XP Home SP2: Does NtBackup "backup" cause creation of syst..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

I try / plan to use weekly full backups of system state and essential files
(root folder of Windows installation volume, Windows folder, Programs
folders, basic user settings) using NtBackup.exe on a WinXP Home (NTFS, SP2)
installation and then copying the backup file (*.bkf) to a few rewritable
DVD media (ideally DVD-RAM / UDF 2.0). The installation is not planned to
get that volatile, and currently the resulting *.bkf file is about 3.6 GB,
so that should work.

After a few weeks = backup cycles I noticed that without "corresponding"
actions the backup file size increased by ca. 150MB per backup execution. (I
did not install new software or download files or otherwise visit the
internet inbetween, so there should not have happened any big change in the
amount of data stored in the backup'd data areas.) -- If so, just backing up
by NtBackup.exe does fill up my harddisk by some near day in the future, and
the backup files will increase until they do not fit on any current optical
medium (max. 4.7GB per side) soon. Even harder, if you have an OEM machine
with XP Home installed on FAT32 (which is not easy to replace by NTFS
without completely re-installing the whole thing), the max. file size seems
to be 4 GB, which limits the backup file size severely.

Woud it be an option to backup "SystemState" but to exclude the hidden
GUID-named folder(s) inside the "System Volume Information" folder on the
harddisk partition to backup? (They seem to contain all System Recovery
information gained by WinXP.)

If NtBacup creates a system recovery point on doing backup by default, is it
then possible to disable that feature by some parameter / command switch /
registry patch?

I would appreciate any further information / help in this topic, since I did
not find anything in the MSKB by searching for "NtBackup" or the like.
--
Dipl.-Inform. Christian Gosch
Systems Development
inovex GmbH
mailto:c.gosch@inovex.de

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

NTBACKUP creates on-disk catalogs for each backup set you created, and
this takes some space on your harddrive, though I don't think it's
150MB per backup. You can select the Restore and Manage media tab and
delete catalogs for obsolete media.

If you don't change anything on your machine why do you need to back
up it then? Normally, you should have two or more partitions (disks),
the system one (C and data partitions. You make occasional full
backups of the system partition, and more frequent backups of data
partition(s). You can do incremental backups for data to reduce the
backup size.

--
http://www.firestreamer.com - NTBACKUP to DVD and DV

"Christian Gosch" <c.gosch@inovex.de> wrote in message news:<OJ1rntf1EHA.824@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl>...
> I try / plan to use weekly full backups of system state and essential files
> (root folder of Windows installation volume, Windows folder, Programs
> folders, basic user settings) using NtBackup.exe on a WinXP Home (NTFS, SP2)
> installation and then copying the backup file (*.bkf) to a few rewritable
> DVD media (ideally DVD-RAM / UDF 2.0). The installation is not planned to
> get that volatile, and currently the resulting *.bkf file is about 3.6 GB,
> so that should work.
>
> After a few weeks = backup cycles I noticed that without "corresponding"
> actions the backup file size increased by ca. 150MB per backup execution. (I
> did not install new software or download files or otherwise visit the
> internet inbetween, so there should not have happened any big change in the
> amount of data stored in the backup'd data areas.) -- If so, just backing up
> by NtBackup.exe does fill up my harddisk by some near day in the future, and
> the backup files will increase until they do not fit on any current optical
> medium (max. 4.7GB per side) soon. Even harder, if you have an OEM machine
> with XP Home installed on FAT32 (which is not easy to replace by NTFS
> without completely re-installing the whole thing), the max. file size seems
> to be 4 GB, which limits the backup file size severely.
>
> Woud it be an option to backup "SystemState" but to exclude the hidden
> GUID-named folder(s) inside the "System Volume Information" folder on the
> harddisk partition to backup? (They seem to contain all System Recovery
> information gained by WinXP.)
>
> If NtBacup creates a system recovery point on doing backup by default, is it
> then possible to disable that feature by some parameter / command switch /
> registry patch?
>
> I would appreciate any further information / help in this topic, since I did
> not find anything in the MSKB by searching for "NtBackup" or the like.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

I'm making backup for my WinXP Pro Sp2 too, but I'm using Norton Ghost to
backup my HDD with high compration.
To backup your entire windows, all you need to do is to backup 3 folders:
"Documents and Settings", "Windows" and "Program Files".
If your windows located on drive C, make sure to include all root files on
this drive.
All other folders like "System Volume Information" are not needed in the
backup.
Make sure also not to include the pagefile.sys in your backup.



"Christian Gosch" wrote:

> I try / plan to use weekly full backups of system state and essential files
> (root folder of Windows installation volume, Windows folder, Programs
> folders, basic user settings) using NtBackup.exe on a WinXP Home (NTFS, SP2)
> installation and then copying the backup file (*.bkf) to a few rewritable
> DVD media (ideally DVD-RAM / UDF 2.0). The installation is not planned to
> get that volatile, and currently the resulting *.bkf file is about 3.6 GB,
> so that should work.
>
> After a few weeks = backup cycles I noticed that without "corresponding"
> actions the backup file size increased by ca. 150MB per backup execution. (I
> did not install new software or download files or otherwise visit the
> internet inbetween, so there should not have happened any big change in the
> amount of data stored in the backup'd data areas.) -- If so, just backing up
> by NtBackup.exe does fill up my harddisk by some near day in the future, and
> the backup files will increase until they do not fit on any current optical
> medium (max. 4.7GB per side) soon. Even harder, if you have an OEM machine
> with XP Home installed on FAT32 (which is not easy to replace by NTFS
> without completely re-installing the whole thing), the max. file size seems
> to be 4 GB, which limits the backup file size severely.
>
> Woud it be an option to backup "SystemState" but to exclude the hidden
> GUID-named folder(s) inside the "System Volume Information" folder on the
> harddisk partition to backup? (They seem to contain all System Recovery
> information gained by WinXP.)
>
> If NtBacup creates a system recovery point on doing backup by default, is it
> then possible to disable that feature by some parameter / command switch /
> registry patch?
>
> I would appreciate any further information / help in this topic, since I did
> not find anything in the MSKB by searching for "NtBackup" or the like.
> --
> Dipl.-Inform. Christian Gosch
> Systems Development
> inovex GmbH
> mailto:c.gosch@inovex.de
>
>
>