Incremental backs up all files
Hi all, just joined, first post.
Ive been using TIH v11 for well over a year now, and recently ive noticed a change. I have two big file archives, one for software and one for music. These are scheduled to backup automatically every 2 weeks to an exterhal HDD USB2. Both archives are located on a 2Tb external HDD, which is semi-permanently connected and runs as a data drive. This drive is partitioned into three similar sized chunks.
I noticed a few weeks ago that the destination EHDD was almost full. the backup that is scheduled to start at 8pm and used to take about 4 hours, was still running when I got up the following morning. On checking, it still said it had another day to run. I have tweaked the schedule, deleted the schedule and all previous backups and started afresh. When it ran, it didnt run as expected and create an incremental, it backed up everything in the target folder, ie the whole lot. Each subsequent backup was the same, yet I only added at most half or 1 Gb at most since the previous backup, some none at all.
Naturally, having multiple backup files of that size soon filled the drive, so these were deleted as part of my troubleshooting process. I have re-created a full backup of my music. its 77.6Gb. this was done on 1st nov.
It kicked off tonight at 8 pm to run its first incremental backup. however, its now been running for 5¾ hours (01.47) and its still showing 16% with another 26 hours to run - it appears to be making another full backup just as before. Priority is at low (so i can still use the PC without having to wait for it to catch me up all the time) but compression is off (to save time). I expect the speed to increase slightly when i go off to bed shortly and the PC goes idle, but I do expect to find it still beavering away in the morning. Previously compression and priority were normal. The time taken isnt really the issue, its the size of the finished file.
I have had to disable the other backups as they are doing the same. one file archive has 180Gb in it, and after letting the backup run for best part of 30 hours it was still nowhere near finished.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the TIH software and it hasnt made any difference.
I'm running XP Home on a 1Ghz Intel, with 2Gb RAM and plenty of drivespace.
So, my question: WHY? when the schedule is set to incremental or differential (have tried both) and a full backup base file is present, do i end up with incremental backup files almost the same size as the base, when i should get subsequent smaller files of say 2, 3 or 4 hundred meg, (depending on what i put in there) making up the chain.
Any ideas etc gratefully received. I've been on with this for several weeks now, and i'm a bit nervous. Ive already had one EHDD go native on me this year, luckily i did manage to retrieve most of the data and with backups off other drives got about 90% back, but at this moment i'm flying without a safety net on some of my data as the backups are taking days - literally - to complete which they didnt use to, and ive had to turn em off because the PC is permanently running backups. I like TIH, but if i cant sort this issue out soon I'm gonna have to dump it and try something else.
cheers and hoping,
