Eduardo Laureano [MSFT]

Hi Rich,

your assumptions are mostly correct. VSS is turned on at the
destination where your Complete PC Backups are being saved. At the time you
created your 2nd backup, block level data representing your 1st backup was
saved to shadow copy. Therefore the space hit that you are seeing.

For instance, if you take a 3rd backup, without changing much on your
system, you'll see that the space usage should grow only by the amount of
changed blocks between the time you took your 2nd and 3rd backups.

If you are concerned about the disk space allocation where your backups are
being saved, I recommend using Disk Cleanup. From there you can delete all
older shadow copies, but the most recent one. Be aware that this means to
consequently loose access to older backups.

Disk Cleanup -> Files from all users on this computer -> Select volume where
backups are being saved -> More Options -> System Restore and Shadow
Copies -> Clean up ...

Eduardo


"RichG" <RichG@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6A23BAE1-4554-49AF-8D34-126F3D424EBC@microsoft.com...
> My system is configured as follows…
>
> OS = Windows Vista Business
> Internal Disk (drive C) = 120Gb
> External Disk (drive H) = 500Gb (USB-connected)
>
> I ran my first “Complete System backup” of my system on July 11, and chose
> to store the backup files on my external disk (drive H). The backup
> completed successfully, and I verified that the system created a 37Gb VHD
> file along with a few other very small files. I then verified that the
> amount of free space remaining on my external drive was ~37Gb less than I
> previously had free.
>
> So far, so good…
>
> I installed two other software applications on my system (Microsoft Visio
> 2007 and Microsoft Project 2007), and I launched another complete system
> backup this weekend. The backup completed successfully, and I verified
> that
> the system created a new 25Gb VHD file along with a few other very small
> files.
>
> I expected to see this new 25Gb VHD file IN ADDITION to the previous 37Gb
> VHD file from the July 11 backup, and was surprised to find that the
> previous
> 37Gb file appears to be MISSING. At least, I cannot find the file in the
> folder where it previously existed.
>
> I checked the free space on my external H drive, and found that I have ~
> 25Gb less free space than I had before. It is as if the 37Gb file is
> still
> on the drive somewhere, but I cannot find it. When I launch the backup
> program, it states that the last complete backup was run this weekend, and
> it
> also seems to indicate that a previous backup does exist, but it does not
> list it my name or date.
>
> I see from the documentation that a complete system backup will run so
> long
> as enough free space exists, and that it will automatically delete older
> backups (oldest first) as necessary to insure that free space is
> available.
>
> I use this external drive to store other information in addition to
> complete
> system backups, and I need to insure that I always have enough free space
> to
> handle my needs. My plan was to run a complete system backup whenever my
> system configuration changes significantly, or every month or so –
> whichever
> comes first. I planned on keeping perhaps 3-4 complete system backups on
> my
> external drive, and to delete the older backups as necessary.
>
> NOTE: I am generally aware of volume shadow copy and how it can reduce
> the
> amount of free space on a volume, but I’m not sure if this is compounding
> my
> issue or not.
>
> QUESTION:
>
> Can anyone tell me (or does documentation exist that explains) how to
> manage
> complete system backup files? How does one manage these backups?
>
> Any assistance is appreciated...
>
> --
> RichG