Windows server backup not purging data

[FATILA]

Have been using this tool since server 2008 with no issue until now. I have a daily full metal backup running to a dedicated disk. Each additional backup is set to "faster" which should be incremental so only changed data is copied over each night. The new problem? On recent reinstall WSB now won't overwrite old data. When the disk runs out of space backups start failing. The expected behaviour is that the older copies are deleted to make way for the newer ones, as the tool has always worked before. When I ran into this problem some weeks back I reinitialised the disk and started the backup from scratch, and now it has happened again.

 

Is this some VSS issue? I would prefer not to use full backups each night to lessen disk wear and overall system load.

[binaryzero]

Is this some VSS issue? I would prefer not to use full backups each night to lessen disk wear and overall system load.

 

Your disk is spinning regardless if you're doing incremental or full backups. Disk wear isn't going to happen...

[tkyoshi]

Full backups do put significantly more load on the system depending on how much data you have.

 

When you reinitialized the disk did you also flush the backup catalog? (Wbadmin delete catalog)

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742154(WS.10).aspx

 

Note: When you run this it wipes out the entire catalog so you should start with a clean disk as well (i.e. re-initialize it as a blank HDD).