Loralee you can use Windows Explorer to remove any entries from the computer hard drive or the external although if it is a program then the Add/Remove feature should be used first then check Explorer for remnants left by untidy uninstallers. In Windows Explorer up at the top is a small box icon with a down arrow, here you can elect to see the contents as bare names, Details, icons etc. Select Details so you can see the date and size of each backup. Now you can compare them and if they are all somewhat of the same size then you could safely assume they are all full backups and later ones not incremental on the original. Of course the best solution in my mind would be to run a full anti virus and anti malware scan, run Ccleaner or similar to clean all the junk off the computer then create a new image and remove all the others. That is as long as you are happy with the way the computer is behaving right now. No point backing up while there are any annoying issues unresolved.

A 100% passive solar home is a very complicated matter. I believe it can be done, but not easily, and perhaps not affordably either. The building would need to be very efficient at capturing solar energy, but it would also have to be very good at storing this energy. Instantly we have a design conflict, all those places that allow heat in during the day will start to leak heat backwards when the sun is gone and the outside air temperature falls. Things can be done to correct this, but the complexity starts to increase dramatically. Also, to store heat you need mass. Concrete or brick are popular, but they're bulky and expensive... Well, expensive is relative, I'll conceed it may just be me who is looking at cubic foot of concrete and wishing it were cheaper! Such a house which collects lots of solar energy, stores it well and has enough thermal mass to remain warm overnight can be designed and built at some expense, but that's not the full selection of problems facing the 100% passive solar house, it also has to perform well throughout the whole season. The traits that make it work so well in winter may cause it to work too well in summer and overheat terribly. Personally, I have discarded the idea of the 100% passive solar house due to it's complexities, expense and design limitations. But I have not given up on the idea of the 100% solar heated house. Passive solar is still a very adaptable technology and can provide a substantial amount of free heating, but it has limitations and should only be used up to the point where it is doing what it should - providing free heat for a sensible cost. Going extreme and trying to squeeze that last 20% or 30% of your heating needs from it by adding vast quantities of expensive glazing, bulky thermal mass and inconveniant manual systems such as heat retaining curtains and solar shades that must be ajusted frequently is irrational. Active solar technology, such as solar air heating pannels can provide the remainder for a much lower cost and avoid most all the design issues. Active solar also has the advantage of being able to turn it off when not needed, a conveniance of fossil fuels that has allowed a lot of badly designed buildings to remain comfortable all year round. It could certainly help compensate for any small design flaws in a passive solar home. I suspect the only way to make something perfect is to design around any faults it has.

I will guess that the first step of the iCloud backup is to calculate how much data you need to back up and when it saw that there was not enough space it reported the error without backing up any of the photos. I don't have an iPhone, but can you connect it to your Windows computer? If so, you should be able to copy the photos from the phone to your computer. When I plug my Android phone into my computer, I open 'Computer' and can see the phone as a storage device. From there, I can copy the photos to Windows (my pictures folder) or delete the ones that I don't want. In your case, you could copy them to the external hard drive that you mentioned. If you already have a Photobucket account, can't you create an album of your Niece's birthday party, upload those pictures to it and send the link to that album to your sister? This post was edited by pkponder on Fri, Jan 2, 15 at 12:29

I went into the storage on my iPhone6 and have about 4.3 GB free. The things I have on are: Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Passbook, Backup, Keychain, and Find My iPhone; I have a Flashlight app, but it is not listed, nor are any other apps. I am guessing with your phone that it may simply be saving some settings for your Flashlight app and is not taking up any significant space; and, in any case, if it's backing up the whole app, it isn't taking up much space: my Flashlight app is separate from the one that is built in to the iPhone 6 and it only takes up 26 MB. If you "turnoff and delete," I doubt it will delete the app from the phone, it will just delete the backup. I can't guarantee that, but that's my guess. You could simply do the "turnoff and delete," and re-install the app if it disappeared. Or you could call Apple to see what the deal is. By the way, how much of your 5 GB is now available?