How to Automatically Delete Backups Older than X Days

The need to automatically delete backups older than x days

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.

• Part 1. Let Windows 10/8/7 automatically delete old backups
• Part 2. A flexible way to automatically delete old backups

Part 1. How to let Windows 10/8/7 automatically delete old backups

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.

Delete Windows image backup in Windows 10/8/7

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.

Delete File History backup in Windows 10/8

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.

Part 2. A flexible way to automatically delete old backups

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.

Best Windows 10/8/7 backup software that can automatically remove old backups

Qiling Disk Master 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.

How to automatically remove backups older than x days with Qiling Disk Master?

◆ Note: Qiling Disk Master 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 Qiling Disk Master Standard edition to protect your system and data.

Step 1. Download, install and launch Qiling Disk Master Professional.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Step 2. Click Backup and then choose one option according to your needs. Here we take File Backup as an example.

Step 3. Click Files/Folderes 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 Proceed.

★ Bonus tip: backup files to Qiling Cloud

As cloud storage is becoming more and more popular, Qiling offers users its own cloud - Qiling Cloud. After you sign up for an Qiling account, you can use 1TB storage for free within 15 days. To backup files to Qiling Cloud, just click Backup > Cloud Backup.

Conclusion

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 Qiling Disk Master. It offers more powerful functions compared to the Windows built-in tools, more backup functions, more schedule plans, and more backup scheme options

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