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Answered Backup - How does backup manage space?

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      Saturday, August 15, 2009 1:51 PM
       
       
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      Hi folks.  I was told that the Windows 7 backup will automatically delete space as needed when it runs out but this morning I am being told from the Action Center that there isn't enough room.  Do I have to manually delete backups?  I will note that I am backing up to a network location.  I don't know if that makes a difference.  Thanks.
      • Moved by Dale QiaoModerator Thursday, November 05, 2009 2:44 AM Move to relevant categary (From:Windows 7 Miscellaneous)
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    • Tuesday, August 25, 2009 6:07 AM
       
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      Hi FuzzyReets,

      That is true. However, we recommend that you run both file and system image backups. File backups are handy when you just want to recover some files and not your whole system.

      How often are you hitting this problem of disk full? Just to clarify, once you hit a disk full, you do not have to delete everything and start over. Open Backup and Restore Control panel -> Manage space -> View Backups. This will show you all the backup sets (every backup set is a full + set of incremental backups) for different backup periods. We recommend that you only delete the older backup sets. This way, the current backup set is still available and the next backup that runs is only an incremental backup and not a full. Please let me know if this helps you.  

      Thanks,
      Sneha
      [MSFT]

       

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    • Monday, August 17, 2009 5:38 AM
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      Hi,

       

      Thanks for posting in Microsoft TechNet Forum.

       

      It depends on your configurations in Backup and Restore Center. By default, Windows automatically saves as many system images as it has space for without taking up more than 30 percent of space on the backup disk. Once the disk starts running out of room, Windows deletes older system images. You can set Windows to retain as many system images as it has space for on the backup disk or to only keep the most recent system image.

       

      Meanwhile, you can only keep the most recent system image if you are saving your system image on a network location. For more information, please refer the following website.

       

      What backup settings should I use to maximize my disk space?

      http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-backup-settings-should-I-use-to-maximize-my-disk-space

       

      Set up or change automatic backup settings

      http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Set-up-or-change-automatic-backup-settings

       

      Best Regards.

      Dale Qiao

       
    • Thursday, August 20, 2009 1:57 PM
       
       
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      Okay well none of that explains how to set up the backup so I don't have to touch the program.  Every couple days now I am getting a warning that I am out of room.  I am using a network location.  Then I have to go delete everything and start over.  I thought the backup application was supposed to delete things automatically when it runs out of room?  I have it set to backup every day, can it not do this correctly?  If I set it up once a week does it only do a full once a week and incrementals every other day?  The documentation on how the backup application functions is poor.
       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 2:52 AM
       
       
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      Just curious, would this post describe what you're experiencing...

      http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/50f3ff7a-2ae7-41c1-ac92-41edaed1e2f9

      ...then as a result you're running out of space? I'm guessing that I'll be in your same situation shortly.
       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 6:02 AM
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      Hi,

       

      Thanks for your update.

       

      As I mentioned above, only the most recent system image is saved on network location. It means that Windows deletes the older backup files automatically. However, the low space warning you received isn’t just caused by disk space. Generally, when the network backup fails, users will be presented with the low spacing warning. This warning can be caused by none available network location, expired network credentials or wrong user name and password. To resolve this, you can either re-enter your user name and password or retry the backup. To backup to network share, you need to create a share for the backup on the backup network location and verify connectivity to the share from your backup source PC.

       

      Best Regards.

      Dale Qiao

       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 12:39 PM
       
       
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      I'm not sure exactly what they are experiencing.  To put it simple, I have 200GB set aside on another computer for my windows 7 backup.  I configured the backup to run every day at 7am with a system image.  After a few days it tells me it is out of space.  I was under the impression that the backup program would just delete older backups when it has to.  That is what I want it to do. I don't want to have to manually delete older backups.  Is this possible?
       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 12:39 PM
       
       
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      Right I've done all that.  It doesn't seem to want to delete things automatically.  I had to go in and clean out the old backups.  Kind of useless to have a scheduled backup that I have to manually manage space for.
       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 1:44 PM
       
       
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      Hi FuzzyReets,

      Thank you for using Windows backup. A couple of things to note here. As explained in http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-backup-settings-should-I-use-to-maximize-my-disk-space , in Windows 7, only system image backup space is managed automatically. For the file backups, you will have to choose the manage space option and delete older backup sets in order to free up space. This is a limitation as of now and we will take your feedback for future releases. Let me know if you have further queries.

      Thanks,
      Sneha [MSFT]
      Windows Backup
       
    • Friday, August 21, 2009 2:22 PM
       
       
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      That is very disappointing.  If I only use system images instead of file backups will I still have this problem?
       
    • Tuesday, August 25, 2009 6:07 AM
       
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      Hi FuzzyReets,

      That is true. However, we recommend that you run both file and system image backups. File backups are handy when you just want to recover some files and not your whole system.

      How often are you hitting this problem of disk full? Just to clarify, once you hit a disk full, you do not have to delete everything and start over. Open Backup and Restore Control panel -> Manage space -> View Backups. This will show you all the backup sets (every backup set is a full + set of incremental backups) for different backup periods. We recommend that you only delete the older backup sets. This way, the current backup set is still available and the next backup that runs is only an incremental backup and not a full. Please let me know if this helps you.  

      Thanks,
      Sneha
      [MSFT]