# Do I need to prepare the backup if I am compressing and using tar

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/do-i-need-to-prepare-the-backup-if-i-am-compressing-and-using-tar/7440>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [February 21, 2020, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/do-i-need-to-prepare-the-backup-if-i-am-compressing-and-using-tar/7440 "2020-02-21T08:20:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pythondev1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pythondev1](https://forums.percona.com/u/pythondev1)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/do-i-need-to-prepare-the-backup-if-i-am-compressing-and-using-tar/7440/1 "2020-02-21T08:20:02Z")

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I’ve recently changed my backup to tar and stream to a different server.

xtrabackup --backup --stream=tar … backup.tar.gz

I haven’t needed to extract the tar yet.However I have seen i need to use `tar -ixvf backup.tar.gz`. After the backup has been extracted do I need to prepare it as well?