Full Backup 3 Seperate Files

How can I just make 1 large full backup file instead of 3 small 4.5 gig files?

Is this possible?

Thanks.

 

can't remember exactly where but as you are setting up to make an image you have various options - look for the one which refers to spliting. you can set any limit or size subject depending upon whether you are using FAT or NTFS. If NTFS no problem

 

You're getting these 3 files because the drive they are on is formatted as Fat32. If you change the format to NTFS, the backup will be 1 large file.

 

where is the option to change it to NTFS?

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx

 

Start - Run - cmd.exe

Code:

C:\WINDOWS>convert /?
Converts FAT volumes to NTFS.

CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS [/V] [/CvtArea:filename] [/NoSecurity] [/X]

  volume      Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
              mount point, or volume name.
  /FS:NTFS    Specifies that the volume is to be converted to NTFS.
  /V          Specifies that Convert should be run in verbose mode.
  /CvtArea:filename
              Specifies a contiguous file in the root directory to be
              the place holder for NTFS system files.
  /NoSecurity Specifies the converted files and directories security
              settings to be accessible by everyone.
  /X          Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
              All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid.

C:\WINDOWS>

 

I believe you are better off, if you can, to clear off your drive and format it NTFS rather than using Convert. Convert only writes 512 byte clusters rather than the preferred 4096. In real life for a TI backup drive this difference is probably of little consequence.
I would do it that way for a system drive though.

 

Is there any way using a program like disk director to fix this after converting?
I gave an old laptop to one of my sons and the installation disks set up C: as FAT32. As you say, in practice this makes little different. But it would still be nice to fix rather than re-install. In his case there is no option but to install as FAT32

 

Fix what exactly? The cluster size? Yeah, get Partition Magic 8 somewhere, but I would plain not waste my time with this... not worth the hassle and risk at all.

 

Changing to NTFS to avoid the backup being broken into FAT32 acceptable size files is probably OK as far as it goes, (though I personally wouldn't bother if this is your only justification for changing to NTFS), however you should note that the resulting single file (in your case) will not fit on a DVD, so you need to consider how you are going to recover from a drive C: completely out of action scenario. If you don't have a second internal hard drive in the computer which is NTFS, or an NTFS format external drive that you can store the single file on, and read it back when booting from a recovery CD (or a recovery flash drive) then you maybe better staying with the multi file backup.

 

Good point. Even though just about everything I have is NTFS, I still split my archives at 1492MB of which 3 files fit nicely on a DVD and uses the ISO file system rather than UDF. The ISO file system is more universal but UDF is no problem for TI. I also now rarely, if ever, put an archive on a DVD since they are too small to be convenient and HDs are so cheap. But I still keep splitting them - I think I hate to handle really big files is the main reason.

 

Big Images used to be a problem for me. A 1 TB drive is fine but to use it only for images seems a bit of a waste. Yes I know you can partition but using Ultimare Defrag 2008 I set image files to archive and they simply move to the center of the drive and rarely if ever move after that allowing me to easily defrag a drive with mixed images and data.