Hi all

more mechanically minded than IT, so could use some advice.
PC backs up onto remote drive to try to prevent loss of pictures etc if PC dies.
Remote HD almost full due to back up taking up 250gb
There are various back up periods with files of pretty large size. reading Windows help page, my understanding is that it keeps making a complete back up of all the selected files, then after another period of time carries out another complete back up.
Is it safe to delete some of the older back ups to free up disc space?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/what-backup-settings-should-i-use-to-maximize-my-disk-space

I don’t use the Windows software so I’m not familiar with it. The following advice might not suit you, so read up a bit more before you delete anything

I do full back ups and then delete the oldest to make space for the newest. There are disadvantages with this approach:
Older virus-free back ups get deleted and newer versions of files that may have picked up a virus are kept
You may have deleted/damaged some files between back ups that you want to restore from older versions, except you’ve deleted the older back up
You can also make incremental backups where the oldest copy is a full back up with just the changes recorded in subsequent back ups. If you delete the oldest in this case it will cause problems

Storage is cheap, if you can afford it then buy more and keep the lot

Backing up the content is good. The OS can be rebuilt really quick.

So long as you have a recent backup then it should be good, if it’s in the same building it’s not a backup though it’s just another copy.

I backup pics etc to the cloud these days.

As above, probably more worth keeping a backup that is 6 months old, and deleting some of the older backups after that point, than just deleting the oldest ones.

Only you can decide how much the data is worth to you and how much you spend on storage to save multiple copies.

I back stuff up like my itunes library fairly infrequently because I know that most of the stuff in it is purchased through it, so I can download fresh copies again from the store if I lose it. For photos and stuff I would probably look at some kind of online backup option.

I sync all my content with Dropbox, so it backs it up 24/7. I don’t backup the OS/Applications as re-installing is pretty straight forward and I’d only lose a day if I had to completely rebuild my work PC with all the Apps (most of the hassle would be finding license keys etc).