Backup Method and Backup File Numbering
A computer professional who has run a computer store for 25 years set me up to use the following settings in Acronis' Backup method: "Incremental", and "Create a new full backup after 0 incremental or differential backups". Does this mean Acronis indefinitely creates incremental backups? Or never creates incremental backups? the settings seem contradictory. Also, will successive backup files be numbered indefinitely higher, or do they start over at some point; and if so, where? Many thanks.
Interesting, but I am seeing successive backups on my external hard drive. For instance, "Tom's Email backup (4).tib, Tom's Email Backup(3).tib, and so forth. I don't know how to tell if this are complete or incremental. This computer store owner also had me set up Acronis for a maximum of six backups, but I see one (15) backup on my external hard drive. Mysteries...
My comments were related to having an partition or disk image backup as the backup type. Your latest example looks like it might be a data only backup. If you post a picture of the folder listing the backup files, perhaps we can help a little more.
File size can help. A full backup will be about 65% of the used space.
A differential backup will be only what has changed since the last full backup.
An incremental will be what has changed since the last incremental.
Sure, thanks; the attachment is added, a Word 2003 screen shot of my external hard drive contents, minus some folders below the window. The hard drive is one TB, and there is a vast amount of space left. It may be that I have no problem, other than understanding Acronis options. If the Full backup option is chosen, I believe it overwrites the previous backup, which is not highly desirable, unless disk space is very limited. I would rather have several older backups as insurance. So the option chosen by the computer store owner may be the best way of getting a sequence of full backups. He chose "Incremental" in order not to erase the previous backups, and then he chose a new full backup after zero incremental backups in order to produce new backups each time. Net result, if I am correct: a series of full backups saved. He put a limit of six backups, which I think means the number sequencing starts over. With weekly backups, I am not quite there yet. Does all this make sense, or not?
Sure, thanks; the attachment is added, a Word 2003 screen shot of my external hard drive contents, minus some folders below the window. The hard drive is one TB, and there is a vast amount of space left. It may be that I have no problem, other than understanding Acronis options. If the Full backup option is chosen, I believe it overwrites the previous backup, which is not highly desirable, unless disk space is very limited. I would rather have several older backups as insurance. So the option chosen by the computer store owner may be the best way of getting a sequence of full backups. He chose "Incremental" in order not to erase the previous backups, and then he chose a new full backup after zero incremental backups in order to produce new backups each time. Net result, if I am correct: a series of full backups saved. He put a limit of six backups, which I think means the number sequencing starts over. With weekly backups, I am not quite there yet. Does all this make sense, or not?
You should be getting multiple Full backups. Going by the file sizes, it looks like you are.
Note that the numbering sequence does not start over. The early numbers will start to drop off and the new ones will continue.