Backup and recovery space management problem, with system image

Kenvio2 · 20 Dec 2015

Hi again, I was trying to do a system image restore with an image I created on a back up EX-HD a while back, the problem is it doesn't have enough space to create a new system image which I'm fine with but does have enough to save a backup of my data files on the drive I'm trying to do a recovery for. When I tried to restore it with the last system image I created a while ago, it told me the last data backup I've done was a while back and if I'd like to do a backup now, when I clicked yes it said I didn't have enough space for a system image. Seeing as how I only wanted to backup data files and not create a new system image I closed the window.

I then decided to do a data backup from the backup and recovery panel with the backup now option assuming it was only going to backup the data files. After which about half a day of the recovery running, I checked the status and it is creating a NEW system image.

My question is if I end the backup now in the middle of the creation of the new system image (since it would be a pointless system image since it's the system I'm trying to revert from) will it retain my older system image, or am I screwed and it has already deleted my older system image and I may as well let it finish creating this new one?

ignatzatsonic · 21 Dec 2015

I can't answer your question directly.

Windows Backup is cryptic, a bit inflexible, and prone to misunderstandings and confusion. That's exactly why I gave up on it.

I'd suggest you think of your backup tasks as being in 2 categories:

1: Backup of Windows itself and all installed applications, using an imaging program.
2: Backup of everything else---typically your personal data, WITHOUT using imaging.

I'd use a separate program to do each of those tasks. I'd do the former perhaps weekly or monthly and the latter daily if not more often.

A program like Macrium or Acronis or Aomei Backupper could make an image within 10 minutes to an hour, depending on how much space is occupied on your Windows partition.

A program such as FreeFileSync or Synctoy can backup personal data with a single mouse click. The first backup might take hours, but subsequent later backups are much quicker. I back up 90,000 files occupying about 600 GB daily and the procedure takes anywhere from 30 to 80 seconds, rarely more.