Back up capacity query (Vista Home Premium)

[Burnz]

I back up my PC, say once a week, on to an external Hard Drive using the Vista Back Up and Restore centre. I have almost filled my 320GB external drive, but my internal HD still has plenty of capacity. I was expecting the internal and external drives to almost mirror one another in terms of capacity used, as I only use the external HD for backing up this PC. Please could someone advise me where I am going wrong, and provide me with some useful info. in order to reclaim some of the external drive's capacity and manage my backups better in the future. Thank you for your help.

[Leif]

Welcome to Woody's Lounge!

Are you doing selective backups, or complete backups? If the latter, you could be creating multiple complete copies of your pc hard disk, rather than backing up only those files which are new or have changed.

[Burnz]

Hi Leif,

From the Restore Centre I'm clicking on the Back Up files box, which I think should be scanning for new or updated files only??

[Pilgrim]

You want the second option; "Back up Computer" which does your complete system. I've been using this for many months doing weekly backups of my system to an external hdd. Each new backup overwrites the previous one and thus the hdd space used only increases in relation to the system itself. Total time to do a complete PC backup is about 12-15 minutes.

[Leif]

I'm not exactly sure - I don't have Vista myself - but maybe someone else can chip in.

Can you view the backed-up up data and see how much space is being used each session? If so, does it tie in with your expectations?
You may get some guidance in this Guide to Windows Vista Backup Technologies.

[JoeP517]

"Complete PC Backup" is only available in Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate NOT in Home Premium. See Compare Editions 'Protect against hardware failure' and Windows Backup and Restore Center.

Joe

[Burnz]

Thanks All, for your help so far. It still seems somewhat confusing. I think the Vista interface could possibly have been a bit clearer here. I'll read through the guidance you have kindly provided and hopefully it will make more sense. Thanks for your time.

[DaveA]

I would suggest that you get a third party type such as TrueImage or ShadowProtect!