How to Compress Backup Files with a Free Backup Tool

What is data compression for backups?

Backup data compression is one of the most effective ways to reduce the size of backup copies. It is a data compression technique that involves reducing the size of backup files to conserve disk space and facilitate easier and faster transfer. Compression enables the creation of a file or a version of a backup file that contains the same data as the original but is significantly smaller in size.

Compression generally comes in two forms: lossless and lossy. Lossless compression (lossless compression) can shrink a file size without losing the ability to recover the original data. However, lossy compression (lossy compression) involves throwing away some of the original data during the compression process.

Why Compress Backups?

Everybody knows that it is important to make backups, but it is also important to compress those backups. There are several advantages to compressing backups:

Here are some advantages of compressing backups: 1. Compressed backups help save storage space. By removing redundant and duplicate patterns, compression reduces the size of data. In other words, it minimizes file size through more efficient encoding. 2. Compressing backups helps reduce network bandwidth consumption. If you work in a large organization, the network might be under considerable strain. During backup processes, copies need to be sent to backup servers, which can add to network load. However, by using backup compression, you can significantly shrink the size of backup files, thereby alleviating the burden on your IT network.

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How to Compress a Backup with Free Backup Software

There are many backup tools, but few offer compression as an option. Also, the backup app that comes with Windows doesn't have this feature. However, this is not a problem for dedicated backup software, such as Todo Backup.

Todo Backup Free is a professional and free backup software. It is a comprehensive and user-friendly backup tool that allows you to automatically create system backups, disk backups, and file backups. Additionally, it can back up various types of files, including images, videos, documents, and audio.

And it will create system or disk backups even if you don't know the first thing about computers. It can also back up your files in Safe Mode. This free backup tool comes with such features as:

• High compatibility. It supports Windows 11/10/8/7 and can be used on various devices.
• More storage options. It allows you to save backup files in multiple locations, including local drives, NAS devices, secure zones, and cloud storage.
• Different types of backup modes. The software supports creating various types of backups, such as full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup.

Guide: How to Perform Backup Compression with this Tool

Below are the detailed steps for creating a compressed backup; hence, you can use the guide to create a backup with tools like Todo Backup Free.

Step 1. Launch Todo Backup on your computer, click “Add Backup” on the main screen, and then hit the big question mark to “Select what to backup”.

Step 2. There are four backup categories: Files, Disks, OS, and Mail. Click on Files.

Step 3: A list of local and network files will appear on the left. You can expand folders to select the files you want to back up.

Create Backup Compression Step 3

Step 4: Follow the on-screen wizard to choose where you want to save your backup.

Step 5: Click “Options” for advanced settings, then click “Split Backup” and choose a compression level.

Note: The backup file can be compressed with different levels of compression. In general, a higher compression level results in a smaller file size than no compression or quick compression, though it takes more time to compress and decompress.

Step 6. Click “Back Up Now” to start the backup. When the task is finished, it will be displayed as a card on the left panel. Right-click on the backup task for further management.

The Best Way to Create a Backup Archive

Compressed backup obviously has the advantage of reducing the size of backup data, thus saving plenty of space on your backup storage device. So, if you often run out of disk space, the compressed backup would be a good choice. With the help of Todo Backup Free, a reliable backup software we highly recommend, it will be effortless to create compressed backups for your computer.

With Tools Todo Backup Free, you can not only back up files, disks, and partitions but also back up SSD to image. More importantly, it offers 250 GB of free cloud storage space and meets the needs of different users, including home users, free users, and business users. All in all, Tools Todo Backup is a great choice for compression backup and performing various tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions FAQs

1. What happens if I compress my backups?

Compressed backups are smaller than equivalent noncompressed backups. Compressed backups usually require less device input/output, so they can be significantly faster than backups that are not compressed.

2. Are compressed files worth it?

Since compressed files contain fewer bits than the original, they take less time to transmit. That's why compressing a file before sending it over the Internet can save a lot of time, especially with large files.

3. What kind of data can be compressed?

All kinds of data can be compressed, including audio, video, text files, and images. Compression essentially takes an input dataset and encodes it using fewer bits than the original file itself.

4. Should I compress my external hard drive?

No, you should not compress your hard drive. While compressing your hard drive might help you save some space, compression is actually a two-part process: compression and decompression. While decompression is less of a strain on your computer than compression, it still requires CPU cycles, RAM, and disk access.