HP Pavilion dv2500t, Vista Ultimate (x64)

The USB drive I'm using to Backup Files is filling up too fast because Backup and Restore keeps adding new copies of unchanged files to the backup set. How can I make it only save new and modified files? Thanks.

Same problem here. I think I have too many shadow copies. I played with it and made a mistake and now I'm 3/4th full on my back-up and restore disk. I have my recovery disk. The stupid thing confuses me. Anybody got any help for us????????

You can limit the size of the Shadowstorage capacity (this is where the System restore copies are saved). I think it's default size is around 15% of your HDD and for some with small drives or not much room this can be too much. I limit mine to around 6GB as this means I have at least one or two Restore's saved (a system restore size is typically 300MB).
To do this you need to look in your start menu and find 'Command Prompt'.
Then you need to right-click on this and choose 'run as administrator', you will then see a black box open on the desktop. In the black box type this word for word including spaces, it has to be exact otherwise it will not work:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=6000MB

Then hit enter and if you've typed it correctly you'll see dialogue telling you the shadowstorage has been resized correctly. If you have more than one hard drive and you have the Vista install on D or E change the above letters accordingly. Also you can change the size, if you want to use a 4GB size then type 4000MB, as long as it's 300MB or more you'll get System restore copies saved.

Just to add, you can 'clear' your 'old' saved copies too... If you find 'Disk Clean-up' in the start menu, click on it and then hit 'more options'. Here you'll find at the bottom of the page an option to clear old system restores and shadow copies. It will always save at least one so don't worry about not having a copy at all. Remember you can always go and make another system restore yourself via the control panel.

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AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

Kemical,

That sounds like good advice, but what does it have to do with Backup Files adding unchanged files to the backup set when it's supposed to be doing an incremental backup? The best suggestion I've had came from the moderator of another forum, who advised me not to try using the MS file backup. I am now checking out Amacom Back2Normal and it seems to do what I need.

I turned my back up off temporarily because it copies to quick for me. I'd rather be able to control the amount of what's copied. Amacom Back2Normal ? I'll check these options out. Amacom Back2Normal - Reviews and free Amacom Back2Normal downloads at Download.com

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Celestra

Sorry I forgot to answer that bit lol... As far as I'm aware, Vista takes a 'snapshot' of your current system and saves that as a back-up.. As apposed to just adding the latest data.

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AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

i think incremental backup on Norton Ghost does this too. there is no way to prevent it in a windows set up

Here is a followup on backup. The Windows Complete PC Backup has worked well for recovering to an earlier time. Back2Normal has worked very well for recovering individual files and folders from backup, but I discovered that many Windows updates fail if I try to install them while Back2Normal is installed. Origin Storage is working on this problem. Meanwhile I am uninstalling Back2Normal after each use, and have changed my Windows Update settings to never install automatically, just download and inform me. After the problems I had with Windows file backup, I haven't tried to use it again.

By the way, I noticed that definition updates for Windows Defender are still getting installed automatically, and don't even wait for a check for updates. I wonder if this is right. Luckily these don't seem to be bothered by Back2Normal.