Windows 10: Deleting Windows image backup does not free up/regain all used space.

In Update & security/Backup and Restore (Windows 7), my screen shows no Manage Space to click on.

I want to remove old system images (WindowsImageBackup).

Thus far my method of removing them is using the "delete" function

by right clicking "delete" on the file WindowsImageBackup.

This has left me with problems with my portable hard drive running out of free space. (see my post from yesterday "Portable hard drive not enough free space"

The link is:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-files/portable-hard-drive-not-enough-free-space/fd750480-1acd-45eb-9932-fd809b593292?tm=1571080123673


How can I remove image backup files without the "Manage Space" option, and free up all used space from the files.?


accipiter_67

:)

 

Backup drive is running out of space

Hi Argel Obm,

Thank you for your helpful post. I am travelling & would try out your suggestions after return.

Would write back if I need further help.

Thank you

 

Backup drive is running out of space

Hi,

In Windows 10, you can either use File History in Settings or Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in Control Panel to back up your files or the image of your Windows 10. Just to clarify, what tool did you use to back up your files or image? If you used Back and
Restore (Windows 7) and you set up a back up schedule, the drive that you're using for the back up will surely consume a large amount of space. To free up disk space, you can either delete an old back up or you can set up Backup and Restore (Windows 7) to
only save the latest backup file. To do this, follow these steps:

Delete an old backup file:

• Open Control Panel and access Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
• Click Manage space.
• Select View backups....
• Choose the backup the you want to delete, and then press Delete.

Keep the latest system image:

• Open Control Panel and access Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
• Click Manage space.
• Select Change settings....
• Choose Keep only the latest system image and minimize space used by backup, and then press
  OK.

If you do not want to use the current location of your backup anymore and you want to change it to your external drive, you can do so by following these steps:

• Open Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in Control Panel.
• Press Change settings.
  
  
• Choose the drive you want to save your backup file, and then click Next.
• Choose your backup settings.
• Press Save settings and run backup.

If you want to create a bootable media or an installation media of Windows 10, you can do so by using the Media Creation Tool. Please take note that you need a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of space so that you can create a bootable media. You can download
the Media Creation Tool here. The link also has the steps on how to create and use the bootable media.

If you have additional questions, kindly reply to this thread.

 

Using network hard drive for backup

It depends what sort of backup you want to do. If you're happy just backing up regular files, then there are a bazillion (really, that many!) different bits of freeware to do that. There is a good list here:

Download Back Up Tools for Windows - MajorGeeks

and pretty much all of them can do network backups. Some even have fancy options like encryption. Really, the most useful thing is just being able to schedule them and know they ran OK.

You may also want to make a system image backup too, and you'll find that software in the very same list.

I don't have Windows 8 as yet, so I'm afraid I can't suggest any for that platform. Personally, I use Clonezilla for image backups.