How many DVDs do I need

[woolyhead]

My PC has 80GB of used space on it. How many ordinary capacity ones, not blu ray discs would it need to back it up? .

[slh73]

A blank single layer dvd holds 4.7gb. Divide 80 by 4.7, Bobs your uncle

[woolyhead]

Thanks slh73. Wow that's a lot of discs, nearly 17. So if I want to make a bootable copy of my entire system and I put the first disc in and ask for the image to be made, would the system fill the disc and then ask me to put in the second disc and so on for all 17 discs? How many discs would it take to make a recovery disc and what goes on a recovery disc, the OS? my files? And why is the activation code needed? I mean what does it use this code for?

Edited January 28, 2017 by woolyhead

[swarfendor437]

AFAIK when you create an image using the built in Windows imaging software it will want to look for either enough space on your existing hard drive or another drive/external drive. You are also going to be looking at having to purchase some imaging software and it may or may not work - there can be a risk of faulty media (DVD's) and broken links etc - much simpler to use an external hard drive and use something like redobackup from http://redobackup.org which is free or use Macrium Reflect - also free.

[woolyhead]

Thanks again swarfendor43. I was going to use Macrium free but now I've read redobackup.org I'm not sure which to use. I noticed one thing that's been bothering me, the recovered system is a mini system, not a full system. Is that how they get it all on to only 4 discs? Knowing that's just for my education because I'm planning to use an external HD not a bunch of discs. But even with this ext. HD apparently I will need one disc. What disc is that, what's it for and what's on it? Sorry if you've already told me before but it's a lot for me to take in.

 

---------- Post added 29-01-2017 at 19:51 ----------

 

love2print has answered it for me. What's on the recovery disc is mainly the OS, not all the other stuff. That explains it for me.

[swarfendor437]

A lot of people on here recommend macrium reflect so go with that. Usually you should be able to create a 'recovery' CD/DVD of the application to boot from so that it can search for the image you created.

 

All the steps you need to know on how to use macrium reflect here - it looks like it does exactly the same job as Acronis but at no cost:

 

http://www.techradar.com/how-to/computing/how-to-use-macrium-reflect-free-to-backup-your-pc-1319885

[peak4]

Any reason for not using a USB stick instead of DVDs

e.g. https://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/Integral/Integral-128GB-Evo-USB-Flash-Drive

[Guest]

Just get external HDD. You don't want a hassle with 17-20 DVD's

[swarfendor437]

Any reason for not using a USB stick instead of DVDs

e.g. https://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/Integral/Integral-128GB-Evo-USB-Flash-Drive

 

I bought a 16 Gb Play.com version of a memory stick looking very similar to that - after a while the internal mechanism becomes loose from the casing.

I much prefer a solid Hard Drive to reliance on a Memory Stick that could get easily lost or damaged.

[apelike]

Any reason for not using a USB stick instead of DVDs

e.g. https://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/Integral/Integral-128GB-Evo-USB-Flash-Drive

 

They can easily get corrupted and in the case of one of mine unreadable and unwriteable. It states it needs formatting and when I try to do that it then says its write protected and asks to unlock it when there is no lock. No substitute for a normal hard drive as they last.