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Image Backup from Windows VS from Bootable Media

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HI.  I am running TI 2019 on Windows 10.  When I did a full image backup to my external drive from within Windows 10, I noticed that the size of my backup file was unusually large, 82 GB.  For the sake of curiosity, I launched a full image backup from a bootable media.  I was shocked to find that the backup file created from the bootable media was 60 GB, 22 GB smaller than the backup done from within Windows.  These backups were done one after the other, so there were no changes to my system.  Now that is BIG difference in file size. Why is that?   What is different from the way TI works from within Windows as opposed from bootable media?

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Morris, welcome to these public User Forums.

It is difficult to judge whether your comparisons here are valid or not?

What settings did you use for the Windows ATI backup task, and what for the rescue media backup task?

Did you change any of the default settings for either task?

Did you use 'Entire PC' as the Source for the Windows task?  If so, do you have more than one disk drive installed in this PC?

There are a number of areas that could account for the difference being seen.
Exclusions of large system files such as pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, swapfile.sys and the System Volume Information hidden storage folders for System Protection.

Use of sector-by-sector method for backup.

Hi Steve,

I used all the default settings for both backups.  Only thing changed was that I used password protection and AES-256 encryption for both backups.  I have one physical 512GB hard drive on this laptop, configured into 2 partions a C: and D: drive.  Yes I did use the "Entire PC" for the source in Windows.  What is the difference between selecting the "Entire PC" vs Disks and Partitions?

Morris

Morris, if you only have one actual disk drive, then 'Entire PC' should be the same as using Disks & Partitions, otherwise it can include any other installed disks in the computer.

Example: my own HP laptop has a 500GB NVMe SSD (main boot OS drive) plus a 1TB HDD used for data & local backups (split as D: and E:).  So Entire PC would get C:, D: & E: whereas when I use Disks & Partitions (as I always do), I select just the SSD for C: drive only.

All the above don't explain why one backup is 22GB smaller than the other, so the only real way of trying to find the difference would be to explore each backup image in turn to try to see if there are any obvious differences?

One method would be to Mount each backup to a different drive letter then use a tool such as TreeSize Free to show the folder sizes of each mounted drive and do a comparison between these.