Viewing Backed Up Files

[Matt F]

I have Vista Ultimate performing nightly backups of my files of C:\ to a
separate drive (D:\). Its sole purpose is for backups. Unlike the
program I used in XP (Sync Toy), the backup center executes
successfully, but when I look at D:\, I don't see any of the files that
were backed up.

Does Vista use some type of hidden partition for its backups? I know
the files are being backed up because I see the available space on D:\
decrease and I've attempted to perform restoration of files
successfully.

I suppose I just like to be able to browse the actual files. Please let
me know if there is a way to do this without going through the
restoration wizard.

Thanks!
Matt

 

[John Hanley]

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\Backup
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. However.....these backed up files
are compressed zip files, and you can't browse/read them directly. You can
partially execute a restore which would let you see the titles and icons of
folders and/or files, but you can't open them or see properties unless you
complete the restore function. This is how I see it anyway. Is your D:
drive a physically separate drive (I have a D: drive on my hard drive put
there by HP as my System Recovery location, but it is on the same physical
disk as the C: drive). I always have to think hard to differentiate a disc
from a drive from a partition...

 

[Matt F]

:
: 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\Backup
: 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. However.....these backed up files
: are compressed zip files, and you can't browse/read them directly. You can
: partially execute a restore which would let you see the titles and icons of
: folders and/or files, but you can't open them or see properties unless you
: complete the restore function. This is how I see it anyway. Is your D:
: drive a physically separate drive (I have a D: drive on my hard drive put
: there by HP as my System Recovery location, but it is on the same physical
: disk as the C: drive). I always have to think hard to differentiate a disc
: from a drive from a partition...
:

It's a separate physical drive. Anyway, I found the files. It's not
hidden, I suppose I'm just blind. It created a folder with the
computer name as you mentioned.

My concern is that that the backups take up quite a bit of space. My
C:\ is 320GB as is my backup D:\. I run daily backups and it seems it's
backing up the same files over and over. I thought it would only backup
files that have been modified or deleted (ie. incremental backup). If
this isn't the case, I'll run out of space on my backup 320GB hard drive
rather quickly.

I'll let it run for a bit and gather more information. If space runs
out, then I suppose I can run weekly backups instead.

Matt