Backing Up and Restoring Sparse Files

Windows 2000/2003 includes support for NTFS sparse files. Sparse file support allows NTFS to more efficiently manage disk space by only allocating disk for the non-zero data in a file, thereby reducing disk space consumption. For more information about sparse files, refer to your Windows 2000/2003 documentation.

LiveVault Online Backup Service supports Windows 2000/2003 sparse files during both backup and restore.

For example, a file may be 1 gigabyte in size, but only 1 megabyte is non-zero data. If the sparse file attribute is set for the file, then the file only occupies 1 megabyte of physical storage in the NTFS file system, and LiveVault Online Backup Service will back up only the non-zero data (that is, 1 megabyte). This can greatly enhance your backup performance.

If you restore that file, LiveVault Online Backup Service will restore the 1 megabyte file of non-zero data. No data is lost.