Noobie question about terminology - did I choose the right option?

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I just updated ATI 11 Home to the most recent upgrade due to issues with the original version not finding my HD. I have a computer at a family member's house that I get to rebuild the O/S more times than I'd like, so I'd like to send it back with a "clone" of the c: partition to another drive's partition so that I can talk them through a restore/reimage if they run into trouble again.

They have a 500GB HD that I've resized to 160GB. It is on a Dell so this partition (c:) is on a HD with 2 other partitions (Dell's image, and Utilities). My image will have all their installed software and updated drivers.

As normal I used a bootable CD. I then chose to make a "Backup Archive" - full. I did not choose to eliminate any file types. I kept "normal" compression. I have 4 questions.

1. If the normal C: O/S gets corrupted and I talk them through a recovery of the Backup Archive, have I achieved recovering the O/S, and apps? (I know they will have to pull off their data first and then put it back on.)

2. The backup archive was 18GB. If I chose a different compression setting, or resized the partition to 120GB, would it fit w/i 16GB. (I have 1 flash drive that size.)

3. Is it safe to keep a backup archive on a flash drive? I hate to buy a SATA drive for something so small, but a 32GB flash is more expensive.

4. Now that I have a .tib file, can I use something like Roxio to move it to DVD's (assuming I can get the .tib file smaller to fit on a few DVD's. Would these be safer than a flash drive?

Thanks.

PS OK How do I get a family member's name off this post so I won't be shot?

Mer, 03/16/2011 - 19:34
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1) yes, but do a test recovery to be sure.
2) - no, it's the used space that matters. Swap file and hiberation are already excluded, you can try to exclude restore points ( "c:\system volume information" , of course losing ability to restore to prior time usign system restore) or find and delete temporary files. Or select maximal compression, but this alone won't give you extra 2 GB.
4) Note that recovering from DVD you can't change partitions size

Mer, 03/16/2011 - 20:12