saving backup to DVD

I recently purchased Acronis True Image 10, and successfully created an image of the hard drive of my desktop computer. This was automatically split into 5 sections by the programme to enable me to write the backup to 5 DVDs, which I did without problem.

When trying to repeat this on my laptop, the backup was created in only 1 section which is too large to fit onto one DVD, so how do I save this? And why the difference?

 

An extract of paragraph 11 of my guides listed below:

• File sizes: The NTFS drives do not split .tib backup files whereas FAT32 drives will split into 4gb increments. Both can be user controlled via Archive Splitting. Normal compression will reduce backup size approximately 40-50%. Audio/images/movies are already compressed and do not additionally compress during imaging. The XP Disk Management Tool (Image DM-1) can display which file system being used on your drives.

 

GroverH probably hit the nail on the head.

However, if he is correct that the image of your desktop system was written to a FAT32 formatted hard drive, the file sizes will be 4GB which wastes 0.38GB per DVD. You can get full usage by using the file splitting feature in TI and splitting the file at 1492MB (easy to remember if Columbus was a friend). Three pieces fill a DVD with only a few MB wasted.

The NTFS format allows a file of much larger size, so use the splitting feature and split at either the 4.7GB option (which actually creates a 4.38GB file which exactly fills a DVD - it all that base 10 vs base 2 counting stuff) or use the 1492MB.

 

Probably looked like this except the last volume was of a different size. As stated by jmk94903, wasted space on each blank when not split at 1492MB
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=185924

Sample view of Archive Splitting option is Image B-8 of my Beginner's Guide.

 

Thanks very much for your speedy replies. I'll have another go with my laptop backup today, using Grovers excellent pictorial tutorial.

I didn't follow all these steps with my desktop backup, just copied all the files to DVD then deleted them from the pc. Will this be a problem if I ever need to use them? Should I do them again?

 

Hello fudgem,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that you can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.
You can perform a restore directly from DVD media. Howether, for other operations you will need to copy the files from DVDs to a single location on a hard drive.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Hello fudgem,

For completeness I will add that you can also Validate an image direct from DVD. Just make sure you insert the final DVD created first and then follow TI's prompts for subsequent disk changes.

Regards

 

thank you all for your very helpful replies, I'm all sorted now. I'm sorry to be late getting back to you, I've been away from home for a few days.