Basic Fully System Backup + Incremental Backups
Please excuse me for asking what may appear to be an idiotic question but here goes:-
I had a need to reformat my laptop running Windows 7, I then installed all of the various software that I wanted. after that I ran Acronis True Image 2013 to make my back up (27-03-12), this backup came to about 31.0gb.
I had setup Acronis to do incremental backups every Friday, it did the first one on the 29-03-13, this came to 8.1gb, since then it has done a further 3 with the following results:-
05-04-13 10.0gb,
12-04-13 9.3gb,
19-04-13 8.8gb
I have not added any software to account for this additional amount, all of my documents etc are stored in a portable drive. In addition I empty the likes of the recycle bin, Internet History etc on at least a weekly basis, I also run CCleaner on regular basis.
Why is this happening or have I set Acronis up wrongly, any help would be a appreciated by one well over the hill computer user.
Thanks for the reply James, so am I right in thinking that I need to keep each of the incremental backups, if I wish to do a restore. If that is the case then I am going to run out of Disc Space, so it looks like the answer is to do a new complete backup before this happens. Am I right in my understanding of this.
Thanks James
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 an 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 have alerted you much sooner if the full backup were missing or unreadable.
In order to restore from your latest backup (if doing incremental type) you need ALL of the incremental backup files created since the full backup was made. You would select the latest incremental to restore from, and the full and ALL the incremental backup files would be used to perform the restore.
As Tuttle posted, you should not let your incremental chains get too long (lots of incremental files). If this happens and one of them gets corrupted or deleted, all of the incremental files following the corrupt or missing file will be useless.
You should create a new full if you are running out of space (start a new task). Once you have a new full backup created, you can delete the old full and its associated incremental backup files (do this through the True Image program - not Windows Explorer)
Take a look at this excellent guide written by MVP Grover (Thanks, Grover) on how to set up a backup that can manage the destination space automatically. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
James