Native Backup utility

  • Thread starter Thread starter Curtis Vaughan
  • Start date Start date
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Curtis Vaughan

I have a client that has 4 XP machines. They all do a daily backup to a
share on one of the machines using the built-in backup program. What I
find strange is that although the backups seem to be working fine, the
file size for each computer each day is exactly. I'm not looking at the
files right now, so I can't say the exact size, but let's say they are
something like 1.4 Gb each. More precisely let's say Explorer is reporting
each file as: 1428 Mb each. (Again, I don't remmember the exact size being
shown). Would this be correct? Does XP's backup utility merely use a
specific size regardless of how much is being backed up?

Thanks for any input.
 
"Curtis Vaughan" <cavaughan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.07.16.21.24.05.780633@gmail.com...
>I have a client that has 4 XP machines. They all do a daily backup to a
> share on one of the machines using the built-in backup program. What I
> find strange is that although the backups seem to be working fine, the
> file size for each computer each day is exactly. I'm not looking at the
> files right now, so I can't say the exact size, but let's say they are
> something like 1.4 Gb each. More precisely let's say Explorer is reporting
> each file as: 1428 Mb each. (Again, I don't remmember the exact size being
> shown). Would this be correct? Does XP's backup utility merely use a
> specific size regardless of how much is being backed up?
>
> Thanks for any input.

No, there is no specific size. Your best bet is to examine the
backup files immediately to see what's inside, and to extract
some sample folders in order to prove to yourself and to your
client that you can do it. Much, much better to do it now than
to wait until the crunch comes and to have to admit that the
whole backup process was set up incorrectly.
 
On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:30:00 +0200, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:

>
> "Curtis Vaughan" <cavaughan@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:pan.2007.07.16.21.24.05.780633@gmail.com...
>>I have a client that has 4 XP machines. They all do a daily backup to a
>> share on one of the machines using the built-in backup program. What I
>> find strange is that although the backups seem to be working fine, the
>> file size for each computer each day is exactly. I'm not looking at the
>> files right now, so I can't say the exact size, but let's say they are
>> something like 1.4 Gb each. More precisely let's say Explorer is reporting
>> each file as: 1428 Mb each. (Again, I don't remmember the exact size being
>> shown). Would this be correct? Does XP's backup utility merely use a
>> specific size regardless of how much is being backed up?
>>
>> Thanks for any input.
>
> No, there is no specific size. Your best bet is to examine the
> backup files immediately to see what's inside, and to extract
> some sample folders in order to prove to yourself and to your
> client that you can do it. Much, much better to do it now than
> to wait until the crunch comes and to have to admit that the
> whole backup process was set up incorrectly.

I now know why. If I had correctly said that the size of the files was
just of 4 G, then maybe that might have given everyone a clue. The thing
is is that this is an external drive. And 4 G is the file size limit for
FAT32 and this drive was still formatted FAT32.
 
"Curtis Vaughan" <cavaughan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.07.17.06.41.48.924019@gmail.com...
> On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:30:00 +0200, Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
>
>>
>> "Curtis Vaughan" <cavaughan@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:pan.2007.07.16.21.24.05.780633@gmail.com...
>>>I have a client that has 4 XP machines. They all do a daily backup to a
>>> share on one of the machines using the built-in backup program. What I
>>> find strange is that although the backups seem to be working fine, the
>>> file size for each computer each day is exactly. I'm not looking at the
>>> files right now, so I can't say the exact size, but let's say they are
>>> something like 1.4 Gb each. More precisely let's say Explorer is
>>> reporting
>>> each file as: 1428 Mb each. (Again, I don't remmember the exact size
>>> being
>>> shown). Would this be correct? Does XP's backup utility merely use a
>>> specific size regardless of how much is being backed up?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any input.
>>
>> No, there is no specific size. Your best bet is to examine the
>> backup files immediately to see what's inside, and to extract
>> some sample folders in order to prove to yourself and to your
>> client that you can do it. Much, much better to do it now than
>> to wait until the crunch comes and to have to admit that the
>> whole backup process was set up incorrectly.
>
> I now know why. If I had correctly said that the size of the files was
> just of 4 G, then maybe that might have given everyone a clue. The thing
> is is that this is an external drive. And 4 G is the file size limit for
> FAT32 and this drive was still formatted FAT32.

Indeed. Saying "1.4 GBytes" instead of "4 GBytes" through
everyone off the scent . . .
 
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