True Image Backups (why each backup requires large amount of free space)
As a network admin I am familiar with incremental/differential and full backups, realizing that you must have a full prior to a diff backup to work. Seems as though ATI2012 is treating each backup as a differnt copy...in that if I run a backup 65gb on an 80gb local USB disk partition, then come along to run another (with not much change since last backup) it doesn't think that partition can 'handle' the backup from what I guess is 'hey it doesn't have 65gb+ available ...", why is that? I'd think that the option should exist to create an initiall full copy, then run diff backups through 30days or so (which are small in size), then at the end of that time create another full and do it again. Realizing that the smaller differential backups would 'depend' on the full being around to reference (and the risks/benifits that entails), notibly quicker backups folling the initail full.
Perhaps I'm missing something. The first backup I ran was an incremental (most popular), which I believe created a Full. Just was surprised to see the second attempt didn't want to run against the volume where the initial was housed (for lack of free disk space). Do subsequent backups not reference the initial Full?
Thanks-
Mark
Thanks Scott- appreciate the clairification, I do realize that in a regular backup scheme the target B2D partition would be much larger (perhaps even greater than the Production drive). Running a second backup to a much larger disk and will see how that does.
Mark
==> at asome point ati will try to consolidate the incrementals and the original full into one up-to-date file.
When does it do this? Been running since 2010 and not seen it unless i run a consolidate or have a custom plan w/ cleanup.
In testing today I've just run an Incremental (which I thought would create a Full backup & it may have) after about 30min, I initiated another Incremental and it ran just as long as first, into the same USB external disk and the same area. Wondering why I didn't see a significantly reduced backup time/window for the second? (at that time as well, very little had changed!).
Should I run a Full, then come along and run an Incremental or Differential?
Mark
Go to your target location and look at the files are the incs any smaller than the fulls? That will tell you if using incs is providing you any benefit.
Suppose you change a dozen or so text documents -- that's a few tens of thousands of bytes -- a mere bagetelle in the world of backups. Meanwhile windows is wrting files all the time -- logs, prefetch, whatever other system shenanigans it's generally up to. IF not much is intentionally changed from one time to the next I'd expect the inc to contain mostly writes made by system fil and to be pretty much the same size each time.
Looking at recent backups re: sizes etc and seeing this-
See attached file.
Basically it shows 2 files with similar sizes
My_partitions.tib 11:58am 62,105,196 KB
My_partitions(1).tib 2:10pm 62,077,176 KB
Question is are both Full backus, how can I tell. If instucted to run an incremental is it running a full?
Why isn't 2nd significantly smaller? Nothing had changed.
Trying this again with a Full, then Diff.
Mark
I'm pretty sure these are both fulls. Are yo sure about your settings? If so, try increasing the number of incs by 1 and see if if leaves behind an inc. Alternativley, delte the task and backups and create a new task.
IF neither of htose work, it's gonna take some further searching. . .
check no defragmentation taks have run in the meantime or anything that changes the way disk sectors look including disk compression software that might uncompress as files are acessed.
If you dbl click on the task name, it should open to show something like this picture. This shows a differential backup, Check what your backups type shows.
Here are some sample backup schemes which have proven works and these involve keep x number of backups rather than get involved with disk space or elapsed time. Change the x number to keep to your choice.
Full backup scheme
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/mvp/user285/2012-5545/2012…
Full plus subsequent Incremental backup scheme
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/mvp/user285/2012-5545/2012…
Differential plus subsequent Differential backup scheme
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/mvp/user285/2012-5545/2012…
>
Remember the rules relating to incremental backups. If one inc gets corrupt, all newer inc's are useless as the chain is broken by the corrupt link.
Thanks guys- appreciate the direction and especially the custom backup examples, I did notice that when I changed to Full.
Mark
Final update- I'm happy to report that after running Differential plus subsequent Differential backup scheme I have a single large file (65gb Full) and two smaller 4gb files, with of course much improved backup times following the Full. See that I can set the number of Diff's prior to a Full being created.
Like the product, great to be able to try it first, will get the 2012 edition.
Thanks again to all those who contributed-
Mark
Mark,
Avoid task editing. Your chances of success are much better by starting a new task and point the backup to a new folder.
When you upgrade to 2012, take the extra few minutes and start it with all new tasks. I know you can carry over tasks but start it right with new tasks and you will save grief.
Or, if you are using the trail version of 2012, all you need to do is to add your purchased serial number t o your trial install. No new install necessary.