Questions:

1) Is there an optimal (or preferred) allocation unit size the target disk
should be formatted to
for Vista complete system backup?

2) Can the target disk be compressed via the disk properties check-box?
What if any impact will this have on backup speed, restore speed, and
general
backup reliability?

In short, what are the best practices?

Thanks.

1) Is there an optimal (or preferred) allocation unit size the target disk
should be formatted to for Vista complete system backup?

Suggestion is to stick with the *default*. Every time I've ever changed
disk settings, except for SQL dbs, it's led to problems.


2) Can the target disk be compressed via the disk properties check-box?

I believe you can do a "Backup Files and Folders" on a compressed disk.

However, "Complete PC Backup" will not work on a compressed drive. I have
spoken with someone about this in MS, and they say it's due to the driver
handling this function. And they're not sure it'll be changed in the near
future. So, my 250GB drive stays at 250GB, instead of 500GB.

Needless to say, after 5 years of development, this is a major screw-up.


In short, what are the best practices?

Honestly? I would get any other competent backup application rather than
use the Vista one. It is slow, is not file/folder selectable, and tends to
fail a lot. My failure rate is 50% on nightly backups. A VSS service
failure.


Just my 2 centimes.


--
Mark-Allen Perry
160825 / 1112165
Windows Vista X64 Ultimate
RTM Build 6000.16386
ALPHA Systems
Marly, Switzerland
mark-allen @ mvps . org



"Scott" wrote in message
...
Questions:

1) Is there an optimal (or preferred) allocation unit size the target disk
should be formatted to
for Vista complete system backup?

2) Can the target disk be compressed via the disk properties check-box?
What if any impact will this have on backup speed, restore speed, and
general
backup reliability?

In short, what are the best practices?

Thanks.