Why does Windows 7 back up create such a small file in my back up location?

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spellbinder2050

spellbinder2050

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Sep 7, 2008
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I backed up some picture and video folders to another drive using the "Windows Back up & Restore" application in Win 7. I didn't create a system image.

All I see are two files: one with my username with a hard drive and disk as the icon and another file called mediaID.bin.

MediaID.bin is only 528kb the other file is 0 kb. Any idea where exactly the actual back up is stored? What if I want to move it to another location without using the restore application?

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this.
 
Solution
Solandri
Windows' Backup and Restore feature doesn't work very well. Often (as in your case) it doesn't make a backup even though it claims it did. Other times it spends an inordinately long time (like several days) backing up a few hundred GB.

I would recommend not using it. Instead, try one of these free backup offerings. All support incremental or differential backups, which will make the size of subsequent backups smaller (they only backup change from the previous backup (incremental) or initial backup (differential backup)). They also allow you to browse the backups on a file-by-file basis (including restoring on a single file or folder) Run a full backup about once a month, then an incremental backup daily, or a differential backup...
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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Windows' Backup and Restore feature doesn't work very well. Often (as in your case) it doesn't make a backup even though it claims it did. Other times it spends an inordinately long time (like several days) backing up a few hundred GB.

I would recommend not using it. Instead, try one of these free backup offerings. All support incremental or differential backups, which will make the size of subsequent backups smaller (they only backup change from the previous backup (incremental) or initial backup (differential backup)). They also allow you to browse the backups on a file-by-file basis (including restoring on a single file or folder) Run a full backup about once a month, then an incremental backup daily, or a differential backup about once a week.

Macrium Reflect
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

EaseUS Todo Backup (supports incremental backups)
https://www.easeus.com/backup-software/

Paragon Backup and Recovery
https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/

Also, there are a few common cloud backup offerings which most people aren't aware of:

  • ■If you have a Google account (Gmail, Android phone, Google+, etc), you can use that to store an unlimited number of photos downsized to 2048x2048 on Google Photos. It also lets you backup an unlimited number of videos for free, though I'm not sure of the restrictions (used to be 1080p and 15 minutes max length). You also get 15 GB of cloud storage on Google Drive which you can use to backup other files.
    ■Amazon Prime membership includes Prime Photos, which gives you unlimited cloud backups of photos of any resolution.
    ■If you subscribe to Office 365, that includes 1 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive which you can use for backups.
 
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