Backing up

[slid_away]

Hi All
I bought a 500GB hard drive a couple of months ago to back up my computer. I have set it to back up once a week.
I only have 99GB of storage left.
My question is, am I ok to delete previous back ups? I am not sure if it will only back up added info, rather than the whole lot again. I don't want to delete previous back ups if I am going to lose info.
Any help would be great
Many thanks

[VHG]

What program are you using to do the backup?

You really need to find out what type of backup you are doing, a full back each time, or only backup changes.

You sound as though you are backing up everything every time you do a backup.

You dont really need to do this as most of the files dont change (the Windows files for example).

What you need to do is a full backup say every month or every two months.

Then backup JUST your personal files every so often (daily, weekly or whatever).

If you have been doing a full backups then you can delete some of the older backups.

[slid_away]

I will double check but I am pretty sure I am doing a full back up. Thinking about it though, it doesn't matter if I do delete all the previous back ups, as long as I do a full new back up, I should capture everything. Am I right in thinking this?
Thank you for taking the time to answer.

[VHG]

If you are doing a full backup then it will copy EVERYTHING on your computer to the external hard drive. This will include all the Windows and program files, PLUS your personal files.

If you are happy you have all your personal files safe somewhere then delete the older backups and do a new one.

But it is a good idea to backup your personal files separatly from doing a full backup, because you may need to recover a personal file which you may have accidently deleted but you may not be able to recover it from "within" your full back up.

If your personal files are backed up separately it will be easier to recover an individual file.

[slid_away]

Thank you. I will have a look and change my settings.