Cannot backup using Windows 7

[Kenrolli]

Hi there folks, am new to this forum so would like to say hi to all those helpful people around the world!
I cannot seem to make an image backup of my C drive onto my new 500Gb drive (R) as it tells me I do not have enough space which I find rather strange as it is new and completely empty but obviously formatted. I would appreciate any help with this, the PC is a new build running Windows 7 Ultimate with 2Gb RAM. I guess it may have something to do with my choice of letter for the drive?
If any more info is needed please ask, thanks guys, Kenrolli...

P.S. I want to backup my complete OS in case of disk failure!!

 

[richc46]

Hi there folks, am new to this forum so would like to say hi to all those helpful people around the world!
I cannot seem to make an image backup of my C drive onto my new 500Gb drive (R) as it tells me I do not have enough space which I find rather strange as it is new and completely empty but obviously formatted. I would appreciate any help with this, the PC is a new build running Windows 7 Ultimate with 2Gb RAM. I guess it may have something to do with my choice of letter for the drive?
If any more info is needed please ask, thanks guys, Kenrolli...

P.S. I want to backup my complete OS in case of disk failure!!

Click on the my computer icon. What do you see for your back up partition and how much space did you devote to it?

Personally, I have a 500gb hard drive and I set aside 50 gb for back up. Back up includes system image, backup and restore and system restore.

Back is done on a periodic basis by default.

I just know when you check out your drive, you will realize that you have to increase the size of your recovery partition.

You probably have a back up, already, which is made periodically, by default. It is the back up called system image.

In lieu of that, and probably better off, save to an external hard drive.

 

[Kenrolli]

Hi Richard and thanks for the reply! Am I correct in thinking that I should partition my new drive (R) at say 50Gb specifically for backup only and will this solve the problem that I have? I ask because I cannot understand why it should say that I do not have enough space when in fact I have 500Gb of space?? Sorry if I sound vague but it seems such an strange problem for an easy task, or what should be anyway. Thanks again for your help, Kenrolli..

P.S. I tried to devote the whole 500Gb for backup, maybe that is my problem?

 

[richc46]

Hi Richard and thanks for the reply! Am I correct in thinking that I should partition my new drive (R) at say 50Gb specifically for backup only and will this solve the problem that I have? I ask because I cannot understand why it should say that I do not have enough space when in fact I have 500Gb of space?? Sorry if I sound vague but it seems such an strange problem for an easy task, or what should be anyway. Thanks again for your help, Kenrolli..

P.S. I tried to devote the whole 500Gb for backup, maybe that is my problem?

Check out your drives. One was designated as back up, when you installed Wind7. In fact it should have asked for the drive letter and how much space you wanted to devote.
The drive (according to your post it may be r), should be increased in size to an appropriate amount of space. You should then be good to go.

We are here to help, return if you experience any problems.

You can get instructions by going to the help section, by start up button, and putting in the word partition.

When you are done you should have about 400gb for your OS, programs, documents, etc. The backup partition and possibly a third very small partition, which is sometimes installed by Win7

 

[Kenrolli]

Hi Rich I have tried to backup again and have included a screenshot for you to checkout if you don't mind, thanks, Kenrolli.

 

[Joan Archer]

Hi there folks, am new to this forum so would like to say hi to all those helpful people around the world!
I cannot seem to make an image backup of my C drive onto my new 500Gb drive (R) as it tells me I do not have enough space which I find rather strange as it is new and completely empty but obviously formatted. I would appreciate any help with this, the PC is a new build running Windows 7 Ultimate with 2Gb RAM. I guess it may have something to do with my choice of letter for the drive?
If any more info is needed please ask, thanks guys, Kenrolli...

P.S. I want to backup my complete OS in case of disk failure!!

Is your new 500 GB drive an internal one or an external drive ? Did you format the new drive and what file system is it formatted as, I take it it's NTFS.

When you start to set up the backup does it recognize the drive as the one where the backup will be stored.?

What size drive is your install of Windows 7 on at the moment ?

I can't really help but I'm just throwing out ideas in case something comes to mind you may have missed.

 

[r2l]

never use an OS back up. its better to use a boot disc back up program, so when your **** fails you can use that disc, with no worries.

 

[richc46]

It appears that you do not have a drive to save your backups. The most that I can do is share my expertise with you. You are welcome to take advantage of my experience and that of others that may come along to help, but there is not guarantee that it will work. Furthermore, I do not like making changes without having a back up to fall back on if things get messed up.

I will give you several suggestions. If it were me I would make a copy of my HD on an external HD, first, if you have the equipment.

One solution, if you did not load too many programs is that you can reinstall. When asked make a back up drive of about 50gb.

The second solution is to use the free appl, G parted and make a second partition of about 50gb and designate that as your backup drive.

GParted -- Download

You probably cannot use the partition manager that is included with Win 7, because you will be using the Drive that you want to change.

If you cannot back up your HD to some external, take your time, go slow and come back as many times as your find necessary. I may not always be available, but everyone here is great and look forward to the opportunity to help.

PS I agree 100% with the above poster. If you put your back up on the same HD, if your HD fails, tough luck, so to speak.

 

[IggyAZ]

never use an OS back up. its better to use a boot disc back up program, so when your **** fails you can use that disc, with no worries.

Don't know if you know this but Win7 has this. You make a receovery disk to boot from if your system fails. Win7 restore runs flawlessly from the recovery disk.

 

[Kenrolli]

In reply to Joan

Thanks Joan for your words, my OS is installed on a 500Gb disk partitioned into two x 250Gb sections. I have installed another 500Gb disk (internal) and formatted that to NTFS and it is recognised ok however when I try to backup onto this disk it says that I do not have enough space? This is my only problem and cannot understand why this should happen.
I'd like to say a big thank you to all that have replied, this has to be the best and most friendliest forum I have been part of, thanks you for you kind help.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are you positive you are trying to back up only the C partition of your primary drive? Or are you trying to back up an entire 500 GB drive (both partitions) onto another 500 GB drive?

 

[kwack]

Just to add to thsi thread - I have exactly the same problem as described.

New 1.5tb drive formatted fine, can save to HDD and then when try to do a backup it says the same message as the guy says. The backup it is trying to perform is 50gb so why it doesnt have space i DONT KNOW

 

[Kenrolli]

Just to add to thsi thread - I have exactly the same problem as described.

New 1.5tb drive formatted fine, can save to HDD and then when try to do a backup it says the same message as the guy says. The backup it is trying to perform is 50gb so why it doesnt have space i DONT KNOW

Yes this is exactly what I am saying all along, I have a new 500Gb formatted for NTFS and when I try to do a backup of my complete C drive it just says I do not have enough space!!

 

[Jonathan_King]

I know it seems like a lot of trouble, but have either of you tried a Repair Install?

 

[Kenrolli]

Hi Johnathan and thanks for the idea but it seems a bit extreme to me as I only built this thing 2 months ago and I didn't think I would have any problem backing up in this way? I don't really fancy going through all that but if all else fails I may have to, thanks again for your comment, cheers, Ken.

 

[kwack]

What would a repair install do as I do not have a image or backup to use?

 

[Jonathan_King]

If you have a copy of the installation media (thumb drive, DVD, files on the hard drive), you can do a Repair Install. Just run setup.exe.

 

[richc46]

A repair install, using the Win7 DVD, is basically an upgrade. Any corruption or problems that have been introduced to your OS, will be corrected. You do not lose any personal documents, pictures, etc

 

[kwack]

Ok got it - what about programs will they still work or will they need re-installing

 

[Jonathan_King]

They will still work.