Creating a image of a USB Flash Drive (Not the usual question)

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I was given a Dell Inspiron 15 M5030 (that has a cracked LCD) and I want to create restore media for it (Windows 7 Home Premium)

I have the option of a USB flash drive or 2 standard DVDs I know you can make an image file of a flash drive but the image file is the exact size of the flash drive and not the size of the used space on the drive.

I only have a 16GB or larger flash drive but the used space is only 7.54GB is there a way to create an image of that drive that only occupies the used space on the drive? I want to create an image file so I have a backup of the restore media

So is there a way to create a image that way and still make the USB disk bootable if I decide to restore it.
 
You can use compression. What program are you using? I usually use maximum compression and the file size is often cut in half. +/-
 
I tried two different programs
USB Image Tool
and
Win32 Disk Imager
I then tired to compress the file with 7z and it was only 2 GB smaller
I also tried a IMZ a zip compressed image file
The flash drive is a 16GB model
 
Can you use gparted?
It's a bootable partitioning Linux-based tool.

It should let you shrink the partition on the flash drive to something like 8-9 gigs. It will remain bootable.
Compression won't work because the loader would have to possess decompression routines.
Gparted in the event of fragmentation will consolidate your data so that there will be no wasted 'holes'.
 
Yeah I do know how to use the Linux tool gparted but my question was not about shrinking the size of the flash drive but more about making a backup (So I can restore it if say I want to use the flash drive for something else or if it gets damaged) of it that is not the full 16GB when only 7.54GB is used
 
Sorry for providing Linux only stuff - it's what I used recently so off the top of my head:
-shrink the partition from 16GB to just above the used space.
-use dd piped through gzip -9 -c or - more conveniently - clonezilla to produce the compressed backup

Clonezilla will let you backup partitions - not just whole drives.
 
Also, the reason behind poor compression you got has to do with the fact the empty space was not fit for compression. Before you begin creating the USB backup you might try zeroing the whole USB stick.
Then, backing up and compressing the whole thing should yield a smaller image. USB image tool is partition table agnostic.
 
Active Disk Image with maximum compression enabled will image the entire flash drive and output a file roughly 50% of the actual data on the drive, plus or minus depending on the type of data. In your case you'll end up with a file anywhere from 3-5GB and you can restore it directly at anytime.

Acronis is good too though I haven't used it in years.

Is this what you are asking, or no?
 
Well, OP said he only shaved 2 gigs after compressing the whole flashdrive. This means the 'empty' space actually had a lot of gibbrish leftover from previous usage and that made its way to the backup.
He'd need a backup tool that would actually analyze the partition and distinguish between data deleted from the file allocation table and bits flipped on the medium.
He also wouldn't achieve 50% compression on random data like a system backup.
As I said - either zero the thumbdrive before making the backup and doing as you said, or shrinking the partition and backing up JUST the partition.
 
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I did say the 50% was an estimate. My system backups with ActiveDiskImage are roughly 50+/- and it ignores deleted data.

He said he used 7zip to compress the image after the fact, that doesn't work too well in that situation.
 
rive22 said:
I did say the 50% was an estimate. My system backups with ActiveDiskImage are roughly 50+/- and it ignores deleted data.

He said he used 7zip to compress the image after the fact, that doesn't work too well in that situation.
Click to expand...

If ActiveDiskImage delves into the partition and ignores deleted data then I approve of this solution :)

Yes, zipping a bit-by-bit partition table agnostic copy won't do.

Is the program you mentioned free?

Plenty of options it seems!
 
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