author avatar
29 July 2019  John Weaver  Senior Program Developer
 

Summary
Many users say that the disk is full after the PC is used for a long time. This is because backup files or data are increasing. Read this article and you will learn about four solutions of deleting backup files in Windows 10.



Reasons of Deleting Backup Files

After using the computer for a period of time, constantly increasing backup files and data will take up more and more disk space. In addition, the files of the previous version will be saved after upgrading to Windows 10, which will take up a lot of space. If the disk for saving backup files gets full, it will be hard to create backup data any more which is not good to manage data and operating systems. So it is necessary to clean up the backup files. And releasing a lot of space can make the operating system run smoothly.
Hot Topic - ADsRenee Undeleter – Simple & Powerful Software for Data Recovery

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan;

Supported file types Image, video, audio, text, email and so on;

Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

Free TrialFree TrialFree Trial 800 people have downloaded!

How to Delete Backup Files in Windows 10

Solution 1: Delete Backup Files via File History

Generally, the copies of your computer’s documents, music, pictures, videos, and desktop folders can be saved in File History. If the original files are missing, damaged, or deleted, you can restore the lost files with File History. However, the accumulated backup files will take up more space. You could also clean them up via File History.
Step 1: Press the “Win” + “R” key to open the Run box. Type in: control. Press Enter.
open control panel
Step 2: In the Control Panel, click “System and Security” and then click “File History”.
File History
Step 3: In the File History window, click “Advanced settings” on the left side.
File History - Advanced settings
Step 4: After entering “Advanced Settings”, click “Clean up versions”. Once the “File History Cleanup” box pops up, select target time period of the files and then click “Clean up”.
cleanup file versions
Step 5: When the cleaning process is completed, click “OK”.

Solution 2: Delete Backup Files Using Command Prompt

Fhmanagew.exe is a file history management tool. Executing it in Command Prompt can directly delete all file versions within a specified number of days.
Step 1: Press the “Win” + “R” key to open the Run box. Then type “cmd” and press Enter.
press win and r to run cmd
Step 2: After opening the Command Prompt, type in one of the following commands according to the time period of the version you want to delete and then press Enter.

  • More than 1 month: FhManagew.exe -cleanup 30
  • More than 3 months: FhManagew.exe -cleanup 90
  • More than 6 months: FhManagew.exe -cleanup 180
  • More than 1 year (default option): FhManagew.exe -cleanup 365
clean up file version via Command Prompt
Step 3: If previous version of the files can’t be found, try deleting the recent files. For example, execute the command line – FhManagew.exe -cleanup 30.

Solution 3: Delete System Image Backup by Managing Windows Backup Disk Space

In Windows 10, backup of files and data in desktop or default Windows folders, system image will be created automatically as long as you set the backup plan. However, with the increasing of backup data, disk space will be insufficient. So you could delete backup files and Windows system image backups by managing disk space.
Step 1: Press the “Win” + “R” key to open the Run box. Then type: cmd. Press Enter.
press win and r to run cmd
Step 2: After opening the Control Panel, click “Backup and Restore (Windows 7)” under “System and Security”. Then click on “Manage Space”.
Backup and Restore (Windows 7)
管理磁盘空间
Step 3: In the “Manage Windows Backup disk space” window, there are two options “View Backup” and “Change Settings”.
Manage Windows Backup disk space
a. If you select the option “View Backup”, then choose the time period of the backup file you want to delete and click “Delete”.
delete backup files
b. If you select the “Change Settings” option, you can choose to delete the system image to free up disk space.
delete older system images

Solution 4: Remove the System Backup Folder Windows.old by Disk Cleanup

After upgrading to Windows 10, a backup folder named Windows.old will appear in the system disk. The Windows.old folder contains the system files and software installation files of the previous system version.
You can choose to manually remove folder Windows.old, but please note that you will not be allowed to revert back to the previous Windows version once the folder deleted.
Step 1: Right-click on the system disk and select “Properties”.
system disk - properties
Step 2: In the Properties window, click “Disk Cleanup”. Then go to “Clean up system files”.
Disk cleanup
Step 3: In the list of “Files to delete”, check the box of “Previous Windows Installation” and click “OK”.
Delete Previous Windows Installation

How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Files

In the process of cleaning up the backup files, if you accidentally delete the important files, you should stop the cleaning process immediately and use the data recovery tool to recover the target file as soon as possible. It is recommended to use Renee Undeleter which is a professional data recovery software! It can help you quickly recover deleted files as long as they don’t get overwritten.
  • Fast Partition & Whole Disk Scan
  • Office Documents Preview
  • Memory Card Data Recovery
download software button win
  • Amazing Photo Recovery
  • Formatted Data Recovery
  • Recycle Bin Data Recovery
download software button mac clear2

Step 1: Launch Renee Undeleter and select “Fast Partition Scan” function.

This function supports to recover deleted files due to emptied recycle bin or Shift + Del.

Three Scan modes

Step 2: Choose the partition where you save the deleted files to scan.

If the files were saved in desktop or disk C, please stop using the computer and disconnect it from Internet. Because any Internet surfing operation will create cache which will overwrite your lost files. Then you may lose the chance to recover the data back.
select a drive to scan

Step 3: Select “Fast Scan” and click “Next” to process the scan.

Please note that “Fast Scan” in “Fast Partition Scan” will just scan the 30GB of the free space. If you can not find the target files after scanning, please use ”Deep Scan” in “Fast Partition Scan”. Of course, this scan mode will take more time.
Select fast scan mode in renee undeleter

Step 4: Preview files in the scan result to check the quality when scan is processing.

Files in BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG, JPG, TIF, DOC, DOCX, HTM, PDF, PPT, PPTX, RAR, XLS, XLSX, ZIP formats could be preview before recovery.