3 min read
Article ID: 98
Unlike conventional backup and restore software, RestoreX360 protects PC system and data without creating duplicate copies. It’s a pioneer concept, but it’s often a very confusing concept for many users who are custom to the conventional backup/restore products. The following questions and answers explain the fundamental concept of how RestoreX360 uses disk space.
How much disk space do I need to setup RestoreX360?
RestoreX360 protects PC system and data in real time without creating duplicate copies, it doesn’t take or reserve a lot of disk space to setup. The setup only takes about 0.1% of hard disk space to create the installation snapshot and the snapshot database.
For example:
1. You have a PC with a 100GB hard drive with 50GB data and 50GB free space.
2. RestoreX360 setup would take about 100MB disk space (100000MB*0.1%=100MB).
3. After setup RestoreX360, you would have about 49.90GB free space.
How much disk space do I need to take a new snapshot?
RestoreX360 does not take any disk space for taking a snapshot. The space taken by a new snapshot, the snapshot size shown on the snapshot properties, is the amount of data that’s been added (changed) since last snapshot.
For example:
1. You have a PC with a 100GB hard drive with 50GB data and 50GB free space.
2. You install RestoreX360 on the PC. The setup creates the Installation snapshot. You have about 50GB free space (see the example above).
3. You then install Microsoft Office 2010 which takes 1GB. You now have 49B free space.
3. You take a new snapshot called Office2010. After creating the snapshot Office2010, the free space is still 49GB. (Note RestoreX360 didn’t take any additional disk space for creating snapshot Office2010. The size of the snapshot Office2010 is 1GB, used by Microsoft Office 2010 files.)
How can I delete files and free disk space from snapshots?
To free disk space from deleting files, you must meet one condition: THE FILES DELETED ARE NOT IN ANY OTHER SNAPSHOTS. The general rule of thumb is: If a file is no-where to be found in any snapshots – it shouldn’t exist on the hard disk, then it shouldn’t take up any disk space. But if the file is found in any snapshot – it is on the hard disk, then it takes up disk space.
For example
1. You have a PC with a 100GB hard drive with 50GB data and 50GB free space.
2. You install RestoreX360 on the PC. The setup creates the Installation snapshot. You have about 50GB free space after setup(see the example above).
3. You then install Microsoft Office 2010 which takes 1GB. You now have 49GB free space.
4. You take a new snapshot called Office2010. You still have 49GB free space.
5. You uninstall Office 2010 and remove all its files. But the free space still shows 49GB, because the MS office files are locked in the Snapshot Office2010. If you rollback the PC to the snapshot Office2010, the Office 2010 will be there; therefore, office 2010 files are still on the hard drive and taking up disk space.
6. You then take a snapshot called No-office. The space taken by this snapshot is almost nothing, because no data has been added since the Snapshot Office2010. You have 49GB free space.
7. You delete the snapshot Office2010. At this point, we only have Installation snapshot which does not have the MS Office 2010 and the No-office snapshot which does not have Office 2010 neither. So the 1GB space used by Office 2010 should be recycled.
8. Run Snapshot Defragmenter in RestoreX360. The free space should be 50GB.
I deleted a snapshot and run Snapshot Defragmenter but the free space remains unchanged, what’s wrong?
It’s because the snapshot you just deleted has children snapshots which inherited the data.
For example
1. You have a PC with a 100GB hard drive with 50GB data and 50GB free space.
2. You install RestoreX360 on the PC. The setup creates the Installation snapshot. You have about 50GB free space after setup (see the example above).
3. You then install Microsoft Office 2010, it takes up 1GB disk space. You now have 49GB free space.
4. You take a new snapshot called Office2010. You still have 49GB free space.
5. You then take a new snapshot called Office2010-Child (the Office2010-Child snapshot is a child snapshot of Office2010). There is no data added to the PC since the snapshot Office2010, so the size of the Office2010-Child is almost nothing. You still have 49GB free space.
6. You delete the snapshot Office2010 and run Snapshot Defragmenter, but the free space is still at 49GB, no free space gained from deleting the snapshot. This is because the snapshot Office2010-Child, as the child snapshot of the Office-snapshot, has Office 2010 files, the space taken by Office 2010 cannot be freed (remember the rule of thumb!).
