hi guys!! ( privacy community pls don’t jump on me) so i was noticing that my os is full with microsoft garbage that consumes my ram and network speed for nothing!! like shitty edge!! and looked for a solution and i found debloating. but i need to make a backup first in case something goes wrong . local disk is : 237gb - used 133gb = 103gb free i have a 64gb usb i want to make a high compressed backup for everything including my windows 11 is it possible with that 64gb usb? and what software to use pls? pls don’t tell using a cloud !! 😓i have a slow internet cuz i live in a rural area. thanks in advance to anyone!

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    4·
    1 month ago

    Yes, if your drive has 133GB occupied, and you’re running Windows, it is likely that Windows, itself, is over half of that.

    I’ve not, personally, seen Windows, itself, occupy less than 70GB, in recent years. (Usually much more.)

    So what’s left, your files that you care about, is likely 133-70=63GB or less. (Probably much less. Windows is usually huge - usually around 120GB.)

    Note that you can’t just blindly backup the whole drive. You’ll have to go find the files you care about and just back those up.

    Backing up entire copies of the Windows operating system has gone very poorly for me, when I tried, anyway. Windows, itself, does not like to be relocated, because it tends to decide it has been stolen. I ended up on hold on the phone with Microsoft waiting for permission, last time I moved a Windows install. So if I had a big enough drive to backup the whole Windows drive, I wouldn’t bother.

    There may be a utility for Windows that backs up just your files. Mac has had one for awhile. Something like the free tier of Crash plan would probably do a nice job guiding you to where the files you care about are.

    Beware, file compression doesn’t go far, today. The days when we stored our files in ludicrously inefficient formats are over.

    I’ve only seen 10%-20% differences with compressed files, in 2024.

    So, in your shoes, I would backup my files to the 63GB USB drive with something like CrashPlan. I wouldn’t bother with compression since I don’t think it will help much and I don’t think you’ll need it.

    I would also accept that this is probably a one way trip. If the debloater works, fantastic.

    If it corrupts your Windows install, you’ll need to reinstall. Personally, I wouldn’t hassle with reinstalling Windows in 2024. Especially on a small hard drive. That’s more work for a much worse outcome.

    Debian will do all the same things, takes dramatically less space, doesn’t grow in size over time, is completely free, and is now much easier to install than a Windows reinstall. (Neither is pure sunshine and joy, but I would rather search for correct UEFI settings for 15 minutes than wait on hold with Microsoft for an hour.)

    However you do it, resurrecting an old computer that Windows has mucked up is totally worth the effort. It’s easy to forget how faster a Windows computer was when it was new.

    • mattreb@feddit.it
      2·
      1 month ago

      No. Windows ships already well compressed. There’s no way it’ll compress further by 50%.

      I’ve been getting about that rate of compression consistently with Clonezilla on windows 10. I also didn’t have any problems relocating it… it just start a driver update step and then reboots normally, but idk about how licensing work for this cases.

      • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
        2·
        1 month ago

        Sure! Feel free to ask for clarification. I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve had debloat software help a ton (and I don’t recall it causing issues.) I’ve also reinstalled Windows fresh (from a recovery disk) to buy time. And of course I’ve switched older computers to Linux, too.