Windows 7: Confused W/backup/system Image/repair Disc

Ok, so I know I've been faking it all these years when it comes to backing up my computer. I think what through me a curve was when I first set this computer up to do a backup and was presented with more options than I was aware of, so I faked it! Now, I believe I'm going to need someone to walk/talk me through this process. I have no issues with deleting all images/backups, if that is appropriate and starting over...or maybe just cleaning things up! But I do need to understand what I'm looking at and how these options work.

Currently, I have Windows 7 HE with 2 Hard Drives installed, Drive C @ 1tb and Drive E @ 500gb. According to "Backup and Restore", I have a backup scheduled automatically for every Monday with the Contents of "Files in libraries and personal folders for all users and system image."

I probably should have used the 1tb HD for my backup drive but it was a replacement for the original 500gb drive that was having issues booting. Anyway, I always seem to have an issue with my backup in that windows tells me that backup was complete but some files were skipped. I viewed these and found it was a music library that was on the original HD but is no longer on the new 1tb HD. I also seem to run out of space quite frequently and have to manually go in and delete old backups.

Also, I've looked on drive E to see what I could find in the way of a backup and what I find is 3 folders, one called "HOME-PC, dated 4/9/12", one called, "WINDOWS7, dated 6/16/18" and one called, "WindowsImageBackup, dated 4/23/12". If I double-click on HOME-PC, a window pops up and asks me if I want to restore files from this backup. Same with WINDOWS7 but, I can open WindowsImagebackup. Inside this folder I find the same two named folders but dated differently, HOME-PC, dated 4/16/12 and WINDOWS7, dated 9/17/18. If I double-click on either of these, a window pops up telling me that I don't currently have permission to get access to these folders. Not sure what I'm looking at there.

Anyway, I'm kinda lost on this whole backup thing in that for one thing, my primary drive might grow to the point that the backup drive won't be large enough to except the backup. Also, I'm not sure I need a System Image each and every time I do a backup and thirdly, I'm also not so sure that I need to do a Full backup each week as apposed to an incremental or partial backup.

Oh yeah, and BTW, how is all this different from the Repair Disc I created on a DVD?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

 

It's a big subject on which clearly you would benefit from some education so I would recommend you read THIS. Alternatively you could forget all about the backup and restore feature in Win 7 and use instead a simple but powerful free third party tool AOMEI Backupper. Unless you need to recover the space don't delete any existing backups or system images just yet. You can decide on that when your understanding has improved.

 

Alright, I have some reading to do...thanks and I'll be back!

 

I backup (Disc images) about every four weeks....3 PCs.
I use external USB connected hard drives (2).
The last three or four backups are retained and older ones deleted to make plenty of room for the new images.
Have used AOMEI Backupper , as suggested, for a number of years......and it is very simple to use.

 

Alright, I went through How-To-Geek and I have an idea of what's going on. I was able to select what was being backed up which should stop the issue with Backup skipping that music library! But, I still am having an issue with that backup, "HOME-PC" dated in 2012! When I look for it in backup, "Manage Windows Backup Disc Space", it only shows "Backup Period" for which I see no period containing 2012? Also, the How-To-Geek didn't seem to address the issue of deleting all backups and starting anew! Is that possible and does deleting backups in the "Manage Windows Backup Disc Space" also include the System Image?

 

So, how do you go about deleting those images? Manually or through Backup...or maybe something else?

 

Alright, first of all...my apologies if it seems I'm jumping all around with questions, it's just part of my confusion!

Anyway, I just did a new backup with my new settings and everything seemed to go without a hitch...no skipped files. I can see one of the backups, "Windows7" has updated to the current date as well as the same backup name inside the folder "WindowsImageBackup" so, I'm assuming this is the new backup I just finished. The other one, "HOME-PC" has not changed at all and still reflects a 2012 date. Strangely enough, the folder "WindowsImageBackup" is also dated 2012 but, I'm going to assume that that was when I made my first backup/system image and that was when the folder was created!

I went back to Manage Windows Backup Disc Space and deleted all backups except that current one. So far so good! Saved me about 120gb a space...deleted two older ones.

If you guys think I'm wrong about something, jump right in and tell me otherwise, I'm going to play around with windows backup for a while and familiarize myself with it's workings.

Just one more thing...if I was able to manually delete those backup/image folders, would windows have an issue on the next backup attempt?

Thanks all!

 

Sounds like you are getting your head around backup, ppl who don't use it simply don't know that it can be so easy to back out of any problem that may develop or mistake they may have made. Do take a look at AOMEI - unlike most other free imaging tools it does allow you to make small backups which only include changes to the system or partition rather than only allowing full backups. This saves both time and disk space. There's also a variation of the method called Differential but we won't bother with that just now.

 

Well thanks everybody, I do appreciate your input and expertise! I've got some playing around to do so, signing off!!!