Windows Backup seems to be taking up too much space

[bigdan]

Issue:
My external HD is 1.5 TB. Right-click/Properties gives 1.05 TB used, 313 GB free.
But if I look at the contents on the right pane of windows explorer, highlight them all and rightclick it shows only 453 GB used. The rest seems to all be occupied in windows backup.

I went to Manage Windows Backup (via Ctrl Panel) and this is what it shows (I'm rounding)
Data File Backup 80GB
Sys Image 550 GB
Other Files 450 GB
Free Space 315 GB
Total Size 1.36 TB

When I click View Backups it says Backup Period May-Sep 2015, 80 GB.

10 mins ago I went to the third section in that window, clicked Change Settings (of the Sys Image) and changed from Let Windows Manage Space for Backup, to Keep only the latest image. Should I have done that? Anyway it didnt make much of a difference. Maybe a few gigs.

I've run WinDirStat but that doesnt show any folder that's unusually large. It does show 5 files with 0 size. 2 are gibberish names, then DAN-PC, then System Volume Information, then Windows Image Backup. Earlier I assume DAN-PC is my backup since that was the only one I was seeing in Explorer, and it had 0 space. And I didnt see the Windows Backup folder. But now I see it.

Best,
Dan

[ecross]

Hi Dan,

If you haven't already, please refer to the following link below.

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

[bigdan]

Hello, thanks for this.

I didnt find it helped much unfortunately. I'm hoping there's some follow up steps I can take.

Data File Backup - View Backups:
There's one backup there, spanning Backup Period 5/25 - 9/20: 82 GB

System Image - Change Settings:
I've only selected "Keep the most recent image"

Is there anything else I could do?

[jdc2000]

How much disk space is used on the drive you are backing up?

[bigdan]

How much disk space is used on the drive you are backing up?

I'm not clear if you're asking how much of my C drive is used up (which is what I'm backing up) or how much of my external is used (which is what I'm backing on to).

My C: is 1 TB and is almost entirely used up. In fact it hasnt been able to do a backup in a long time since for some reason the backup its trying to do is 600 GB and I dont have that much space on my external.

I'm really stuck here. I've googled around and asked this and another forum and haven't really gotten a clear direction yet. If anyone could help I'd be very grateful.

[jdc2000]

If your C: drive - the drive you want to back up - is 1 TB, a compressed backup might be about 600 MB. If Windows Backup is actually telling you it will be 600 TB, I think it may be time to find and use a different backup program.

[bigdan]

600 GB not TB.

Im using what came with Windows. No good?

Im using manual backup settings assuming that uses less space. Should I use auto?

[jdc2000]

600 GB would be about right for a compressed 1 TB backup.

However, if you are using Incremental backup, that would involve an initial 600 GB backup, and then additional files of varying sizes for the changed or new items found since the original backup, so it could easily run up to the 1.05 TB usage you are seeing. This can have the advantage of giving you multiple copies of changed items, in case you need to go back to an original version for some reason, but it does take up more space.

[fink]

Just to take a side step for a moment..

If there are lots of media files like movies, mp3's, pics etc on the C drive you might want to move them elsewhere for storage to cut the C drive down to a more manageable size.
Also things like old system restore points, service packs, Windows updates and other old and new temp files can be deleted.

I always try to keep my primary drive below 80-100 Gigs for easy, fast backups that don't fill up the backup drive quickly.

[Sal_gal]

I have the same problem. 1TB HD space. Just got a message to insert removable media. Windows backup needs CD/DVD. I did that. Now what?
I'm following the Windows instructions, but I don't see any of those links in my Backup and Restore section: Manage space - no; Data file backup - no. View backups - no.
Put the CD/DVD in and clicked "backup now" and it's backing up. But how do I adjust the settings going forward?

[Train]

How much of C drive is used?

[bigdan]

How much of C drive is used?

850 / 915 GB is used, so 93%

Yes I realize that's horrible. That's why I'm trying to move things to E drive but for some reason that's giving me these backup problems.

[Train]

Not enough room for the tmp files.

Best bet in my thoughts is to forget windows backup and just cut and paste to the second drive or even to a larger 3rd drive.
Start with a few at first.
Once you make enough room, thing should start working right.

[fink]

You could also quickly get some space back by reducing the amt of data used by system restore. If you haven't ever adjusted it it could be huge. Set it to a few percent, say 5, and see how much space you get back. That will still keep many recent restore points if you need them.

See pic. ( I currently have sys restore turned off but there's no need for you to do that)

Control Panel>system

[Derp]

You can save several gigabytes of space on the backup image by turning off the hiberfile and relocating the swap file to another drive or partition. Even on an uncompressed mechanical hard drive 30-40GB should be the maximum size of the backup image file. This is one of the reasons I use a 100GB partition for the operating system when doing a fresh install or creating a new master image file for network deployment. Having all data on a single large partition is bad for a few reasons. With SSD's now I use a 120-128GB or 256GB SSD alone for the system and a 1TB mechanical drive for backups and data. With hard drive prices what they are today you can get a 128GB SSD and a 1TB mechanical drive for under $100 for both. The backup as well as restore process is much easier this way. I've done several hundred Windows installs using this method without a single complaint yet.