How to automatically delete backups older than x days? This guide will tell you 2 ways to make it: Windows built-in tool & AOMEI Backupper.
Computer failure always happens, such as virus, physical disasters, deleting useful files, system breakdown and so on; all of those will cause data to be lost. Once data is missing, the loss will be irreparable. Therefore, you should backup important and useful files or folders.
Usually, users may backup data regularly. Like this, there are many backup images on computer and occupy the limited disk space. If the backup disk is full, no backup can be created. What’s more, if you want to download some movies and games on computer, they will not be stored because of low disk space.
On this occasion, you will choose to delete old backups to free up storage space. At the same time, to avoid such deleting jobs in the future, you may also want to know how to make it automatically delete backups older than x days. Well, just keep reading to get the detailed steps.
As is known to all, Windows offers two built-in tools to help you back up the computer: Backup and Restore utility & File History. Here in this part, you will know how to make Windows 10/8/7 automatically delete Windows image backup and File History backup.
Windows 8/10 follows Backup and Restore in Windows 7. With this utility, users can create system image backup as well as backup hard drive files. Read to know how to make it delete old backups automatically.
Step 1. Click Start > Settings > Update & security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
Step 2. Click Manage space to open Manage Windows Backup disk space window.
Step 3. You can click View backup to directly delete backup files or click Change settings... to change how Windows retains the images.
Step 4. If you choose Change settings..., then you have two choices:
Let Windows manage the space used for backup history
Keep only the latest system image and minimize space used by backup
The first choice is the default option. It will automatically delete old images if the files take up more than 30% of space on the backup drive. Or if you prefer more free space you can choose the latter one to keep only the latest backup.
File History was first introduced in Windows 8 and it’s the primary built-in backup solution in Windows 10. It focuses on backing up personal files. You can make some changes to let it automatically delete backups older than x days.
Step 1. Search Control Panel in the searching box and open it.
Step 2. Open File History in the System and Security section > Click Advanced settings.
Step 3. On the Advanced settings window, you can change how long the saved versions are stored. You can click the Clean up versions option to delete the backup files.
To ensure data security, creating schedule backups is essential. In the past, you may use the Windows built-in tool to help you make it. Along with time flies, the backups are becoming more and more. So you want to know how to make it automatically delete backups older than x days to free up space.
In the previous section, we have talked about how to delete old backups via the Windows built-in tool. And here in this part, we’d like to introduce you a third-party tool that offers more flexible functions related to computer backup and disk space management.
AOMEI Backupper Professional, one powerful Windows 10/8/7 backup software, can meet almost all your needs in different situations. The following are its outstanding features.
Various Backup Solutions. It helps you backup everything you concerned, including the system, disks, partitions, folders, and files.
Schedule Backup. It allows you to set a custom scheduled backup, and then it will automatically perform the backup day by day, week by week or month by month. Thus, you won’t worry about forgetting to backup some files one day.
Different Backup Modes. It offers Full Backup, Incremental Backup and Differential Backup for you to better manage backups.
Backup Scheme. It will automatically delete backup image files based on the type of scheme you choose.
How about give it a try? With the user-friendly interface and timely notification, you can schedule an automatical backup in a few clicks. Check the next part to get the detailed steps.
โ Note: AOMEI Backupper Professional is one paid software but it offers you a 30-day free trial version. Or if you just want to backup your computer (no scheme function), you can get free AOMEI Backupper Standard edition to protect your system and data.
Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 2. Click Backup and then choose one option according to your needs. Here we take File Backup as an example.
Step 3. Click Add File/Add Folder to choose the data you want to backup.
Step 4. Select the backup destination. You can choose to backup to your disk, a USB flash drive, network or a cloud drive.
Step 5. Set backup plan.
Here you can click Schedule to set automatical backup.
To make it delete old backup automatically, please click Scheme to enable the disk space management. There are 5 backup scheme plans you can choose. If you want to let it delete backups automatically older than x days, you can click Other Backup Scheme to make it.
Step 6. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup.
โ Bonus tip: backup files to AOMEI Cloud
As cloud storage is becoming more and more popular, AOMEI offers users its own cloud - AOMEI Cloud. After you sign up for an AOMEI account, you can use 1TB storage for free within 15 days. To backup files to AOMEI Cloud, just click Backup > Cloud Backup.
Now you know how to automatically delete backups older than x days in Windows 10/8/7. If you are using the Windows built-in backup utility, you can easily make it by changing some settings.
Or if you prefer a more flexible way to backup computer and manage the backup files, you can try AOMEI Backupper. It offers more powerful functions compared to the Windows built-in tools, more backup functions, more schedule plans, and more backup scheme options