Created recovery media, why backup only 700kb? Win10 OS only has 4GB

[marcio.ligi]

Hi there,

first time using Veeam,
so I only need to backup once, no scheduled backup.
I have created a recovery media, chosen full backup, then ISO image, and put it in my external HD.
Once the procedure has completed I have an ISO Image of around 700KB, isn't it small considering that only Windows 10 OS is roughly 4GB big?
Is this backup containing the Windows OS as well?

[asdffdsa6131]

hello,

are you sure the recovery media rm,is 700KB, as it should be approx 700MB+.
in my case, the rm .iso file is 906MB

the rm is for booting a computer, for disaster recovery or copying a backup to a new computer.
the rm media creator can create an .iso and burn it to dvd for booting.
or you can create a bootable usb key
in either case, no backup files are created.

to create the backup, you have to run veeam agent that is installed on that computer.
create a backup job, run the job to create a set of backup files, which you can store on the external hd

in a disaster, that there is something wrong with that computer, hard drive died, ransomware or whatnot.
you boot from the rm media, use the software to recover the backed-up data.
once a computer is booted using the rm, via dvd or usb, then you point the software to the location of the backup files.
and then perform a recovery from that backup stored on the external hd.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Correct, Veeam Recovery Media is not a backup and is just a stripped down Windows RE to boot on a bare metal hardware and initiate recovery from an actual backup file, which is made by Veeam Agent Backup Job.

Veeam Recovery Media .iso size depends from machine to machine, and based on variety of factors - OS version, drivers included etc.

Veeam Recovery Media might fail to collect required OS data to create a valid recovery ISO(for example on a system with missing Microsoft Windows ADK) - however in this case you should get a warning from Veeam during RM creation.

/Cheers!

[marcio.ligi]

Ok got it,
Now after sysprep, I created a recovery media from the new account I created during sysprep Windows initial setup.
Then, I have basically rejoined the domain and entered with Admin account, now I cannot see anymore the user I created when syspreped.
If I run the backup job now in my admin account joined with the domain, will it be syspreped still? or I have to sysprep again?

[marcio.ligi]

but the Job backup has not the purpose of creating a scheduled backup?

[marcio.ligi]

the recovery media it is 700 Kb indeed

[Egor Yakovlev]

- The moment you pass initial Windows config wizard on a launched after sysprep machine it loses it's sysprep state. So if you sysprep machine, launch it, logon, run backup - you will just backup that exact Windows machine, not a syspreped image for redeployment. That is why you need an offline imaging tool(to capture\distribute offline syspreped machine image), like set Microsoft Deployment gives. That way, whenever new machine is deployed from said image, it will be serialized into a fresh Windows instance.
- Backup Job does not have to be scheduled. It is an instruction set for Veeam to protect data. Pretty much What, How and Where data should be backed up.
- if recovery media is 700kb, it is surely missing essential recovery image, as native Microsoft RE boot.wim should be no less than 130MB.

[marcio.ligi]

I just runned recovery media, and selected first option to backup everything.
There was not so much settings to do, so I didn't do anything wrong, just followed the steps, so frankly I don't know.

[marcio.ligi]

Anyway now I have basically removed from domain the PC, then I could login with the account I created during sysprep, then executed the backup job.
I didn't sysprep again, too late now I have to ship this PC today.
Hopefully when I'll need to restore the backup on a new PC will work, worst case maybe I can sysprep the new PC before restoring backup? should work?

I have this situation, this is in the Job folder
Job InternetPC.vbm 28 kb
Job InternetPC2021-01-08T095446.vbk 58,580,836 kb

Recovery media
VeeamRecoveryMedia_DESKTOP-G48HNKN.iso 729,408 kb

[Egor Yakovlev]

You will need to sysprep each machine after recovery from backup(keep them offline), to avoid duplicate machines conflicts.
Sizes looks good, 55GB backup and 712MB recovery media.