Vista File Backup

[KC]

My scheduled Vista File Backup has my external USB backup disk almost full.

Does Vista File Backup have any settings to manage a backup device full
situation such as keep only the last month's of backup data?

KC

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi KC--

You can schedule backups in Vista. If you're recently defragged whether you
use Vista Backup or a 3rd party like Acronis, backups will be larger. The
explanation as to size is here, and if I were using Vista Backup regularly,
I'd clean it out and make a current full backup because the incremental
backups can get quite large as you've experienced. Maybe someone else has a
better suggestion but the large backups seem to me inherent in the Vista
Backup situation.

Most Backup utilities can take up increasing space and have to be pruned as
far as I can tell.

Why incremental backups in Windows Vista are larger than expected
http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/ar...n-windows-vista-are-larger-than-expected.aspx

I've seen this comment and similar ones from Jill Zoeller [MSFT] from the
File Services and Storage team:

"Backup *does* use VSS, but not in the way Complete PC Backup does. That is,
with File Backup, the changes aren't stored as shadow copies.

Like some have speculated, those files are being backed up because some
program or process is changing them. It can be antivirus putting something
in alternate streams, Media Player updating metadata (ID3 tags) or something
like this. Even right-clicking in Explorer and going to properties may lead
to adding alternate stream. Changing permissions on the parent directory and
compressing the folder can also lead to the same effect. Moving the files
into a different directory will also force Backup to pick them again.

Backup does not look in any headers, nor does Backup understand file
formats. To determine if a file is changed, Backup looks at creation date,
modification date, and last written to date (this one is not visible via the
cmd, only programmatically).

From what I'm told, the archive bit is not used by serious backup apps and
didn't work well in its day."


I recommend Acronis. It's a smarter backup application than Vista Backup.
Vista Backup should be smarter and more nuanced.


If you use software like Acronis, you can back up a disk image to media, and
if you have enough space (quite common now with the size of HDs and external
HDs readily available) you can choose where to put the backup of the HD
image. You can also make a fast restoring disaster recovery partition
called Acronis Secure Zone and the Acronis CD is bootable. You can specify
the location of the backup; and also can do incremental and differential
backups with a frequency of your choosing.

Acronis Free Trial:
http://www.acronis.com/download/

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/

Acronis is more nimble than Vista backup. Vista does have an Automatic
Backup feature and you can schedule how often you want it to do a "scheduled
backup." There is a "How Often" dialogue box shown in the links below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/backup.mspx

"Previously backed-up versions of files use only a bare minimum of disk
space. If only a small part of a file changes (such as one slide in a
presentation), only that portion gets tracked and saved."

Good tips for using Vista Backup are in this article:

A Guide to Windows Vista Backup Technologies
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/09/Backup/default.aspx
"File backups aren't deleted automatically. However, you can delete file
backups manually if you're low on space. A word of advice: you should always
delete an entire backup set as opposed to deleting individual incremental
backups."

Good luck,

CH

 

[John Hanley]

My scheduled Vista File Backup has my external USB backup disk almost
full.

Does Vista File Backup have any settings to manage a backup device full
situation such as keep only the last month's of backup data?

KC

I also have an external USB drive for backup. The backed up files & folders
are in (for me) K:\ComputerName\Backup Set date\Backup Files date\Bakckup
files No.\etc. There will be a series of these folders. Periodically
(once a month or so) I go in and manually delete the oldest Backup Set(s) to
maintain ample freeboard on the drive. It has not been a problem.

 

[Guest]

My scheduled Vista File Backup has my external USB backup disk almost full.

Does Vista File Backup have any settings to manage a backup device full
situation such as keep only the last month's of backup data?

KC

 

[catroy]

I can't thank you enough for so clearly addressing this issue! I've had to
erase my external hard drive twice and now it's full again, which only means
that I need to go through and burn all my more recent photos onto CD before I
have the nerve to wipe out the external data and start over. Each time I tell
it not to back up the programs and each time it backs up the programs and OS
repeatedly. So it doesn't take long for everything to fill back up! It's
good to know I'm not the only one with this challenge and even better to know
there is help in sight. Thank you Chad.

Is there a simple way to wipe out the over saved data that I have on my back
up, or just a reformat? I can't delete without camping out at my computer
for the night. Too much data.

Thank you for further advice.

Catroy

Hi KC--

You can schedule backups in Vista. If you're recently defragged whether you
use Vista Backup or a 3rd party like Acronis, backups will be larger. The
explanation as to size is here, and if I were using Vista Backup regularly,
I'd clean it out and make a current full backup because the incremental
backups can get quite large as you've experienced. Maybe someone else has a
better suggestion but the large backups seem to me inherent in the Vista
Backup situation.

Most Backup utilities can take up increasing space and have to be pruned as
far as I can tell.

Why incremental backups in Windows Vista are larger than expected
http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/ar...n-windows-vista-are-larger-than-expected.aspx

I've seen this comment and similar ones from Jill Zoeller [MSFT] from the
File Services and Storage team:

"Backup *does* use VSS, but not in the way Complete PC Backup does. That is,
with File Backup, the changes aren't stored as shadow copies.

Like some have speculated, those files are being backed up because some
program or process is changing them. It can be antivirus putting something
in alternate streams, Media Player updating metadata (ID3 tags) or something
like this. Even right-clicking in Explorer and going to properties may lead
to adding alternate stream. Changing permissions on the parent directory and
compressing the folder can also lead to the same effect. Moving the files
into a different directory will also force Backup to pick them again.

Backup does not look in any headers, nor does Backup understand file
formats. To determine if a file is changed, Backup looks at creation date,
modification date, and last written to date (this one is not visible via the
cmd, only programmatically).

From what I'm told, the archive bit is not used by serious backup apps and
didn't work well in its day."


I recommend Acronis. It's a smarter backup application than Vista Backup.
Vista Backup should be smarter and more nuanced.


If you use software like Acronis, you can back up a disk image to media, and
if you have enough space (quite common now with the size of HDs and external
HDs readily available) you can choose where to put the backup of the HD
image. You can also make a fast restoring disaster recovery partition
called Acronis Secure Zone and the Acronis CD is bootable. You can specify
the location of the backup; and also can do incremental and differential
backups with a frequency of your choosing.

Acronis Free Trial:
http://www.acronis.com/download/

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/

Acronis is more nimble than Vista backup. Vista does have an Automatic
Backup feature and you can schedule how often you want it to do a "scheduled
backup." There is a "How Often" dialogue box shown in the links below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/backup.mspx

"Previously backed-up versions of files use only a bare minimum of disk
space. If only a small part of a file changes (such as one slide in a
presentation), only that portion gets tracked and saved."

Good tips for using Vista Backup are in this article:

A Guide to Windows Vista Backup Technologies
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/09/Backup/default.aspx
"File backups aren't deleted automatically. However, you can delete file
backups manually if you're low on space. A word of advice: you should always
delete an entire backup set as opposed to deleting individual incremental
backups."

Good luck,

CH

My scheduled Vista File Backup has my external USB backup disk almost
full.

Does Vista File Backup have any settings to manage a backup device full
situation such as keep only the last month's of backup data?

KC