Converting a Full Backup to an Incremental Scheme
Hello, newbie question here I can't find an answer to on the forum. When I first backed up with TI 2013 (from the boot CD), I chose "Full" as the Backup Scheme. What I meant to choose was Incremental. I have since created an Incremental scheme and backed up once, so I now have two Full backups (the first initial one, and then the first backup of the Incremental scheme). For disk space reasons, I'd like to convert my initial backup from a Full backup to the first one in an incremental scheme. I could then delete the backup I just did (and then run another backup job, which would result in a smaller incremental backup). Hopefully that makes sense. Is this possible? Advisable?
Thanks very much for any help.
Craig
Tuttle,
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me. I appreciate it!
Craig
You're quite welcome.
Hi what will be the best backup plan ? How many incremental bavkip do we need to do before we start another full backup? Or can i covert last incremental as full to become a baseline for the next incremental backup.
Jerico,
There's no right answer - really depends on how often you backup, how much data you have and how many backups you need. A common backup plan is something like daily backups with 1 full + 6 incrementals = 1 week. That's a relatively safe backup plan, especially, if you're able to revert back up to 6 days if you have an incremental issue and must use the last full. However, if you have tons to backup, then doing a new full every week, could be time consuming or storage intensive (make sure to use a cleanup plan to help limit backups from getting out of hand so they clean up automatically at some point too).
On the other side of the coin, you don't want incrementals going to long, or having too many. Incrementals are dependednt upon all incrementals and the full that came before it so the longer they go, or the more you add, the more chance of an issue down the road. If you backup once a week, then you could probably do an incremental a week for a comfortable period of time (1, 2 maybe 3 months), but then again, if something happens to an incremental and you have to resort to a full, how far back in time can you live with?
No, there is no incremental roll-up with Acronis. Each version chain completes, after the successful completion of the next full. It is only after the next full completes that Acronis will then consider cleaning up existing backup per the cleanup schedule.
Take a look at screenshots in this post to verify how incrementals and differntials rely on other backup files in the same version chain.
A bit of info. on Incremental and Differential backups:
A task for Incremental or Differential will always begin with a full backup. That is necessary, as that becomes the baseline.
For an Incremental task, after the first full backup, subsequent backups will be incremental, each one based on changes since the previous Incremental backup, all the way back to the second backup being incremental based on changes since the full backup. As such, you need all links in the chain, all incremental backups right back to and including the first full backup, in order to Restore.
For a Differential task, after the first full backup, subsequent backups will be differential, each one based on changes since the first full backup. To restore, you would need just any Differential and the Full backup on which it is based.
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. That would alert you much if the full backup were missing or unreadable.
As for best strategy, as Bobbo says, it depends upon your needs and preferences. Personally, I do only full backups. I like knowing that each backup can be restored on its own, without depending upon any previous backups. I have plenty of space on my external hard drives, so I see no reason not to do full backups.