All I want to do is backup my files!!!

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How do I do a weekly backup, then incremental backups without filling my
harddrive!!!

1. Can I get the complete backup to overwrite the previous?
2. My incremental backups are not any smaller.

HELP!!! I'm close to going back to XP.

--Shannon
 
I am having similiar issues. I keep getting that my D drive doesn't have
enough free space to accomodate the backup. My computer is just over a month
old so I am freaking about this message. Any info would be great!
Thanks,
Jackie
 
First the age is not of value - the computer may have a system restore
partition which reduces available space - you do not state HD size - and
most important do not use the default Vista file selection, doing so may
involve several gigs of data - select data to be back up.
 
I don't know if this will help but this is how I approached it. When I first
looked at Vista's built-in backup utility I decided it wasn't flexible
enough to meet my needs.

I have a spare PC running WinXP Pro. I mapped a drive from the XP Pro
machine to my Vista machine's data drive. I also have an external 120 gig
USB hard drive on the Vista machine just for backup files. Each night the XP
Pro machine automatically runs Backup (the built-in WinXP backup utility) on
the mapped drive to the Vista machine and writes the backup files to the
external 120 gig USB drive (one night a week is a full backup and the other
six nights are incremental). I don't bother backing up system files...I have
a separate data hard drive and just backup my data so that helps keep the
backup sizes lower.

If Microsoft hadn't lobotomized Backup in Vista, I wouldn't have to do this.
I know I can use any number of third-party apps to run my backup (some even
free) but this works fine for me and the extra PC running keeps my basement
warm and my electric bill higher ;-)

Tim
 
Thanks Tim. It's a shame you have to go through so much work to get backups
to work as you like. This is not new technology and is certainly something
Microsoft should have spent more efforts on, especially since we are in an
age where much of our lives are stored digitally. Microsoft, are you
listening?

--Shannon
 
I have a 3 month old laptop with a 100GB primary and a 10GB Recovery. I am
only backing up documents and pictures, approx 4GB worth. The incrementals
should be fairly small because the files aren't changing. Are you suggesting
to select the actual folder where the pictures are located rather than the
"pictures" option provided by MS?
 
I as well went to do a backup of my files and yes I used the Vista default
selection. In addition I rushed through the screens (my bad) and didn't see
that Vistas default location was the hard drive. First off I can't
understand why the hard drive would be set as a default location. Most
people create backups to an external device for safe keeping which in my
humble opinion is only logical. I really miss the good 'ol days of Windows,
it was so much easier to undo problems behind the scenes. All these new
Windows O/S are just becoming increasingly cluttered with more gui's, data
encryption and software/program information splattered everywhere. Its
become a needle in a haystack but, I'm just old school that way and prefer
the KISS principle.

Anyway, I have a 120 GB hard disk that is partition d:recovery which is full
due to an assumption on my part while simply creating a backup. I already
have my recovery disks created and I just want to retrieve my disk space.
I've deleted the back files that were created but I didn't feel comfortable
removing the recovery partition. I don't know what other information is
contained on this partition. Can you offer any assistance? I've been
searching the posts and see others who've experienced the same problem but
I've only seen replies on what one should have done. I realize what I should
have done but its too late for that now. Next time I'll just copy my data
and paste it to my cd/dvd disk as I know what to expect from that function.
 
I have the same problem. Clearly the incremental backup does not work, which
makes the whole damn thing pretty useless.
 
Try 'driveimage xml' as a backup program.
I have the same problem. Clearly the incremental backup does not work, which
makes the whole damn thing pretty useless.
Click to expand...
 
MICROSOFT, ARE YOU LISTENING!!!!! What are we supposed to do, suffer with
the native backup utility or be forced to use a 3rd party competitive
product? HELP!!!!
 
In vista, this is one of Microsoft's preferred support avenues and I have
noticed that they do have representatives monitoring the threads and
replying. With that said, I'll submit to through whatever avenue that others
have proved effective. Thanks for the input.

==Shannon
 
Shannon;
"this is one of Microsoft's preferred support avenues"
Peer to peer, not Microsoft employees.

When Microsoft are here, they are here on their own time.
Since these are peer to peer newsgroups, there is no expectation or
requirement that Microsoft visit them.
Even if someone from Microsoft sees your post, the possibility that
they are part of the Product Group that needs to get the message is
remote.
 
In vista, this is one of Microsoft's preferred support avenues and I have
noticed that they do have representatives monitoring the threads and
replying. With that said, I'll submit to through whatever avenue that others
have proved effective. Thanks for the input.

==Shannon
Click to expand...
MS bought out a large backup product and bundled it in Vista. That is
why they are toughting it!! It will never be as good as 3rd party
ones, MS has there fingers in too many pies to make a really good
anything. In XP I use: 'driveimage xml' as a backup program. It works
in Vista too.
But then I told you this the other day, didn't I?
 
I am having similiar issues. I keep getting that my D drive doesn't have
enough free space to accomodate the backup.So What are we to do? How do we
free up that drive?
Bee-Hops
 
I was not intending to post a reply - however (should be indiviual posts)
the posts are about incomplete as you can be

.. To get help you need to provide information - size of HDs, is there a
recovery partition, how much used space, free space, what backup program are
you using, have you check Help and Support, file or complete computer backup
and so forth

There is no "incremental" backups involve in COmplete PC backup - changes
are monitored only for file backups.
 
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