When I try to create a system backup image file using Windows 10 and I want to do this using DVD's it has the disk is too small. It's a standard size DVD.
With Windows 7 I was able to use these same DVD's and it took 3. I was able to successfully restore using those disks as well.
Why is it now telling me the disks are too small? You can use as many disks as necessary so how can a disk be too small?
Hi, it's great you're using imaging to protect your PC. However, Windows Backup and Restore proves somewhat unreliable and inflexible.
A DVD is much too small (4.7Gb). A system image would be 10's of Gb. I use a 2Tb USB drive for my images of all drives/partitions - allow at least twice your total data as a rough guide.
We recommend using Macrium Reflect (free); some use other 3rd party clients. Veeam Endpoint has been suggested by some; some use Easeus... I've found Aomei to be problematic in certain circumstances and couldn't figure out how to use it with Win 10's several partitions.
MR is more robust, more feature rich, and more flexible. However its GUI may take a bit of getting used to.
In the 'Good Old Days' I was very fond of Norton Ghost, but that's long been discontinued. Being short on time last July, I turned to Backup and Restore to make the System Image of my W7 PC before going for the upgrade. Yes, I had read all the stories about how temperamental it can be, but I've not had any problems (backing up or restoring both of which I've done frequently). It simple-minded, lacks any options to speak of (bar choosing which partitions to back up) but it's easy to use and seems to do the job.
Interestingly a 16GB system fits on just two 4.7GB DVDs - there must be some auto-selected compression for writing to DVDs (though it doesn't tell you it's going to, or offer any control over compression strength v. speed). An image to a USB HDD is more or less the same size as the used space on the drive being imaged, so no compression there (or any option to use it).
If you have the time to learn how to drive Macrium Reflect then I'm sure that's the better option - I didn't, and haven't regretted that (yet).
Regarding the 'this DVD is too small' error. I've never seen that one. Both Windows 10's 'Backup and restore (windows 7)' and the actual Windows 7 'Backup and restore' accepted the 4.7GB DVDs I use. Have you got any 3rd-part DVD burning software installed? If so, could that have set the system to expect dual-layer disks by default?
PS: if you must use Backup and Restore, always make the recovery CD at the same time and keep it with the DVDs. The only 'temperamental' thing I've found is that one from W7 doesn't like images made by 10 (and vice-versa). Oh, and I don't make a data backup, just the system image.
It'll also be a great deal slower to burn to DVD.. my C: is 41Gb used with hardly any personal data; it takes some 12-15 mins to create an image via USB3 from SSD. However, using DVDs is a low cost way of keeping some backups off line longer term (say 10 years??).
I use MR, too, for image backups and get around 50% compression or better.
So, given the 16GB example, that would probably fit onto two DVDs since the combined images would probably be less than 8GB.
In my case, Win10 takes about 26GB and fits into a 12GB compressed file -- with MR.
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