Windows 7: System images not incremental as Windows would lead one to believe

I just ran the windows 7 disc and checked the repair feature after creating several (or so I thought) backups of my computer through creating a system image. I found that I could only access the backup I created today, despite the manage space feature telling me I could delete all but the most recent image. I went back, and reread System Image Recovery to understand the process a little better. I now understand that to have multiple image backups incrementally, I have to rename my system image folder to say "2011_11_15_WindowsImageBackup" in order to keep the image for that date.

Now, I note in the backup feature, I am able to manage my backup space, and delete all but the most recent image. I now find this funny since it frees up space, but as I understand it, in reality, I cannot access the previous images anyway. If I am understanding this incorrectly, let me know. Otherwise, why is it expanding the space based on the previous images? And why is it saving the previous images if I cannot use them through the Windows 7 repair feature? This seems very misleading of the backup feature to make users think that previous images exist when, in reality, they do not for restoration purposes.

It is my understanding the Windows backup only creates incremental images if you use the "main" backup feature not if you use the create an image link. What you describe about renaming the backups does not create incremental images but a series of full images.

Hmmm, if what you say is true, then my main backup feature must have made a mistake. I was using the main backup feature, and I still could only access the most recent backup through the repair sequence.

When you say repair sequence what do you mean System Restore or Image Restore?

I boot from the Windows 7 DVD, and select Repair your computer. I then select system image recovery.

Mmm, interesting. That should pick up multiple images if there are any there. I wonder if your backup drive is large enough to hold more than one. It uses a maximum of 30% of the drive space for images. I personally don't use that procedure anymore so I can't check. I use both the technique you described about renaming images and also, to be double safe, Macrium.

I have a 1.5 TB drive that I am writing to, and the images are only ~65 GB. I doubt that it's a space issue. It may be because my first image I created I did using the "Create a system image" instead of through the incremental backup feature and the incremental backup feature just keeps writing over itself due to that. I think in the future, I will just rename the image to make sure I have full images in case something gets corrupted. It seems like the safer option, anyway.