Backup drive taking up too much space

Question

I have a backup drive (D:) on my Inspiron E1405 laptop that takes up 25.2 GB. How do I delete most of my backup files to recover that lost space? I have an external Hard Drive and I don't need to backup my files at all. I've already tried deleting system restore points but that didn't seem to work. Any help? Thanks--

tr4 · Answer

You could wipe out all partitions and then just use it all as c

Nicolas.Arguell · Answer

I don't want to delete my partition, I simply want to *delete old backup files* so that my backup drive doesn't take up too much space (25 GB!). Please help.

james_g · Answer

If it's a single internal hard drive that has multiple partitions, you can just manually delete the data in windows and you will have an empty 25 Gb partition. If you want the partition to go away completely and not be separate then you have to delete the partition and extend the primary (C) partition to the remainder of the drive. Be careful though, you could end up wiping your entire system in trying this.

james_g · Answer

Were you originally using a program to back up data to that partition? If you were you may need to use that software to get to it. What exactly is telling you that the Partition is presently full?

Nicolas.Arguell · Answer

I don't want to remove the partition (D:). And I can't manually delete the files because I can't find them. I see no files in D: yet it says it has 25 GB full of data. I've tried to view hidden files but that doesn't work. Isn't there a simple way to DELETE OLD BACKUP FILES?

Nicolas.Arguell · Answer

Thanks for your help James. My C drive has a capacity of 80 GB and has about 25 GB free. My D drive (that says 'Backup') has a capacity of 25.3 GB and has 25.3 GB in use (full). What I want to do is delete some old backup files to make the D drive smaller. I am not using a backup utility program except for the standard Windows XP backup utility. ? ? ?

james_g · Answer

You are probalby going to have to use the computer management system to reformat the partition. I still don't understand how windows is telling you that it has nearly all of it in use but windows doesn't show any files on the D partition at all

james_g · Answer

Well, if you aren't using it then you theoretically don't need it and can reformat it. Im' not going to make any guarantees though (have to leave room for the unknown)

Nicolas.Arguell · Answer

Nothing will happen to my computer if I delete the backup partition?

Windows General

Backup drive taking up too much space

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