Had a QUESTION.  I routinely back up my Windows Vista PC on my Seagate Harddrive.
Thing is, more and more space is consumed so I have very little left.

The folder hosues every single back-up I have done. 
WANTED to KNOW if I have to keep all the back-ups, or if I can delete them and just keep the most recent.
I am starting to get very low on memory.

Note:  Tonight I deleted them all; am currently backing up everything and it is taking forever!Some general recommendations.
Make progressive backups. Backups that  reflect the differences.
Keep the first backup you make of the system on a DVD or blew-ray. That is you panic mode backup.
After that, concentrate on backups of your PERSONAL stuff that can not be recovered. You can always install the OS and programs from the original CDs. Or download them again from  the Internet. Consider getting a large cheap drive. the older PATA 500 GB drives and now pretty low cost.
True, some external drives are not as good as you want then to be. But for backup they do the job.
Example:
Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive  $70 at Amazon.

1)  So....keep the 1st backup....but every backup afterwards can be deleted....just delete them BEFORE making the next bakcup?

Example....did 2 backups....call them 1 and 2.
Delete 2...keep 1....then do 3?


2) Why is it each time I backup I lose more and more space?

3) Is there anyway I can do a snapshot...so that if there ever is a problem...I can restore it to how it was before?
-For some reason I have a "media ID bin" (is that it) but it was last done in November and I do not know how to re-do it.No exactly. It goes like this:
Make a full backup of you system.
Do a full backup of My documents.
Every day make an Incremental Backup of My documents.
Every week do an Incremental Backup of the System.

This works better if My Documents is on another volume.

Here is a basic crash-course on incremental backup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_backup

Some products already have this built-in.

This company has free software that may suit your needs. Anyway, just reading the documentation is worth your time.
http://www.easeus.com/download.htm

Does that help any?I'm confused.

I thought this was easy, just get a backup drive, and backup...now you're talking incremential, daily, weekly?

I got another question, my Back up disc folder claims in the "My PC" folder, I have only 8.49 of MB stored.
In this folder, it contains:

-backup set which contains:
   backup 2-4-2012
   backup 2-23-2012
   backup 3-17-2012
     (all of these claim folder is empty)

then another sub-folder called "catalogs"
   "Globalcatalog.wbcat" (3-17-2012) at 8.49 MB

So what does this mean?  Do I need to keep 2-4 and 2-23?  Is my PC in fact backed up fully and I can restore from here?I think we need more details from you.  What software are you using for backups?  Exactly what is your procedure?  What choices/options (full, incremental, differential) are you choosing when you do backups? Quote from: bluecountry on February 04, 2012, 12:00:32 AM

Had a question.  I routinely back up my Windows Vista PC on my Seagate Harddrive.
Thing is, more and more space is consumed so I have very little left.

The folder hosues every single back-up I have done. 
Wanted to know if I have to keep all the back-ups, or if I can delete them and just keep the most recent.
I am starting to get very low on memory.

Note:  Tonight I deleted them all; am currently backing up everything and it is taking forever!