Backup Disk Space Full

[kloofnek]

I keep getting a message on this laptop that backup Disk Space full...have had this for a while.Went to the drive which is HP_Tools (E:) on this machine and it is all red as it is full.Have tried to free up space to no avail.
Is there some way I can put what is on the drive onto a USB pen drive?

[bhg481]

I don't think that HP_Tools is intended for backups. It's a small partition, created just to hold recovery tools etc (only 99MB om my HP laptop). You should be backing-up onto a second hard drive.

[kloofnek]

Mine has a recovery drive (D:)20.5 GB
The afore mentioned has 3.95 GB
Then I have a Local Disk (C:) has 906 GB which is practically empty

There is 3 Hard Disk Drives in all

[kloofnek]

How would I back up on another hard drive?

[hc4361]

Have you looked at what is on that drive?
My guess is that everything is on there that should be on your C drive.
If you are sure the files are not backups move them all to C.

If you have any programs on E they need to moved to C as well.

[kloofnek]

Oh Lord,how do I do that!!!

[bhg481]

No Kloofnek, there is ONE hard disc (!TB), split into 3 partitions. There is no point in backing up the data on your C drive to either the D or E drive, because it is one single piece of hardware. If you have a disc failure you will lose all three discs.
Depending on the model of your laptop you may, or may not, have room inside for another hard drive (you will need to buy a caddy to put it in, if you have). Your best option is to buy an external hard drive and backup to that. They are not expensive and just plug into one of your USB sockets - you only need to plug it in when you want to backup and there is argument for leaving it unplugged at all other times as some malware seems to be able to get at all drives on your computer. You can buy a 1TB external drive for less than £50 - since your C drive is only 906GB that will clearly be large enough.

[bhg481]

How would I back up to a different hard drive? How do you currently do your backups? You must specify a drive. If you add an external hard drive it will be given a drive letter - use that letter instead of "E" in you backup prog.

[kloofnek]

I do not put the backup manually,it does it automatically.
How can I empty the said drive??

[kloofnek]

This is my laptop.HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
Product Number:A8K06EA#ABU
Serial Number:2CE1500NH6
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1

AMD A6-3430MX APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.70GHz

[bhg481]

You must have setup the backup somehow, because mine doesn't do it automatically. However you did it, it must specify a drive. If you "explore" that drive you should find files on there that you recognise as your own data. Once you've got a new drive you can re-setup your backups to use the new drive and then delete the unwanted files from E.

[kloofnek]

Honestly,I never chose a backup drive ,also how would I know which files to delete,what if they are necessary ones?

[bhg481]

Right - I've got a dv7, so I'm guessing they're fairly similar. Furthermore I've had a bit of time to think and I've realised that your D and E drives are set up by HP when the system is created, all the information required by HP for recovery etc is put onto those discs at install time and they are only ever READ by HP. If you have put any extra information on them IT DOES NOT MATTER - you will NOT need to delete it. If D and/or E is full there is NOT a problem as far as the system is concerned. The only problem, as far as YOU are concerned, is that your backups are no longer any good, because there is insufficient room for them.
What you need to do is get an external hard-drive and connect it up. You then go into Control Panel > Backup and Restore and change the destination of the backup from E drive to the new drive. Just ignore the fact that your E drive is full - IT DOESN'T MATTER. It will NOT affect your ability to repair your system (if you need to) and your backup data will be on your new drive.

[kloofnek]

Thank you so much,bhg.was getting worried.Will think about getting an external drive(won`t a USB pen drive do?) and get someone to set it up for me.
Have a nice evening.

[bhg481]

I think a USB pen drive probably would be OK for you, or even (say) an SDHC card. My laptop has an SDHC reader built in, so I have an SDHC card permanently in it and I use if for backing up some things - anything really to get them onto a separate piece of hardware from your main data.

[kloofnek]

Thank You