Back up and mirror images

Hi everyone, yesterday i purchased a 1TB external hard drive and proceded to do my first back up - it took 5 hours and says that i only have 0.67GB remaining on hard drive. When i opened it to have a look - I have the following 396 GB back up and then 450 or so in system image. I am wondering if they are the same thing and if one can be deleted? I am a novice at computers and cant get back into where i was they told me exactly what was on the ex hard drive :/
Thanks for your input.
Cheers

Please post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management so we can see what is going on.

What program did you use to make this "backup"??

Did you intend to backup your Windows installation, your data, or both?

If you right click the external drive in Windows Explorer and look at "properties", you should see separate figures for "used space", "free space", and "capacity".

What are those 3 numbers for the drive in question?

Hi,

The 3 numbers are capacity 931gb
free space 0.67gb
used space 864gb

The aim of doing this was so that if my computer (which is 2 months old and having issues) crashes i can restore all whats on there. Itunes library is approx 268GB.
Thanks for your time
Cheers

PS not sure how to tell what program i used - it was through HP advisor ad i followed the prompts.

What are the answers to my other questions?

The numbers you give are peculiar. Normally, I would expect free plus used to be quite close to capacity. That is not true in your case.

Do you have your system set to show hidden files and operating system files, using Explorer/tools/folder options/view menu??

Please post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management so we can see what is going on.

I am guessing you used Windows built in tools.

It may be simpler for you to make an image with a third party product that is less confusing.

Have you considered putting your data on a separate partition and then back up Windows and data separately??

That isn't a pic of Windows Disk Management. If you want to see Windows Disk Management, type "Disk Management' into the start box.

I didn't get an answer to my question of whether or not you have Explorer set to view system and hidden files.

You are using Windows built in tool, which has its own issues and weirdness.

I gave up on it long ago.

Since you have not posted a picture of Disk Management, I can't even guess as to what is going on.

And HP is known for having peculiar ways as well. But you certainly don't have to use HP's tools.