[NorthstarATL]

Hi!
This is not a huge problem, but I see potential down the road that I'd like to nip in the bud if possible. I have a Dell Inspiron 530, and, in March of this year Dell 'helped' me with a booting issue that resulted in a factory restore and the loss of all files and programs on my C Drive. We were able to restore some files from D, though many items were programs that proved unusable. Since then I have been positively compulsive about backing up files to discs (I do not earn enough to afford an external drive at the moment)and am reasonably certain that should another event occur I would be able to restore this computer's files.
However, back in March, I set up the Vista back-up system to back up certain files weekly on the D drive (having learned my lesson, no programs, no music, or video), and it has reached a point this week where the D drive shows red and has free space of 547 MB free of 14.6 GB. I'd like to clear out some old files, and change the settings so that it doesn't archive files that I'm already storing on discs, but I'm uncertain as to how to go about doing so, and extremely wary about causing any sort of problems that might result in another wipe down the road.

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can you open the d drive and get a screenshot for us...

[happyrock]

can you open the d drive and get a screenshot for us...

[NorthstarATL]

Is that what you were looking for?

[happyrock]

nope...like mine...

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[NorthstarATL]

Ah, I see!
It appears as if each folder opens weekly updates. I'm thinking that since I backed the files up externally I could delete them (not sure whether Vista will allow me to do that; I know that if I attempt disc cleanup, my only option is to empty the recycle bin), but once I do that I still have the same problem in a few weeks unless I change the settings for backing up files.

[happyrock]

you can delete all the old ones but keep 5 of the newest...
NOTE...that partition used to contain a factory fresh copy of the operating system like the day it left the factory...its size is = to 3 DVDs that cost about 10 cents each...it would have been much better to keep it a recovery option and back up your data to a external usb hard drive and DVDs

[NorthstarATL]

Thank you! That makes sense!

[happyrock]

just curious...who convinced you to use the recovery partition to save your backups to

[NorthstarATL]

I don't recall originally, but my own experience with the computer disaster that happened in March. Even though the Dell guy wiped out all my files on the C Drive, he was successful in salvaging what I had on D. Most of that was of no use, though, as the back-up had included all files, so music, programs, and some other items were gone. OTOH, even they gave me a good indication as to what I needed to re-download/install in order to get back up and running. Since then, I've kept a list of all log-ins and passwords, as well as programs on a couple of flash drives, filled DVDs with all other files, and update those almost weekly. Which made the D Drive redundant.
I went ahead and deleted the redundant files from the D drive (I didn't initially know how to do that; Vista makes it a bit difficult), and changed the back-up settings!
Thank you very much for your help!

[happyrock]

your welcome...