Substitute NEW backup to OLD incremental backups

[dejudicibus]

I use Veeam Agent for Windows to backup my system on an external SSD. Of course I use an incremental backup. However that is filling my 4TB SSD because each increment takes in consideration all changes, so the sum of all increments is by far much larger than the HDD that is backup. Is it possible to have another backup from scratch and, if successful, remove the old backup and all the old incremental backups? What is the exact procedure?

Thank you in advance

[HannesK]

Hello,
if you want to save disk space, then reducing the retention is the easiest solution.

Yes, you can also create a new full backup. That would be active or synthetic full backup. Old full and incremental backups will be deleted only if the retention policy it met. So this approach requires more disk space than the first one.

Best regards,
Hannes

[dejudicibus]

ok, But how can i reduce the retention? I read this page: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=50
It seems clear but I do not understand if that is what the agent does by default or if I have to activate some option. I cannot find any "retention" option in settings or in the backup job edit panel.
What I have to do? Is there a way to understand how much space the backup is taking on my local storage and if it is really the minimum or there is room for optimization?

[dejudicibus]

PS. If I click on my backup job, I get a context menu that says:

Backup Now
Active full backup
Standalone full backup

Which are the differences? What I have to do to save space?

[HannesK]

just to clarify: reducing backup retention is only for new backups. existing backups keep their configured retention.

per default you don't need to configure anything except the amount of days / restore points you want to keep. 7 is the default

right click should also offer to open the control panel. in the job settings you can configure the retention.

to save space, you don't want to create any full backup. Reducing the number of days to keep saves disk space

You can also just delete everything and start from new if like. that's up to you.