Vista Backup won't do what I want, uses too much space

rowan.bradley · External Since: Sep 06, 2009 Posts: 1

When I used to run XP, I used Arctor to back up my important folders (My
Documents, Pictures, Email etc.). It used to do this automatically every
night, backing up incrementally onto an external hard disk. It did this
for months or years without ever filling up my 160Gb backup disk. It
must have been pretty intelligent about which files to save.

When I moved to Vista, I thought I'd try the built in backup facility,
but I found that after only a very few backups (supposedly incremental)
my backup disk was full. What on earth is it doing with all that space?
I also find it annoying that I can't control precisely which files are
being backed up. I'm sure some files that I don't need are being backed
up, and that some that I do need are not.

Can Vista Backup do what I want (i.e. keep incremental backups of just
files I've changed or just the changes, do it automatically every night,
and make efficient use of disk space)? And can I specify more precisely
which files to back up?

If Vista Backup won't do this, what backup software (preferably free)
do you recommend?

Thanks - Rowan

--
rowan.bradley

Valorie McLaughlin · External Since: Sep 07, 2009 Posts: 8

You may want to ask this on alt.comp.freeware. They're pros at recommending
freeware.

"rowan.bradley" <guest.TakeThisOut@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:31be412269cf13dfd24a95af7e993716@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> When I used to run XP, I used Arctor to back up my important folders (My
> Documents, Pictures, Email etc.). It used to do this automatically every
> night, backing up incrementally onto an external hard disk. It did this
> for months or years without ever filling up my 160Gb backup disk. It
> must have been pretty intelligent about which files to save.
>
> When I moved to Vista, I thought I'd try the built in backup facility,
> but I found that after only a very few backups (supposedly incremental)
> my backup disk was full. What on earth is it doing with all that space?
> I also find it annoying that I can't control precisely which files are
> being backed up. I'm sure some files that I don't need are being backed
> up, and that some that I do need are not.
>
> Can Vista Backup do what I want (i.e. keep incremental backups of just
> files I've changed or just the changes, do it automatically every night,
> and make efficient use of disk space)? And can I specify more precisely
> which files to back up?
>
> If Vista Backup won't do this, what backup software (preferably free)
> do you recommend?
>
> Thanks - Rowan
>
>
> --
> rowan.bradley

JPH · External Since: Sep 07, 2009 Posts: 1

I also use a 160GB external hard drive as my Vista backup destination.
However I only backup once per week. My most recent backup set is 266 days
old and counting. One thing you might do is take a look at the individual
backups on your external drive to see how large each day's backups are; I
look each week and have an excel spreadsheet to see when the big backups
occur. Also -- Vista uses an algorithm to decide when to make incremental
vs. full backups; the algorithm can be viewed graphically here:

http://cfsbloggers.members.winisp.net/backup_fullvsincrementall.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
"rowan.bradley" <guest.TakeThisOut@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:31be412269cf13dfd24a95af7e993716@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> When I used to run XP, I used Arctor to back up my important folders (My
> Documents, Pictures, Email etc.). It used to do this automatically every
> night, backing up incrementally onto an external hard disk. It did this
> for months or years without ever filling up my 160Gb backup disk. It
> must have been pretty intelligent about which files to save.
>
> When I moved to Vista, I thought I'd try the built in backup facility,
> but I found that after only a very few backups (supposedly incremental)
> my backup disk was full. What on earth is it doing with all that space?
> I also find it annoying that I can't control precisely which files are
> being backed up. I'm sure some files that I don't need are being backed
> up, and that some that I do need are not.
>
> Can Vista Backup do what I want (i.e. keep incremental backups of just
> files I've changed or just the changes, do it automatically every night,
> and make efficient use of disk space)? And can I specify more precisely
> which files to back up?
>
> If Vista Backup won't do this, what backup software (preferably free)
> do you recommend?
>
> Thanks - Rowan
>
>
> --
> rowan.bradley