Flight Sim Backup Size Surprises

[Halo]

Still haven't decided how to back up my computer files.  Everything seems too big and daunting and time consuming.

So I thought I'd at least start backing up some essential files to get the feel of all that duplicate security.  Starting with Backup Now!3 Deluxe Suite and a pile of CD-Rs.  

Naturally I started with Aces High, including AH II Beta.  Not too bad: one CD-R with 484 MB in 2,970 files in 111 folders.

Then I thought I'd also do Fighter Ace.  I haven't yet, but it will be 456 MB in 29 files and 3 folders.

Then I looked at MS Flight Simulator 2004 (Flight Sim 9).  Good grief -- 2.78 GB, 39,085 files, 512 folders.

Then I looked at (tympani roll) X-Plane.  Wow.  6.02 GB!  20,209 files in 657 folders.

Amazing enough to think about just downloading or backing up all these flight sim files.  Now imagine writing all that code.  

Thank you thank you thank to the flight sim programmers.

[beet1e]

Halo - this probably belongs in Hardware/Software, but let me offer you a suggestion. Get yourself a Maxtor "One Touch" 120GB external hard drive. It's a USB device. It comes with a crappy software bundle for doing backups, but I purchased PowerQuest Drive Image v7.0 which works much better. You can back up your entire drive into one file, but the really neat thing is that you can then recover individual files from the backup. My disk usage is about 12GB, and I can back it up in well under 10 minutes using the Maxtor. That speed is possible because my mobo (Asus A7N8X DLX) supports USB2. On earlier boards which support only USB1.1 but not USB2 (like my old Asus A7V133), the backup time will be much, much longer - probably 1½ hours.

[Halo]

Thanks, Beet1e, I'll look into that.  I brought a Maxtor external hard drive home home several months ago then changed my mind.  

But after seeing how long it takes to mess around backing up one program on CD, I'm much more interested in external hard drives again, especially with your affirmation that individual files can be recovered.