Opps Vista backed up to D: . . . now what

[Corvette911]

Major screw up. Though I was performing a full backup (the first with
my new HP dv6324) and guess what? It filled the D: volume (not the
DVD) and told me the backup failed. Now, the D: volume is 100% full.
Don't want to lose any of the factory backup that might have been
there.

How do I get back to the pre-backup state without risking everything
else that I installed and configured?

 

[DP]

It seems to me that the backup files should be obvious based on the date of
creation. You can delete the ones you created.
Do all the files on the D drive have the same extention? If not, then the
backup files YOU created should be easy to differentiate from the factory
backup ones that were there already.

HOWEVER... see if anybody else weighs in on this. I haven't used backup
software in a long time. I tend to just make copies of the critical data
files that I want to survive any system problems.

 

[AJR]

Regarding "...the factory backup ..." - if you are referring to the "restore
partition" - it is usually a hidden and sercure partition on the C drive.
If there is a restore partition, at boot there will be something like "Hit
F11 to restore...". When the recovery partition is created the MBR is
modified to present the restore message.
If the parttion is deleted via explorer the MBR stays modified - HP
provides two utilities 1.To copy the restore partition to removable media
and 2. Remove the recovery partition and MBR modification.

Suggest RTFM.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

I would say just delete the backups. I bet your computer's manufacturer put
a recovery partition on your disk and Backup is defaulting to that
partition. They aren't sized big enough to be useful for backups. Ideally
you'll want to back up to either DVD or an external hard disk, not the same
volume as where your data resides.