I'm running 360 v.6.2.1.5 on a Win7 box, about 6 months old, with twin 1TB hard drives. I use the 2nd (D:) drive exclusively as a backup for the primary. The recycle bin on D: is empty. The backup drive is maxed out even though the entire primary is only about a third full.
The N360_Backup folder contains a single folder ({621BB088-EA9B-4B0C-B616-4F9B4A5FCE53). Inside that folder are a bunch of sub-folders all with the modifies date of my most recent backup and named:
{0
{1
{2
etc....
...to
{9
{A
{B
....to
{F
Are these folders all full backups? Each is around 50-60GB. I had the same issue with my old XP computer and an earlier version of N360. There's obviously something I have wrong in the settings. I don't need 16 copies of my backup set, if that's what it's doing. How do I clear space without deleting at least the most current backup? And how should I have 360 set so it doesn't keep adding full sets (again, assuming that's what it's doing)?
I don't know why I can't get a reply to my question. Maybe I didn't describe it clearly.
Basically I have 2 identical internal HDs. I use the D: drive solely as a backup for C:. The D drive is maxed out and I need to know why and what I can do about it short of deleting all my backup files and starting over
There is only one backup set (Default), so I am ASSUMING (lacking any better information) that N360 is making a whole new copy of the Default set every time it runs. I have the schedule set to AUTO.
IF I am correct, then I can delete the folders numubered 0-9 an A-E, leaving the highest numbered folder as my latest full backup. BUT I'm not willing to do this based on guesses as to how Backup manages files. I need positive information on how to clear space on my drive, and I need to know how to do incremental backups instead of full ones every time.
I've searched the forums and found several instances of this problem from others, but none of them have a solution.It's simply insane that the backup drive has 3X the files on it than the primary, when I'm not even backing up system and program files. This is all content.
oriscus,
Sorry it's taken so long to find your messages. I'm not a 360 expert but I can try to help you.
360 should make a full backup the first time it runs. After that it should make an incremental backup each time it runs until the time comes for a new full backup. It should then make the new full backup and after checking the integrity it will delete the old full backup and its incrementals. This process should continue until such time as you change the parameters of your backup set.
Questions:
What are you backing up?
Where are you backing it up to?
When are you backing up? Note: If you are doing manual backups then each backup is a full independent backup.
Hope this helps. Please post back with your questions and results. There are others who can help and more tools to use if needed.
Thanks for the explanation about what "should" be happening.
What I am backing up is all my created documents and media and certain application settings on the C: drive, but no applications. I have almost no music files and only a few smal video projects. The bulk of my user content is in photos. I do not back up applications or system files. The total used space on my C: drive is about 350GB out of 1TB ( about a third of capacity). I have only one backup set (Default).
Where I am backing it up to is an identical 1TB internal hard drive (D:). There is nothing on that drive other than the Norton 360 backup. It is currently maxed out and is unable to make any more backups.
When it backs up is set to Auto, which I gather means that it works when the computer is idle. Last backup was June 22.I've never run a manual backup. So why is the size of the backup 3X the total space used on the primary drive?
bolsstatement wrote:
After running norton 360 for several years i am on my second hard drive. It is not backing up anymore because it says my drive is full. i would love to clean it out and get rid of old versions of files while keeping the latest. I have read several posts on back up problems and the thing they always say to do it to delete the back up set. 2 questions.
- if i do this will it delete all of my backed up files?
- Will it delete the customized settings i put in for each backup set?
I would really not like to do either of these. exposing my company by deleting all my files is not good. And i spent a lot of time creating the sets to include files types that were not in the norton lists. rebuilding them again would not be fun.
am i right in assuming that the fix to this is to delete the backup sets that would remove ALL of the files from my back up drive and force me to rebuiled the backup sets and start again?
if it helps i am running Norton 360 v. 5.2.2.3 i run a web design company and have about 60 sites worth of files, images, html, php, pdf and office files etc. also lots of music (maybe 25 or 30 G). It's telling me that my 450G backup drive is full while i only have about 130G of files on my system.
any thoughts.
Welcome,
A few comments. The version of 360 you are using is not the latest. Updating might be a good idea. There is a difference in the backup files and the backup sets. If you delete files that action should not touch your backup sets.
The backup of filles and folders creates a full backup each time it runs. This might explain why the drive fills quickly.
Keep us posted
When you say delete the files...do you mean going into windows explorer and manually deleting them? I don't see anything other than delete Backup Set in the Manage Backup tool. am i missing something?
Is there any setting i can use to make it save the last 3 versions of each file rather than a full copy each backup?
Thanks....
I do not want to disagree with dickevans, but I do want to post what may be a different view of things.
Under N360 I am not aware that there is a "backup of files and folders" option. What I believe is supposed to happen under any backup set, is that it should backup all the relevant files the first time and then just do an incremental backup of any additional or changed files when it is subsequently run. I have however found a number of occasions when it has not done this but mysteriously started another full backup which it seems to put in the same backup set on the backup disk. However for some reason if this happens it does not seem to be able to see the previous files and so you end up with large backups much of which is inaccessible. If this happens you may want to delete the lot and start again, hoping that there is no disaster between the delete and the new full backup.
You do not say how many different backup sets you have running or why. Are there many?
It is my understanding that under the latest N360 you have two sets of delete options:-
Delete backup set (which removes the settings but leaves the files for you to recover in future - it also continues to take up disk space).
and
Delete backup set and files (which removes the files so that you recover disk space but lose access to the files and the settings that you had previously set)
So both options loose your carefully prepared settings bolsstatement. However what you could try, if you can identify which set of backup files are relevant to which backup set.... is to just delete the files from the backup disk. I am not sure but this might leave the settings alone and allow you to start again clean. I have not tried this but is seem to leave you no worse off than you were. If you do try this please post back here and let us know if it works.
Finally - you ask about retaining multiple old versions of your files. It is my understanding that with the current version of N360 only one copy of any file is retained (well in a restorable condition that is).
I hope the above was of some use. If you have any questions - just ask.
Good luck.