Question on backup sizes

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   Hi, I'm a new user.  I have a question about regarding the backup distribution of data works.
Say I 2 buddies that have 5 GB of remaining storage space, and I want to backup 10GB of data with these two buddies.  In order for the backup to be successful, do the buddies have to both have 10GB of free space so that software will put two copies of the complete sw. Or does the SW automatically determine that its impossible to mirror complete sets, and distributes the data between the two buddies equally.  

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kito Members Profile Find Members Posts Buddy Joined: 13/January/2012 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote kito Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Question on backup sizes Posted: 13/January/2012 at 6:31pm
	Hi, I'm a new user. I have a question about regarding the backup distribution of data works. Say I 2 buddies that have 5 GB of remaining storage space, and I want to backup 10GB of data with these two buddies. In order for the backup to be successful, do the buddies have to both have 10GB of free space so that software will put two copies of the complete sw. Or does the SW automatically determine that its impossible to mirror complete sets, and distributes the data between the two buddies equally.

Zann Members Profile Find Members Posts Pro Buddy Joined: 03/August/2010 Status: Offline Points: 12	Post Options Post Reply Quote Zann Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15/January/2012 at 2:35am
	As fair as I know, they both will have the complete of 10Gb date. But buttybackup will compress your data. So it might not send 10Gb +10 Gb to eatch buddy. However they both revive a compete copy. Think if one of your buddys computer is offline (crashed, or not friends anymore, or somthing else) If only half is stored on eatch biuddy you'll not be able to revive your backup.

John Members Profile Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Admin Group Head of development Joined: 02/May/2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 203	Post Options Post Reply Quote John Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 15/January/2012 at 6:10pm
	It's slightly more complex than that. Firstly you choose how many backup copies you want to make - the default is two. So, to backup 10GB of data, you would need 20GB of storage. If you chose 3 copies it would be 30GB, and if you chose 1 copy it would be only 10GB. This setting is under "Options". It doesn't matter at all where this storage is located: it could be split across 20 buddies, or it could all be on one buddy. BuddyBackup works at a "chunk" level so only cares about smallish bits of your files, rather than whole files. BuddyBackup "round-robins" over your currently online buddies, backing up some data to each in turn. It's therefore pretty random as to where the data will actually end up, but it will be as fair as it can be. Finally, yes, the actual backup space required is often much less due to file compression (though it's impossible to know how much difference this will make until BuddyBackup actually comes to compres it). For example, movie and JPEGs are already pretty compressed so you won't save much extra space. John