Windows 8.1 Using recovery

Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to make
a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the external drive
keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's understandable). But is there a
way to delete the older backup data on the external drive, and just keep the
last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone will suggest asking Samsung about this, and
I already have, but have had no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.

There are a couple settings for hard drives.

They're related to VSS (volume shadow service).

One setting may control the amount of space used
for System Restore. For restore points on C:, you
only need around 3GB, and on Windows 8/8.1, automatic
restore points aren't made all that often (once a week
maybe). The storage rolls over, with older restore points
being deleted automatically, to make room for new ones.
The chief advantage of System Restore, is it makes a copy of
the five Registry files. Those are sometimes used as part
of restoring the Registry after an "incident".

There is also a storage setting for amount of
disk to be used for backups. By default (even on
an external drive), it might be set to 30% of capacity.
Whereas a typical user might want to use the entire
disk for backups.

Well designed backup software, automatically "cycles".
If it finds the storage folder "bumping against the limit",
it deletes the oldest backup automatically. And in terms of
what is deleted, "full sets" are deleted. If a backup
software is doing incremental or differential backups say,
the backup software may delete a "full" backup, plus
all of the backups that rely on the "full" for their
proper operation.

Full 1
Incremental 1a
Incremental 1b
Incremental 1c
Full 2
Incremental 2a
Incremental 2b
Incremental 2c

In that example, if the external was out of space (has hit
the 30% limit), and could not save Incremental 2d, or it
could not save Full 3, it would delete Full 1 and the
three Incrementals associated with Full 1. That's
the basic premise. It doesn't just delete the entries
one at a time. It deletes in terms of "consistent sets".
A half-a-backup is worth nothing to you, and the software
knows that.

Now, having said all that, Windows 7 has Windows Backup,
capable of file or partition backups. The software has
been slowly degraded with later OSes. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
differ in their support. A command line option (wbadmin) could
be used, for when the GUI was not visible or available.

In your case, it sounds like third-party software is being
used. Maybe it's a software product by NTI, instead of Microsoft.
You would need to find the storage configuration section
of that software, see if the default is 30%, and adjust it
as you see fit. It may have, as its base, the same mechanism
as Windows Backup would have. And a proprietary control panel
achieves similar results.

If you need more help, see if the software has a name.
Or using the Help or About menu items, find out who makes
it, name and details etc.

Paul

On Sun, 24 May 2015 10:47:31 -0700, "Fishermun"
wrote:

Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to make
a backup of my complete hard drive,

My internal parser crashed when I encountered the phrase, "using Restore to
make a backup", but since it's capitalized I guess it's safe to assume that
Restore is the name of a backup (and restore) program?

to a external drive, the external drive
keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's understandable). But is there a
way to delete the older backup data on the external drive, and just keep the
last 2 - 3 backup data.

They're just files. Delete the older ones like you'd delete any file.

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.




You use System Restore to make a backup of your complete hard drive ?


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Sun, 24 May 2015 18:10:05 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.




You use System Restore to make a backup of your complete hard drive ?

I'll be surprised if Restore == System Restore, but stranger things have
happened.

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 24 May 2015 18:10:05 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.




You use System Restore to make a backup of your complete hard drive ?

I'll be surprised if Restore == System Restore, but stranger things have
happened.

Now that you mentioned and after searching maybe this RESTORE is the
application.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/restore/


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 24 May 2015 18:10:05 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.




You use System Restore to make a backup of your complete hard drive ?

I'll be surprised if Restore == System Restore, but stranger things have
happened.

Hi, Char.
The op responded by email (possibly in error in sending it here) and
noted the problem is solved.

Fyi, the program wasn't System Restore or Restore (Source Forge free
app) or not anything previously discussed.
- it was the backup program included with the Samsung. It was not even
called 'Restore' but 'Recovery'.



--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Tue, 26 May 2015 13:18:54 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 24 May 2015 18:10:05 -0400, ". . .winston"
wrote:

Fishermun wrote:
Samsung Laptop, Windows 8.1 all updates in place. When using Restore to
make a backup of my complete hard drive, to a external drive, the
external drive keeps getting fuller, and fuller. (that's
understandable). But is there a way to delete the older backup data on
the external drive, and just keep the last 2 - 3 backup data. Someone
will suggest asking Samsung about this, and I already have, but have had
no response so far. Just asking. Thanks.




You use System Restore to make a backup of your complete hard drive ?

I'll be surprised if Restore == System Restore, but stranger things have
happened.

Hi, Char.
The op responded by email (possibly in error in sending it here) and
noted the problem is solved.

Fyi, the program wasn't System Restore or Restore (Source Forge free
app) or not anything previously discussed.
- it was the backup program included with the Samsung. It was not even
called 'Restore' but 'Recovery'.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'm glad it all worked out.

On Tue, 26 May 2015 14:22:36 -0400, Paul wrote:

The available comments, seem to imply a partition on the laptop
drive stores the backups. Example here. (Disk Management picture...)

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...568bba351087f5

And some feedback about that partition contents, here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-re...ld-backup.html

"When I look at D: using Windows Explorer, all the used space
is in the D:\SamsungRecovery directory, and its contents are
several files which have a name like user1.XXX. Most of the
files are exactly 4 GB in size. They are obviously some custom
Samsung file format. None can obviously be deleted."

Which means, at the very least, the storage format is FAT32
compatible. They tried to stay with 4GB-1 byte file sizes,
so the contents could be stored on a FAT32 partition.

It's still not really giving a clue as to who wrote it.
And where we might hope to get a manual. I tried looking through
an online download, and couldn't find a PDF in there.

I restored a Samsung laptop a few years ago for a lady. Those 4GB files were
Ghost archives. The file extensions were .GHO, then .001, .002, etc.

No idea if they're still doing that.