Backup Download Size

[RoxNRoll]

Hi chaps.

I've just upgraded my forum to 2.0 from 1.1.14.  Everything is working great.

However, when I downloaded a backup from the old version, the file size (zipped) was 36mb.

I'm trying to do a backup download now and the file size is only 770kb!

I'd gradually upgraded my forum from 1.0.1, so I understand that in the last 5 years the forum has been running compression may have gotten better and better, but I'm a little nervous that this is far too big a difference in size...

The forum is working fine and to give you an idea, here are the current posts stats:

Total Members:  338
Total Posts:        173416
Total Topics:       13382

I realise for a lot of forums, this probably isn't much!!   

The newer version of my forum is on a new host, with a higher version of mySql.  So I suppose my question is, should I be worried my forum isn't backing up everything, or have the advances in MySql, SMF, PhP, compression etc made forums much more efficient, and therefore smaller backup file sizes?

Thanks,

Paul

[Illori]

doing a backup of what exactly? and how are you doing it?

[RoxNRoll]

A backup of the database, going through Admin, Backups.   

[Illori]

it is recommended to not use the backup in the admin panel, it has been known to not backup the whole database. How do I backup my database?

[RoxNRoll]

Thanks.

I've done it that way, and the file is now only 1mb smaller than the backups of the old forum.  Am I right in thinking this will be because 2.0 is more efficient than 1.1.14, rather than there being anything missing?

Thanks

Paul.

[Illori]

there are a lot of database changes between 1.1.1* and 2.0, i am not sure if those would make the database slightly smaller or more efficient though.

[RoxNRoll]

Righto, I'll just keep my fingers crossed... 

Thanks again,

Paul.

[RoxNRoll]

I'm more confused now!   

I've used two different ways to download the database backup- one using cPanel Backups, and the other using PhpMyAdmin.

If I open them I get the following results:

Through PhpMyAdmin, zipped file size 35,445kb:

Size                    Packed 
8,565,775          36,295,012

(I don't understand why the size is smaller than the packed size..)

Through cPanel backup zipped file size 20,192kb:

Size                    Packed 
3,481,397,291   20,676,598

(I don't understand why the size is so much bigger than the packed size..)

   

It's got me baffled!

Sorry to be a pain, I want to be confident about the backup before adding some mods to the site.   

[Illori]

are they both using the archive type? some archive file types make smaller files then others

[RoxNRoll]

They both say GZIP archive.

[Illori]

so they both have the same exact file extension? as long as the data in the backups is the same i would not really care if the file size is slightly different.

[RoxNRoll]

Yes, they have the same file extension, but there's 16mb difference in size.

[Illori]

then open the sql files in them and use a file compare program to verify that everything is there.

[RoxNRoll]

Good idea, thanks. 

[RoxNRoll]

The two files are formatted completely differently, so can't be compared - but I suspect the file size difference (I re-downloaded one which was corrupt and the difference is now less than 1meg) is down to the way they are formatted.

I guess the key is to label your backups clearly and always use the same methods so you don't mix up different backup formats of the same database.

Thanks for your help.