How much space will a backup use on a 1.5tb USB drive? I was under the impression that a scheduled backup would only use an x % of the space on my USB drive and would delete old copies as space ran out. I have been running backups for about 3 months now on a daily basis and now i just noticed that i ran out of space on the USB drive so my backups are failing. When i go to "manage space" from the backup program i only see 4 backup periods 12/6/9 to 1/2/10 64gb 1/3/10 to 1/26/10 77gb 1/27/10 to 2/18/10 74gb 2/20/10 to 3/11/10 79gb This totals only less than 300gb. The folders that exist on the backup drive are: 310b2d73c5046c28b4c5 324dc9ca5a92a54a8926cd c2a8426a16f5994d1e06a2 MIKE-PC (my hostname) WindowsImageBackup I know i probably turned off my computer a couple of times before the backup completed. And i changed my schedule a couple of times so my backup would finish before i turned it off in the evening. Would those cause orphan backups that i would have to clean up manually? If so which folders can i delete? When i look at the properties of those folders they don't show that much space is being used by them.

Very good question, and one I'd like to see answered definitively as well.In my case, I started by wiping my external 1 TB backup drive when I first installed Windows 7 at the beginning of January. I've not filled the drive yet with Windows 7 backups, but before when I was running Vista I had exactly what you described happen. At the moment I have 264 GB free so I can't say it's going to happen again, but it would make me feel more warm and fuzzy if the logic for making new backups and trashing old ones would be plainly described.-Noel

Okay, I've done a little research on my own. Thanks for helping push me to do that.Have you seen the Manage space link in the Backup and Restore panel? 1. Click the Start orb.2. Enter backup into the search box.3. Click Backup and Restore when it comes up.4. Click the Manage space link.That link brings up a dialog that allows you to see what space is being used for what, to see the backups you have made, and to change the settings for managing multiple backups of system images. Notably, there's a Keep only the latest system image and minimize space used by backup setting that is NOT the default. Instead, Let Windows manage the space used for backup history is the default.You can also choose older backups to delete via the View backups... button.There is still an open question about what does "Let Windows manage the space" means... Clearly in your case it's not making room for new backups by deleting old ones. There is some wording in there about how multiple backups of system images will only take up to 30% of the space on the backup drive.Enter "manage backup space" into Windows Help and Support for some informative information.-Noel

I agree with Noel here; this is a good question and I would like to see it answered by the right people.When I started to feel like swimming in troubled water, I changed for a third party backup programme.I'd like to see a programme allowing me to do either a complete or an incremential backup. A programme that doesn't make my backup data grow to a size the original data never had. A programme that lets me retreive particular data from the backup without messing up the rest.By the way, computers is what I do. After 20 years in the business I claim to have some knowledge. So answers like "see knowledge base article kbwhatever" are not really what I'm asking for.Rem

Yet another reason to use software like Acronis True Image, which allows you to control the space occupied by backups. I wonder if the free version of Macrium Reflect has this ability as well????Rich Why can't I be different and original like everybody else? - Vivian Stanshal

Thanks Noel, I followed your kindly provided procedure and changed my backup settings to only keep the latest system image and that freed up about 400gb. (Not too sure bout those generated long folder name folders ... so I just threw em into the recycle bin for now). MCSE Student

Glad to help but I don't think I'd have tossed those folders with the generated names. Doing so might render your backup invalid.-Noel