Major difference between vista version and the windows 7 version is file selection, you did not have any way in the vista version to cherry pick...
I too am experiencing very large incremental backups, on both Windows7 and Windows 2003, I have switched off the defragging of the drives with...
Firstly I did not read the OP's operating system, if it is XP or lower then ntbackup to a file is pretty good, there are tons of freeware backup...
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