PC Backup of IOS 8 iPad

Hi,

I use a PC with SSD as the system drive and it is getting full. It seems like iTunes will only back up to the system drive. Can that really be true!!

Grateful for any advice as to the best way to get around this problem.

Thanks

No, that's not true. iTunes will also backup your iPhone or iPad to your iCloud account. Do you have an iCloud account, Apple ID and password? If you have an iCloud account, your iPad and iPhone will backup to it automatically when you're using WiFi.

I am really looking to back up to an alternative disc on the PC. Sensible programs give you an option in preferences to select a different backup location.

Well then, you don't have very many options. If you don't want to backup to the cloud, then you're left with the choice of replacing your SSD with a larger one or remove what isn't needed from your system drive. Also, iOS backups are not that large and shouldn't be taking up very much disk space.

But we have lots of photos on the iPad!

Just to round this thread off, I have sorted the problem OK.

I only had 5.5Gb of free space on my Windows 7 SSD 120GB system drive and iTunes insists on backing up to it.

I now have 46.3Gb of free space on the SSD and iTunes is backing up to one of my hard drives. Very pleased with the result.

I have done just the 2 things within Windows which relate directly to iTunes:

1. I moved my iTunes library onto the hard drive saving around 30GB; see Windows 7 and SSDs: Cutting your system drive down to size | Page 2 | ZDNet. (I also did the same thing for the downloads folder which saved 2GB)

2. I set up a symbolic link in Windows which fooled iTunes into thinking the backup folder was on the SSD but pointed towards the hard drive. It now backs up directly to the hard drive not the SSD. See How to Change the Backup Location of iTunes (or Any Windows App).

I know these are windows things but may affect iPad/iPod users and I hope it will help other PC users with this problem.

Thanks for posting back. And yes this will help Windows users who own an iPad or iPhone and iTunes.