Forum Discussion

hanknjoyce's avatar
hanknjoyce
Explorer
Oct 18, 2013

External Backup Hard Drive is Full

My external 250 MB back-up Hard Drive has reached max capacity. I am using the Windows 7 Microsoft Back-up tool. Will the back-up continue and simply drop older files from years ago? When I drill down to the Windows "Manage Backup Disk Space" it offers me 3 time periods - the oldest is March - Sep 2012 and is 35.65 GB. This is separate from the "System Image" which is 125 GB.
Is this older backup just an older version of the next back-up (which is Sep 2012 to May 2013). Does each of the 3 time frames represent a full back-up and can I delete the oldest one to free up space? Sounds logical to me as a novice.
Right now I am not backing up at all.

Thanks,

Hank
2005 Mandalay DP
Dell 1545 Inspiron Laptop circa 2009
  • Trackrig's avatar
    Trackrig
    Explorer II
    Oct 19, 2013
    Amazon should be free delivery since it will cost over $25. No need for the drive unless you need groceries.....

    Bill
  • hanknjoyce's avatar
    hanknjoyce
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2013
    My Thanks for all the inputs and apologies for a typo. The external HD is a 250 GB, not 250 MB (oops). But the Terabyte makes sense - I shall get me to a computer store ASAP (although we are 50 miles from retail out in the Southern Black Hills of South Dakota).

    Hank
    2005 Mandalay DP
    Packing seriously to get south to AZ
  • Johno02's avatar
    Johno02
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2013
    The hard drive on my laptop is 500 Gb. I have a 1Tb external drive, and am thinking about a new 2Tb one that is half the size, and twice the capacity. I also use a 64 Gb mini SD card which will fit on my smallest fingernail.
  • SCVJeff's avatar
    SCVJeff
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2013
    eubank wrote:
    250 MB isn't a lot of space any more. ---snip---
    250GB isn't allot of room. 250MB hasn't been made in 20 years.

    One must assume the OP's post was a typo
  • eubank's avatar
    eubank
    Explorer
    Oct 19, 2013
    250 MB isn't a lot of space any more. Shooting RAW, I take pictures that run around 10MB apiece; your whole harddisk would hold only 25 of those pictures. I use 8GB sticks (i.e., 32 times the capacity of your hard disk) for backups, and those sticks aren't nearly the largest available; all pictures, however, go to my unlimited Flickr account.

    An interesting historical note. Way back when in the 80s, we purchased our first computer with a hard disk. (The earlier ones had only floppies.) That hard disk was what seemed huge at the time at 20MB. It would have held all of two of my current-day pictures.

    :)
    Lynn
  • Thunder_Mountai's avatar
    Thunder_Mountai
    Explorer II
    Oct 19, 2013
    Don't mean to be a butthead, but just buy a one terabyte drive. They just keep getting cheaper. I'm backing up files from my Apple IIe from the early 1980s.
  • Trackrig's avatar
    Trackrig
    Explorer II
    Oct 19, 2013
    I think it would refuse to take more data when it's full, but the question is would the hard drive tell you that or just let you think it copied your data? I'm waiting to see if someone knows for sure. And consdering that you're full, you should stop by Costco and get one of the small Western Digital 1T hard drives for about $125. Backing up your computer is great, but if the house or MH burns and both the computer and the back up are in the same place, it doesn't go much good. Make a second backup and leave it with someone else.

    Bill

About RV Must Haves

Have a product you cannot live without? Share it with the community!8,793 PostsLatest Activity: Aug 22, 2023