Q: Not sufficient room to downloading ios5 in first HD in chain on computer

OmD I have exactly the same problem only mine goes the media on this iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough free space on this computer to hold all of the backed up files (6.10GB required. 3.82GB available). Would you like to continue to update this iPhone?

I tried to update for 4 days now and still haven't managed to backup I tried searching google or apple to try an delete some data but still I don't know what to do?? Apple or any1 please help

I had this problem too, but found a fairly easy fix, at least on windows 7.

A little background first though, I have my OS(win7-64bit) installed on a 40GB SSD, and then everything else including my program files and user folders are on a second, 3TB hard drive.  I'm using symbolic links to make this all work well, cause windows has a hard time when it doesn't see the program files and users directory on its install drive, even when you change the registery settings for them.  So iTunes incorrectly thought it was trying to backup to my SSD drive due to the symbolic links, when in reality it was trying to back up to my 3TB drive.

The fix is to change the registry settings for the "AppData" folder that itunes backs up into.  In windows 7 it is quite simple to do.  You don't even have to directly touch the registry.  The steps are as follows (for Win7):

1. Navigate to your AppLocal folder.  To do this simply open a folder, and type in "applocal" in the location bar and hit enter.

2. There will be three folders.  Do the following for all three folders(Local, LocalLow, and Roaming):

     1. Right-click and select properties

     2. Select the "Locations" tab on the uppper left of the window.

     3. Change the location to where you have more disk space.  For me it was as simple as just changing the "C:\" portion to "D:\".

     4. Click apply.  At this point windows will ask you if you want it to copy the data already in the App folder to the new location.  If the data isn't already in the new folder you selected, then say yes, or many programs won't work correctly.  If, like me, you are using symbolic links and just selected the folder that the orginal pointed to anyway, then you can hit no.

     5. If windows had to copy anything, wait for the copy to finish.

3.  Restart iTunes if it is still open.

4.  Try again to upgrade and it should now backup without complaints.

If some how itunes is smarter in OSX than it is in Windows 7, it might work for you to move the MobileSync folder and create a symbolic link to it.  It's worth a shot at least.  Directions to do this are as follows:

1. Close iTunes
2. Move the existing "~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/" folder to the destination drive (for example, named BigExternalDrive)
3. Open a command prompt by launching Terminal and create a symbolic link using a command similar to the one below, replacing "/Volumes/BigExternalDrive/Backup" with the path to your destination:

          ln -s /Volumes/BigExternalDrive/Backup/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

I pulled these directions almost directly from the following website: http://aaltonen.us/2011/01/03/change-the-location-of-your-iphone-backup/

Unforunately I don't currently have a mac to test this out on, so I can't attest to how well they actually work.  Anyway, I hope this helps.

I had the same space problem with my 60gb SSD and have now managed to move the iTunes Backup directory onto a network drive using the Windows 7 command mklink.

Unlike other posts that only work with different drives on the same system I now managed to shift the entire backup folder into a network drive, freeing about 10gb on my C:\ drive.

I posted the detailed instruction on this blog post: http://pep-p.com/wp/?p=44 Hopefully this is helpful to others with similar space-problems on the main harddrive.

Hi for all you PC users. 

I found a simple fix to this.  I did move the backup to a different drive but I still didnt have aenough space.  I went and did a disk clean up.  Found I had 8GB of temp files that were residue from a windows upgrade and were general temp files.  Anyways, ran the cleanup and freed up enough space to do the IOS backup and upgrade.

Hope this helps..

Thx much @lemmons for the Windows 7 instructions.  Anyone know if this also works in WinXP?   Would hate to trash my daugter's iPhone or iTunes setup playing around if someone's been a guinea pig before me (he said sheepishly and hopefully)...  :-)

That's the perfect solution for OS X! Thanks, lemmons

Here's an article describing exactly the same method two years later for anyone interested: http://www.geekstufflabs.com/2013/05/how-to-backup-iphone-to-external-hard.html? m=1