stf Posted May 22, 2002 Report Share Posted May 22, 2002 I am a new user of Retrospect Express. I use Windows XP Home, and my CD Writer is a Hitachi-LG CDRW. I use software compression and no encryption with Express, and back up to 700MB / 80 minute 16x CDRs. When Express starts backing up, there is significant compression reported. Then, after a few files, compression drops to 0% and stays there. I am using twice as many CD's as I should if the program achieved 50% compression. What can I do to get compression to work in Express with this hardware/software configuration so that I can reduce the number of CDs used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted May 22, 2002 Report Share Posted May 22, 2002 The amount of compression achieved varies depending on the type of data being backed up. Text files and applications, for example, compress well while multimedia files do not compress at all. Often, compression is working, but total capacity is decreased due the type of files you are backing up or the speed that the data is being transferred at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stf Posted May 22, 2002 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2002 I appreciate the quick response. I understand that some files compress well (e.g., text files) and others not at all (e.g., zip files). However, I backed up 6GB of data (the entire XP partition) and the result was 0% compression for the entire set - the backup took 11 CDs. There should have been some compression and space savings on the CD - not 0%. Seemed like Express gave up on compression after less than 20 files were backed up. There should be some setting or change I can make that will allow at least moderate compression of an entire partition. I have used partition backups to CD using other software (e.g., HP Simple Backup) on Windows 98 with significant compression. I was unpleasantly surprised when Express refused to compress anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 26, 2002 Report Share Posted May 26, 2002 I found this as well on my first backup. In fact I redid it several times because I didn't believe it was working correctly. But, assuming you have it setup correctly, then if you create some new files, then do an incremental backup you'll see that there *is* compression happening. It just doesn't seem to get reported sometimes... Ian ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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