complete sytem backup

Can someone tell me if complete system backup in vista ultimate takes a bit
for bit copy or does it compress the data. I ask because the first backup I
did seems to have taken a long time and used a lot of space on the usb hard
drive. This backup was lost so I have done another but it only seems to be
half as big as the discs I am backing up. Is this because its thinks its
already backed some data up and like file backup is just backing up new data.
If so how do you get it to do a full back up again. hope someone can help. ps
deleting the backup files and trying again makes no difference. it must keep
a list somewhere!.
--
malcp

Well ... thanks for asking this and making me go look ... It looks like it
creates a VHD of your system dirive. It does not appear to be compressed, at
least from comparing the VHD file to the drive size. I show 62.9 GB free of
111 GB, with the backup VHD sized to about 40GB.

The fact it is a VHD makes me wonder if I could boot it from Virtual Server
or PC.

--
The personal opinion of
Gary G. Little

"malcp" <malcp@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsAD589A7-6390-4482-A98B-6ABF65F57753@microsoft.com...
> Can someone tell me if complete system backup in vista ultimate takes a
> bit
> for bit copy or does it compress the data. I ask because the first backup
> I
> did seems to have taken a long time and used a lot of space on the usb
> hard
> drive. This backup was lost so I have done another but it only seems to be
> half as big as the discs I am backing up. Is this because its thinks its
> already backed some data up and like file backup is just backing up new
> data.
> If so how do you get it to do a full back up again. hope someone can help.
> ps
> deleting the backup files and trying again makes no difference. it must
> keep
> a list somewhere!.
> --
> malcp

malcp,

I have a similar problem. I think the backup program that came with
Microsoft Vista is a little bit too much of a wizard and not enough of a good
program with resonable options. I think a backup marker may actually be
placed with each file in the file system, but in any case how hard would it
have been to include a checkbox in the user dialog so a true complete backup
including all files could be performed, independent of any previous backups?
Hope you get an answer. What is one to do, reinstall vista so one can once
again use the backup feature? There probably is a simple solution, but as you
can tell I'm a bit steamed that it is not more obvious.

Gerry


"malcp" wrote:

> Can someone tell me if complete system backup in vista ultimate takes a bit
> for bit copy or does it compress the data. I ask because the first backup I
> did seems to have taken a long time and used a lot of space on the usb hard
> drive. This backup was lost so I have done another but it only seems to be
> half as big as the discs I am backing up. Is this because its thinks its
> already backed some data up and like file backup is just backing up new data.
> If so how do you get it to do a full back up again. hope someone can help. ps
> deleting the backup files and trying again makes no difference. it must keep
> a list somewhere!.
> --
> malcp