it has it's own power supply. (It's not unknown
for a PC's power supply to fail and destroy all the hard drives in the
machine).


Colin (Not an MVP and no connection with PowerQuest).
 
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