Backup and Restore - Managing Disk
Space
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Part of a solid backup
strategy is effectively managing the amount of disk
space allocated to storing backups. It makes no
difference if a backup is set up and scheduled to
run if the backup location doesn't have sufficient
space to store the backup or if the location isn't
accessible. In order to effectively allocate storage
resources you need to understand how Backup and
Restore/Recovery saves the different backups.
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Data File Backup - Storage Overview |
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The first run of file backup includes all
selected folders. Thereafter, only new and
modified files are backed up; essentially an
incremental file backup. According to Microsoft
a new, full data backup is created
'periodically' and labeled with a date range.
What does 'periodically' mean? I have no idea. I
haven't bothered to use Backup and
Restore/Recovery long enough to find out for
sure, but I suspect it's based on some calendar
month grouping, perhaps quarterly.
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Below is a screen
capture of an explorer type program that shows the
contents of a backup drive. Data file backups are
stored in a folder identified by the computer name
in the root of the drive. In this case, the folder
labeled 'JIM-PRIMARY' is where the data file Backup
is located.
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Drilling down into
'JIM-PRIMARY' folder you see the backups are saved
as backup sets, dated and time stamped to creation
date. |
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| Drilling down
another step in 'JIM-PRIMARY' exposes each of the
individual backup file folders, dated and time
stamped to creation date, that comprise a backup
set. In this case, folder 'Backup Files 2011-04-05
102401 is the full data backup and the four beneath
it are incremental backups. |
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| Drilling down one last
step there are a series of .zip files where the
actual files are backed up. None of the .zip files
will exceed 200MB in size and the number of .zip
archives will depend on the amount of data selected
for backup. This screen capture is of the full data
backup created initially and was comprised of 758
individual .zip files. There are also four other
folders that are part of this set as shown above.
They are the incremental backups that augment the
initial backup. Opening them would show they also
contain .zip files, but a far smaller quantity
depending on the amount of data that has changed
since the initial full backup. |
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| That's it for the
'how' of the method used to store a user data file
backup. It's possible you have more than one user
data file backup depending on the timeframe backups
have been saved. If there is more than one backup,
the second one will be identified similarly to the
one above, in a folder called Backup Set with
creation date and timestamp listed. Management of
the backups kicks in when at some point you
accumulate two or three backup sets and there really
isn't any point in keeping the older ones around. |
| Delete A Data File
Backup |
| 1 - Open
Backup and Restore/Recovery using your preferred
method. |
| 2 - Click
the [ Manage Space ] link. If UAC prompt appears,
click [ Yes ] to continue. The [Manage Windows
Backup Disk Space] window will open. |
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3 - If there is a backup location displayed at upper left (in this case, My Book -
Data Backup I - 500GB (P:)), then that's all that can be done here. If no backup
location is displayed, click [Browse] link to select a location where the data
backup file set is located, but clicking [Browse] when there is already a backup
location displayed is a dead end and does not allow you to choose a different
location if you had old backup file sets tucked away on a different drive.
Once there is a valid 'Backup Location' displayed
upper left, the 'Space Usage Summary' at upper right
will detail the amount of space used for Data File
and System Image backups on the selected drive.
Click the [ View Backups... ] button to proceed. |
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| 4 - A
window opens displaying a list of the different
backup periods that can be deleted. Understand that
each of the entries listed represents a backup 'set'
that's comprised of one initial full backup and any
number of incremental file backups. When selected
for deletion, the initial backup and all incremental
backups are deleted that belong to the selected set. |
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| 5 - Select
the backup to be deleted, click [ Delete ] and then
click [ Delete ] again in the confirmation dialog
box. |
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| 6 -
Compare the screen captures above and below. I went
ahead and deleted the first two backup periods shown
above and now I'm considering deleting the one
remaining data file backup on the computer. It can
be deleted, but notice the confirmation dialog box
has changed. A [ Delete and Run Backup Now ] button
option has been added along with a warning if the
file is deleted you cannot restore files from a disk
file backup. |
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| System Image Backup -
Storage Overview |
| To start this off, a
quick review. A system image is a snapshot of a
system drive, or multiple drives, that is frozen in
time. It doesn't change as you do additional work on
the system. Once the image is created, nothing gets
added to it and nothing is removed -- until the image is either overwritten or deleted. |
| Below is a screen
capture of an explorer replacement program that
shows the contents of a backup drive. System
Image backups are stored in a folder the backup
program creates named WindowsImageBackup. No
provision is made for any other naming convention.
In other words, you're stuck with this name and
can't choose a different name. |
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Drilling down into 'WindowsImageBackup'
folder you see the system image backups are also
identified by computer name, in this case
'JIM-PRIMARY', dated and time stamped to creation
date. This is deceptive because there can be other
images available, but they won't be in a separate
folder and will carry the creation date of the most
recently created system image. |
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| Drilling down
another step in 'WindowsImageBackup\JIM-PRIMARY'
exposes the backup file folder, dated and time
stamped to creation date, that contains the actual
system image. In this case, folder 'Backup
2011-04-06 122856 is the full system image
backup. |
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| Drilling down one last
step, there are a series of XML Documents and a
couple of Virtual Machine Hard Drive Image Files (.vhd's)
where the actual files are backed up. All of these
files put together as a unit comprise the actual
system image. |
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| Delete A System Image
Backup |
| Strangely enough, the
rules governing deleting system images is predicated
on whether automatic scheduling of backups is turned
on or off. With automatic scheduling off, the option
is available to delete all system images. With
automatic scheduling on, the option is available to
manage the space allocated to system images and
delete all except the most recently created system
image. |
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Delete System Image
with Automatic Scheduling Turned ON |
| 1 -
Remember - automatic backup scheduling must be
turned on. If not, see 'Delete System Image with
Automatic Scheduling Turned OFF' following this
section. |
| 2 - Open
Backup and Restore/Recovery using your preferred
method. |
| 3 - Click
the [ Manage Space ] link. If UAC prompt appears,
click [ Yes ] to continue. The [Manage Windows
Backup Disk Space] window will open. |
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| 4 - Once
the [Manage Windows Backup Disk Space] window opens,
click [ Change Settings... ] button to continue. |
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| 5 - After
clicking [Change Settings... ] button the dialog box
opens where the selection is made how old system
images are retained. The first option allows Windows
to manage the space used for system image backups.
The maximum space designated for use will not exceed
30% of the drives formatted size. In this example
the backup drive is 500GB. The 500GB, when
partitined and formatted, is reduced to 465GB and
30% of 465GB equals 139.5GB which is very close to
what's shown in the example below. A 1000GB drive
would yield roughly 280GB of system image storage
space. The second option allows keeping only the
latest system image and deleting any others that
exist. |
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| 6 -
Deleting the older system images and keeping the
current requires a user confirmation. That's it for
this version. |
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Delete System Image with
Automatic Scheduling Turned OFF
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| 1 -
Remember - automatic backup scheduling must be
turned off. If not, see 'Delete System Image with
Automatic Scheduling Turned ON' above this section. |
| 2 - Open
Backup and Restore/Recovery using your preferred
method. |
| 3 - Click
the [ Manage Space ] link. If UAC prompt appears,
click [ Yes ] to continue. The [Manage Windows
Backup Disk Space] window will open. Note that [
Schedule: ] is set to none, or turned off. |
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| 4 - Once
the [Manage Windows Backup Disk Space] window opens,
click [ Change Settings... ] button to continue. |
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| 5 - After
clicking [Change Settings... ] button the dialog box
opens where the selection is made how old system
images are retained. The first option allows keeping
only the latest system image and deleting any others
that exist. The second option kills off all the
system images and since scheduling is off, no more
will be created unless it's done manually or as part
of a data file backup initiated manually that
includes system images. |
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| 6 -
Deleting all the system images requires a user
confirmation. Once you click the [ Delete ] button
all the system images on the system should be
eliminated. |
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7 -
Supposedly, all the system images were eliminated in
the last step. I closed and restarted Backup and
Restore/Recovery and found the Space Usage Summary
still showed 14.04GB of space devoted to system
images. I thought maybe I'd made an incorrect
selection so went back in to Manage Space. As you
can see below, there are no data file backups or
system images on the drive I had used to store them
initially, yet the Space Usage Summary still shows
14.04GB.
Just to be doubly sure, I went as far as to reformat
the external backup drive but the results remained
the same. I also deleted all the System Restore
points, disabled it on all drives, and rebooted the
system. No changes. So that's the way it stands
right Now. I suspect it's a reporting issue with the
program, but at this point I'm not sure and don't
have the time to investigate it any further. If
you've experienced this issue or know the
cause/solution, feel free to drop me an e-mail. |
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