My Passport is set to backup disc C: I am concerned that the size of the backup varies each time to a large degree. For instance, 1st July was 550MB; 4th July was 1.5GB; 5th July 746MB Over the last month, the lowest was 10.4MB and highest was 2.6GB One day, I backed up eight times (to check it) and found sizes ranging from 700MB to 10MB What is going on and why, please? On none of these days have I added or removed files to account for the size differences.
DJ74…welcome to the club of high backup space. I’ve opened a forum entry on my experience with size space, especially with the # of files stored for the Mozilla (Edge and Chrome is probably similar). Backup of Mozilla files in AppData...Local..cache2 contain Millions of files in Volume & History folders
- what is the size of you Passport and currently how much free or used space?
- I see you said backup of the C:…all of it or are you selecting various top folders like the Users/yourname?
- if you are backing up for purpose of a complete system/file restore should your computer crash…then yes, backup files will be very large. If you are only doing your personal files like documents, desktop, download…pic etc then you would not expect sizes to change at each backup.
- you need to review your edited list of files/folder that are chosen for backup…there are check marks (for full subfolder selection) and square box indicators (for partial or selected files/folders). When Viewing, select the > symbol and not the boxes itself. This way you can look at the Tree structure…if you select the boxes instead, a check will appear…so just use the > symbol…
- you also need a Tree statistic App…I ran into a 4million files issue with Mozilla. Downloaded a PC App called Treesize (use the free one). After the app runs, a Tree display appears which I expanded vertically, to see a taller page…that way as you expand each curious folder, you get a birds-eye view of you sizes and # of files… App has various sorting, like allocated size, file total, etc. I then do a screen capture to print the contents…using the Windows Snip app.
- my guess is that even if you add files daily, the amount of files being backed up is being affected by the Windows activity and your Browsing history whether its Mozilla, Edge or any other. If you go to web-sites for viewing or movies, bits and pieces of your browsing are being collected…thus you daily back-up is being compromised.
- try Treesize or some other tool to find where files and their storage are first, then you can move on to the next task. You can run the app against C: or your Passport. Just Explorer hightlight the folders, and rt mouse…there is a Treesize entry stored in the box. Inside the Passport, there is the folder “WD Backup.swstor” that contain your backups…Yes, size does matter!
- finally, I’m real disappointed that the Backup app does not produce a Log file that contains the statistic of each backup. the only indicator is shown on the WD backup dialog box…it does not even tell you the number of files. I need to send WD support a note, because they do not read these blogs…at least mine. Terrible! They rely on users to support users, rather than providing a educational forum.
HowAboutMe - thank you for your reply and the trouble you have taken to help. I will ‘explore’ your ideas.
In the meantime I can tell you that -
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I have selected to back-up all of C: and this is shown by a square black box. At present C: occupies 108GB on my PC’s 1.8TB drive. I didn’t think 108GB was excessive so decided to copy it all.
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I use Chrome. I hadn’t thought that the Browsing History could be added to the back-up; obvious, now I think about it. I will experiment with clearing it before back-up.
DJ74…nice to see someone looking at their backups and sizes…The Treesize for me (or other pgm) was a eye-opener for me. I was having problems running a Malwarebyte pgm against the Passport…kept failing on certain Mozilla folders. Went in and deleted the file, and a new one popped up…So, as I dug into the storage system, manually, I discovered folders that even Explorer was having a hard time with. At that time, I was viewing the Tree with Explorer or requesting the Properties of a Folder…if you try that on a folder with millions of files, it gets stuck! So, Treesize was given a try…and wow, I could now see where and how many files appeared in folders that I knew nothing about.
- I believe that 1024GB = 1T, and you have a 1.8TB device. Passport will not backup certain files…temp, certain windows…there are forum links and WD on files not backed up. Also, your square black box indicates, I believe not every folder, but selected folder…if you expand the tree selection using the > next to the My Computer/ C: you could see some folders/files deselected. I read that if there is a check mark, all the folders/files are selected other than the exempted ones. Take a peek.
- chrome and probably Edge, probably has lots of pointers that accumulate daily. Now these are not large sized but many. For Mozilla, they appeared in a cache folder…that does not get cleared after each shutdown. I have to manually go into settings and clear the cache whenever the folder get large…Bad! I not sure about Chrome…mine was located under C/users/myname/AppData/local (also roaming)…Mozilla…all the way down to cache2, There could be a folder for Chrome and Edge. I just had a look at the rt mouse Properties of my Google and Edge and did not see many files…my Mozilla had 13000+ files for the last 2 days…ugh for Mozilla users.
- as I also said, the lack of a Log file for the back up is horrible. All you get is the size of the last backup, not even the # of files, and if you wanted to reach back for some history…Nothing! Also, when your backup fails, there is no detail explanation of Why…just a one liner. Stinks, but I use because I’m now more comfortable about how to use and its a software that interacts with these Passport device. Someplace I read is that there is an issues trying to save data from other external attached devices, other than a WD… or was it that the Passport software can only backup to a WD device…I’m sure I’m wrong
