Automatic file backup - dont know what its about

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Ive had a balloon pop up saying that there is not enough space on Recovery D to back up my files.

It seems to have been doing this automatically and I am not sure if its been happening cos I clicked on something wrong when I was going through all that cant back up to discs stuff recently?

Does everyones computer back up to Recovery D? And what do I do now about there not being enough space please?

[Guest]

Heather I had that problem seems its common on Vista take a look at this and good luck
Gateway Support - Low Disk Space on Drive D:

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh Val, that looks scarey. Did you do it and it was ok?

When I do the check it says I have 3.82 of space but the line is all red as though there isnt any space on the Recovery D disc?

[Guest]

yes I did Heather and it was fine just make sure you dont delete your recovery file.
If you google you may find a easier to understand version, its a wide spread problem which makes you wonder why it wasnt sorted before Vista came onto the market ???

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Val, it says, make a recovery disk. It tells you to go to the programs list and choose Gateway Recovery but I dont have that in my list of programs???

[Cloggie]

You will only have a "Gateway Recovery" program if you have a Gateway computer. The link Val provided is specific to Gateway computers.

[Cloggie]

When I do the check it says I have 3.82 of space but the line is all red as though there isnt any space on the Recovery D disc?

My backups also go to my D drive. My indicator bar is also red as the drive is nearly full - I only have 13.9 GB free of 298 GB. In my case I'm going to delete the old backup files I no longer need and/or transfer them to an external hard disk.
I don't know if this is what's causing your problem, but if you click on the folders in your D drive, you should be able to see whether you have a long list of old backup folders and files.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

you will only have a "gateway recovery" program if you have a gateway computer. The link val provided is specific to gateway computers.

doh!

[Heather Positive Thinker]

My backups also go to my D drive. My indicator bar is also red as the drive is nearly full - I only have 13.9 GB free of 298 GB. In my case I'm going to delete the old backup files I no longer need and/or transfer them to an external hard disk.
I don't know if this is what's causing your problem, but if you click on the folders in your D drive, you should be able to see whether you have a long list of old backup folders and files.

How do I do that though Sarah?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Ive tried to look and in one file alone I seem to have 20 odd files all done on the same day. I think that must have been when I was trying to copy to a cd and gettign in a mess? Can I just click on them and delete them then?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh, I think thats what it was Sarah. Somehow when I was trying to copy all my documents to a file to burn to cd they kept being backed up to the Recovery disk? Ive deleted a load which were all a couple of minutes after each other on 28 June and huge gbs. I hope thats the right thing.

[Cloggie]

How do I do that though Sarah?

The same way as you would open any other folders and files. In "My Computer", double-click on your D drive, then double-click on a folder to see what's in it...
In my case, there is a folder with my computer's name. Double-clicking on that shows another folder called "Backup set...", and when I open that up I get a list of backup folders going back a couple of years. In my case I don't need 2 years worth of backup folders and files, and can go through and delete some of the older ones or move them to my external hard drive.

Like I said above, your issue may not be the same as mine, but you could check to see if you've got a long list of old backup files on your D drive.

There is lots of info about backups on the Microsoft site. Here are some links:
Windows XP and Windows Vista | File Backup and Resource Center
Windows XP: Back up your files
Windows Vista: A Guide to Windows Vista Backup Technologies

[Cloggie]

Oh, I think thats what it was Sarah. Somehow when I was trying to copy all my documents to a file to burn to cd they kept being backed up to the Recovery disk? Ive deleted a load which were all a couple of minutes after each other on 28 June and huge gbs. I hope thats the right thing.

I think that's ok, especially if it's all the same backup files over and over on the same day. Of course you don't want to delete all your backup files, but it's ok to get rid of ones that are obviously duplicates.

[Guest]

oops sorry Heather gave you the wrong link glad you got sorted then

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Val, I wonder if thats why you had a prob aswell, as you kept trying to copy files didnt you? It seems like every time I was trying to copy the files to the cd that time, they were going on that recovery disk for some reason.

Thanks for a bit of guidance Sarah xxxx

See Val, if you go to that back up program, theres a box asking if you want to back up to dvd/cd or that Recovery disk. The recovery disk seems to be set as default. I guess when I kept trying to add the documents to the cd they just kept going on that back up recovery thing. I really dont understand it at all, but that seems to have been the problem.

[Guest]

yes I found that too Heather have changed it now to back up to my external drive, stupid system though isnt it ?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Are you supposed to do that Val? Im still fumbling but isnt the Recovery D drive the one that copies stuff for the system restore program (not that mine works anyway)

Yes, it is stupid, about time that they sorted it all out.

[Guest]

I dont want anything going on the D drive really as you say the system restore is a joke anyway.
Touch wood this Laptop is wonderful I love it no problems as yet .

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Im not getting balloons telling me the last automatic back up hasnt worked :( It tells me to try again for a complete new back up but I just keep getting error messages. Gawd.