Ideal Backup Schedules
I am incremental backup scheme of my hard drive which is current about 109GB of used space. I keep 6 versions and store mno more than 10 version chains. I store to a NAS on the local network and the disk usage is growing and growing. Now is about 389GB
I did read somewhere that disk software like perfect disk can make things a bit off, so I disabled that schedule and let it run, but that incremental backup was the biggest yet.
I would like to make sure my PC is safe from data loss, but dont want my NAS filled up with stuff I dont need. I was thinking about starting all over. Anyone have any suggestions?
I dont think that it is cleaning up old chains or the incremental is working as expected. It ran a scheduled backup on 7/15 that totals 66.6GB which is more than half of my entire HD. I also dating back to 3/15 or 15 chains.
edit.... because it was running full backup after x incremental's is why I had a huge backup this week.
OK, I looked at my settings again and I am going to try this. Weekly incremental backups (with the default settings) creating no full backup. Then in a separate folder, run a monthly full back up with maximum number of versions is 4. This should keep me pretty safe I think.
Your incremental task should set a maximum number, after which it should begin a new chain with a new full backup.
You should not allow an incremental chain to become too long. An incremental restore depends upon every incremental in the chain being valid, including the original full. It's better to limit each chain to just a few incrementals, followed by a fresh full backup to start a new chain.
You should validate backups periodically.
ok, so a better setting would be - create a full version after 5 incremental? But what about the clean up rules? I am doing a weekly incremental. I just ordered 2 more 2TB drives to put in my NAS making a RAID 5, with 6TB in total, but would prefer that the entire NAS is not filled with backups fro one PC which has a HD using only 109GB of it's 1TB drive.
As I said, define a limit in the backup task, such as that after 5 incrementals a new chain will begin and the previous chain deleted. I have one PC that's been running an automated weekly backup task for a year. The drive does not get filled, as I set a limit to the total size that the backup folder should get, after which the oldest backup is deleted.
Check out the many user guides and tutorials in the left margin of this forum, particularly Getting Started and Grover's True Image Guides which are illustrated with step-by-step screenshots.
Grover's How to Create/Manage Backup Tasks & Backups within Windows (includes How to Create a "Disk Image" or "Disk Mode" Image or "Disk mode" image & more) http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38691
29618: Grover's new backup and restore guides http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618
Thanks for the pointers. I will certainly take a look.
Any thoughts on using PerfectDisk 12.5 on the same machine. Does defrag really reset the flags?
If drive is defragmented prior to an incremental or differential backup, it may end up being virtually the same size as a full backup. That's because disk/partition backups are based on which sectors have changed. When a drive is defragmented, lots of sectors change, so even though to you it appears as the same data, ATI sees many changed sectors to backup.
Also, when creating a new task, it's best to start with a new folder, rather than a folder that already contains other backups.