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Backup Schemes / Options - confused

Thread needs solution

Hi,

Just backed up 200Gb of individual photos in multiple folders.

If edit, say, just one of those photos, I  want future backups to simply overwrite that single photo.

Looking at Help,

Single/Full backup scheme implies next backup will try and save all 200Gb again, taking hours?  Does it mean this, or just the changed photo?

Incremental backup implies it will only save changes to that photo, but if original backup is lost , the recovery wont be possible from just the incremental? This is worrying.

Help keeps givng example of a "document" and saving only the changes in the backup, but does it really mean this.  I just want single new version to overwrite old backup version as needed.

 

What is the correct option to use?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

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Nick, welcome to these user forums.

There is no backup option that will do exactly as you are asking for, i.e. to only backup a single changed photo to replace the previous version of the same photo.

You are correct that the Single/Full backup scheme would save the whole 200GB of data each time it is executed.

With the Incremental backup scheme, this will always require an initial Full backup which is used to base the incremental changes upon, but then you create further dependencies as each new incremental backup then is based on the changes since the previous one.  It is not recommended to create very large chains of incremental backups as every file in such a chain must be complete and of 100% integrity to recover from the chain.

ATIH offer Differential backup schemes which is similar to Incremental initially, i.e. is based on a Full backup, but then as further Differential backups are created, they too are always based on the changes made since the Full backup.  This means that Differential backups will grow in size but are also independent of each other provided the initial Full backup is available.

The alternative approach to your requirement to protect and backup your photos would be to use synchronisation software where you are essentially creating a duplicate copy of all your photos / folders.  If you are using Windows 10 then you can also use the built in File History facility to do the same.

Thanks,

Think Ive probably purchased something here that I didnt need.  Not sure what the advantages of the Acronis schemes are. I purchased as it looked at first sight that it would provide features, better than Windows or the built-in backup software for cloud drives like WD or Seagate that does basic synchro and backup copy of each photo/file.  So think will uninstall and a lesson learnt.  

Cheers,

Nick

Nick, the key functionality of the Acronis software is in protecting your Windows OS, Programs and Data so that you can recover everything a whole lot more quickly than if you had to start again from scratch with reinstalling the OS, Programs etc.

Nick, how often do your photos change and how often would you need to back up those changes?  Backup software protects your data in an arhive .tib format that Windows cannot modify on its own so it will be useful if you have a hard drive failure, malware, an oh $h17 moment, etc.  I wouldn't remove it, but would use it in conjunction with synching software to give you the best of both worlds.  

As Steve mentioned, having incremetnals for too long is a bit risky.  However, If you did a weekly incremental, (1 full + 3 the first month).  You should be able to safely go 2 or 3 months before a full should be done again (if you can't do one sooner).  Then you have lots of weekly backup recovery/restore points in case something bad happens.  Synching applications will keep 2 locations in synch, but if the primary location is accidentally deleted, or impacted by malware and that gets synched to the second location, unless you have a backup, you're out of luck.