Skip to main content

Backup Scheme using multiple drives

Thread needs solution

Will a scheme like the one depicted below work? 

Drive 1

Drive 2

Drive 3

Full - backup day # 1

Full - backup day # 2

Full - backup day # 3

Differential - backup day # 4

Differential - backup day # 5

Differential - backup day # 6

Differential - backup day # 7

Differential - backup day # 8

Differential - backup day # 9

Differential - backup day # 10

Differential - backup day # 11

Differential - backup day # 12

Will these differential backups be keyed to the full for day # 1

Will these differential backups be keyed to the full for day # 2

Will these differential backups be keyed to the full for day # 3

The idea is to have the latest backup available and still have some redundancy in terms of - backup drive failure.

After about 4 or 5 differential backups are on a drive, the next backup to take place will be a full and delete all of the differential backups for that drive.

0 Users found this helpful

This will only work if you create a separate backup task / scheme for each target backup drive.

If you try to do this will just one backup task then it will fail because each drive is seen as unique regardless of whether you create identical folder structures, names etc.

You must also ensure that each drive is allocated the exact same drive letter each time if these are being disconnected inbetween backups - you can do this by allocating a drive letter outside of the immediate letters that would be assigned if you plug in a USB memory stick etc.

Each full backup will have its own set of differential backups stored on the same backup drive.

I would also be sure to create each backup in it's own folder to avoid duplicate names or confusion of files (by the user mostly).  Each backup task needs to have a unique name as well so as not to create any confusion in the backup database.