What is the correct way of cleaning up old Vista backups? Klas Mellbourn <klas[ at ]mellbourn.net> 12/27/2008 7:19:20 PM I have what I would think would be a fairly standard setup: I have Windows Vista machine with an external hard drive that is intended exclusively for backup purposes. I have set up daily backup of files. This has worked well for a couple of months. My C: hard drive on the Vista machine has about 200GB of data currently. The H: backup drive is 1TB. Now, the backup drive is full. The daily backups fail with the following message [Window Title] Backup Status and Configuration [Main Instruction] The backup did not complete successfully. [Content] An error occurred. The following information might help you resolve the error: There is not enough space to save the backup files. Free up disk space or change your backup settings. (0x81000005) Backup time: 2008-12-27 19:13 Backup location: Backup WD (H:) [Try again] [Adjust settings] [Close] To my surprise, it seems that Vista backup does not automatically erase the oldest backups when it runs out of space. What is the best way of erasing old backups to create space? I am aware that the daily backups are under a directory named H:\ComputerName\Backup Set 2008-08-24 204607\ with folders named "Backup Files 2008-mm-dd xxxxx". I could certainly manually erase the oldest of those folders. But, I notice that the oldest of those folders is also the biggest. Which makes me suspect that the backups are incremental, and, if I erase the oldest then I will no longer have a complete backup, e.g. some files that did not change since the first backup, would then lack backup. So, again, what is the appropriate way to erase old backups, ideally informing the backup system of the necessity to create new backups of files no longer backed up? I have looked at deleting using the advice here http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/remove-old-system-restore-checkpoints-and-complete-pc-backup-images/ but that does not seem to erase any of the daily backups. "Wbadmin delete systemstatebackup" documented here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742081.aspx sounded promising, but is not supported on Vista.

Re: What is the correct way of cleaning up old Vista backups? "On Request" <someone[ at ]email.somewhere> 12/28/2008 3:47:27 PM What I do when my backup external hard drive is full is to delete the entire Backup Set folder. Then I initiate a new, full backup and start over. I don't know any other way to manage it. "Klas Mellbourn" <klas[ at ]mellbourn.net> wrote in message news:21af3310-a3b8-4f03-9069-03e11f7ec632[ at ]z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com... [Quoted Text] > I have what I would think would be a fairly standard setup: > > I have Windows Vista machine with an external hard drive that is > intended exclusively for backup purposes. > I have set up daily backup of files. > This has worked well for a couple of months. > My C: hard drive on the Vista machine has about 200GB of data > currently. The H: backup drive is 1TB. > > Now, the backup drive is full. The daily backups fail with the > following message > > [Window Title] > Backup Status and Configuration > [Main Instruction] > The backup did not complete successfully. > [Content] > An error occurred. The following information might help you resolve > the error: > There is not enough space to save the backup files. Free up disk space > or change your backup settings. (0x81000005) > Backup time: 2008-12-27 19:13 > Backup location: Backup WD (H:) > [Try again] [Adjust settings] [Close] > > To my surprise, it seems that Vista backup does not automatically > erase the oldest backups when it runs out of space. > What is the best way of erasing old backups to create space? > > I am aware that the daily backups are under a directory named > H:\ComputerName\Backup Set 2008-08-24 204607\ > with folders named "Backup Files 2008-mm-dd xxxxx". > I could certainly manually erase the oldest of those folders. But, I > notice that the oldest of those folders is also the biggest. Which > makes me suspect that the backups are incremental, and, if I erase the > oldest then I will no longer have a complete backup, e.g. some files > that did not change since the first backup, would then lack backup. > So, again, what is the appropriate way to erase old backups, ideally > informing the backup system of the necessity to create new backups of > files no longer backed up? > > I have looked at deleting using the advice here > http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/remove-old-system-restore-checkpoints-and-complete-pc-backup-images/ > but that does not seem to erase any of the daily backups. > > "Wbadmin delete systemstatebackup" documented here > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742081.aspx sounded > promising, but is not supported on Vista.

Re: What is the correct way of cleaning up old Vista backups? "Mike Hall - MVP" <mikehall[ at ]remove_mvps.com> 12/29/2008 3:00:06 PM "Klas Mellbourn" <klas[ at ]mellbourn.net> wrote in message news:21af3310-a3b8-4f03-9069-03e11f7ec632[ at ]z28g2000prd.googlegroups.com... [Quoted Text] >I have what I would think would be a fairly standard setup: > > I have Windows Vista machine with an external hard drive that is > intended exclusively for backup purposes. > I have set up daily backup of files. > This has worked well for a couple of months. > My C: hard drive on the Vista machine has about 200GB of data > currently. The H: backup drive is 1TB. > > Now, the backup drive is full. The daily backups fail with the > following message > > [Window Title] > Backup Status and Configuration > [Main Instruction] > The backup did not complete successfully. > [Content] > An error occurred. The following information might help you resolve > the error: > There is not enough space to save the backup files. Free up disk space > or change your backup settings. (0x81000005) > Backup time: 2008-12-27 19:13 > Backup location: Backup WD (H:) > [Try again] [Adjust settings] [Close] > > To my surprise, it seems that Vista backup does not automatically > erase the oldest backups when it runs out of space. > What is the best way of erasing old backups to create space? > > I am aware that the daily backups are under a directory named > H:\ComputerName\Backup Set 2008-08-24 204607\ > with folders named "Backup Files 2008-mm-dd xxxxx". > I could certainly manually erase the oldest of those folders. But, I > notice that the oldest of those folders is also the biggest. Which > makes me suspect that the backups are incremental, and, if I erase the > oldest then I will no longer have a complete backup, e.g. some files > that did not change since the first backup, would then lack backup. > So, again, what is the appropriate way to erase old backups, ideally > informing the backup system of the necessity to create new backups of > files no longer backed up? > > I have looked at deleting using the advice here > http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/remove-old-system-restore-checkpoints-and-complete-pc-backup-images/ > but that does not seem to erase any of the daily backups. > > "Wbadmin delete systemstatebackup" documented here > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742081.aspx sounded > promising, but is not supported on Vista. The only backup worth keeping is your last one.. delete all of the others.. -- Mike Hall - MVP How to construct a good post.. http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups.. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc Mike's Window - My Blog.. http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx