Windows Backup seems to be taking up too much space

[bigdan]

I created a thread on this back in July but I went away shortly after and this got left behind. I decided to create a new thread to make it more focused as in the beginning I didn't know what the issue was and there was a lot of guesswork involved. In case the link is relevant its below but not necessary to see:
http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-much-space-used-up-doesnt-add-up-275399/index2.html

Issue:
My external HD is 1.5 TB. Right-click/Properties gives 1.05 TB used, 313 GB free.
But if I look at the contents on the right pane of windows explorer, highlight them all and rightclick it shows only 453 GB used. The rest seems to all be occupied in windows backup.

I went to Manage Windows Backup (via Ctrl Panel) and this is what it shows (I'm rounding)
Data File Backup 80GB
Sys Image 550 GB
Other Files 450 GB
Free Space 315 GB
Total Size 1.36 TB

When I click View Backups it says Backup Period May-Sep 2015, 80 GB.

10 mins ago I went to the third section in that window, clicked Change Settings (of the Sys Image) and changed from Let Windows Manage Space for Backup, to Keep only the latest image. Should I have done that? Anyway it didnt make much of a difference. Maybe a few gigs.

I've run WinDirStat but that doesnt show any folder that's unusually large. It does show 5 files with 0 size. 2 are gibberish names, then DAN-PC, then System Volume Information, then Windows Image Backup. Earlier I assume DAN-PC is my backup since that was the only one I was seeing in Explorer, and it had 0 space. And I didnt see the Windows Backup folder. But now I see it.

Anyway, what do I do? Carnage suggested taking a lot at this link but that hasnt helped much: Backup User and System Files - Delete Backups - Windows 7 Help Forums

Best,
Dan

 

[iPwn]

Good ol' Windows Backup, putting things in places you can't see.

Your problem is shadow storage. That's storage that Windows takes up for backups and doesn't let you see without special commands.

Open a command prompt (as Admin) and issue the following command:

vssadmin list shadows

That will show you the "missing" space. Here's a technet article on the use of VSSAdmin. You can delete shadows, manage size, a few others...

Link

Edit: I'm a tad quick at browsing and misconstrued your question :/

What are you trying to save?
IME, backing up a Windows configuration is fairly worthless, especially on a continual basis. What's important? Your files. So keep a copy of all that on a different drive.

Well then you may ask, what do I do if my install gets cheesed?

My suggestion (and practice) is to build a baseline install (install on clean HDD from scratch to desired config) then just SysPrep it. Immediately shut down when done and then take a copy of that drive (clonezilla works well). Now, no matter what happens, you can just copy that image to your drive anytime your PC crashes and it's truly a fresh install each time, but with your configuration desires. Keep your data files on a separate drive (and backed up elsewhere) and there's no need to have Windows try and maintain its degrading code structure.

 

[Lexluethar]

I've found my windows backup does the same thing. I've narrowed it down to when you do larger file copies / deletes from the location you are backing up from time to time windows loses track and continually tries to backup that data. Eventually this eats up all of your storage on the backup destination share (at least in my instance).

Easy fix, every few months or so simply delete the backup file and run a full backup. Fixed the issue for me.

 

[1etherer]

I've found my windows backup does the same thing. I've narrowed it down to when you do larger file copies / deletes from the location you are backing up from time to time windows loses track and continually tries to backup that data. Eventually this eats up all of your storage on the backup destination share (at least in my instance).

Easy fix, every few months or so simply delete the backup file and run a full backup. Fixed the issue for me.

Same with me. But also windows has a feature that will keep backing up copies until the space is full then only deletes space needed. This way you have more snapshot like backups.

But I do like lex and completely delete the backup and do a full one

 

[setishock]

I dedicated one whole 500gig drive to let windows do backups. After thoroughly testing an image maker program I decided to run with that. I deleted all of the backups and disabled backup in windows. Checking the drive after the deletion, I found 95.3gigs of hidden files.
I don't know if I want to just format the drive or bring forward the hidden files and delete them.
I agree with iPwn about windows putting things on hidden. This could be why some people have mysterious loss of drive space.