Why is subsequent backup so large?
Backing my HP Envy laptop, the first backup was about 140GB. subsequent incremental backups were on the order of 2 to 10 GB. Then last night I did a backup and it was 146GB. Can someone tell me why suddenly the backup was the size of an entire image again?
-Thanks
These are incremental backups to my Synology NAS, from a Windows 10 laptop. I have not defragmented the hard drive, and I have installed some software since the last backup. I'm wondering if a Windows update may have triggered another image being copied?
I'm not at home now and do not have access to the log files.
-Thanks
Bernard, if you have an incremental file which is as big as the original full backup image, then this would suggest that either you have started a new full backup version chain, i.e. configured to create a new full backup after X incremental backups; or that a full disk defrag has taken place.
The only other suggestion would be if you have gone through a Windows 10 upgrade such as the 1607 Anniversary Update which is effectively a new install of Windows and can cause disk signatures to change etc.
Do you have any security products that perform 'system maintenance' tasks such as some Norton products do and which do defragmentation in the background when the system is ide?
Bernard, if you have an incremental file which is as big as the original full backup image, then this would suggest that either you have started a new full backup version chain, i.e. configured to create a new full backup after X incremental backups; or that a full disk defrag has taken place.
The only other suggestion would be if you have gone through a Windows 10 upgrade such as the 1607 Anniversary Update which is effectively a new install of Windows and can cause disk signatures to change etc.
Do you have any security products that perform 'system maintenance' tasks such as some Norton products do and which do defragmentation in the background when the system is ide?
No, I'm just using Windows Defender. Thanks, now I have a better understanding of what I'm dealing with, and I can look for something which may have resulted in a full backup being performed.
Bernard, if you want to post some of the latest service log files to the forum, we can take a look at them and see if they offer an explanation for what you are seeing.
Bernard,
Be advised that default Windows 10 defrag is set to run on a weekly basis. It will not run that often if fragmentation is not high enough to trigger the defrag though.
You can adjust this setting by Opening File Explorer, left click on your drive to select it then, right click on it and select Properties. Once that window opens select the Tools tab then, Optimize.
Bernard,
Be advised that default Windows 10 defrag is set to run on a weekly basis. It will not run that often if fragmentation is not high enough to trigger the defrag though.
You can adjust this setting by Opening File Explorer, left click on your drive to select it then, right click on it and select Properties. Once that window opens select the Tools tab then, Optimize.
Ah! That's definitely worth checking out. I did not know it was configured to defrag by default. Hopefully I can tell when it ran from a log file or something.
-Thanks
You can tell once you open the Optimize screen.
You can tell once you open the Optimize screen.
Thanks. I was under the impression that SSD drives were not defragmented, but they are actually once per month. There's a good article on it below.
So then, everytime my disk is defragmented, Acronis will create a new image backup?
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndCompleteStoryDoesWindowsDefragm…
Bernard,
Be advised that default Windows 10 defrag is set to run on a weekly basis. It will not run that often if fragmentation is not high enough to trigger the defrag though.
You can adjust this setting by Opening File Explorer, left click on your drive to select it then, right click on it and select Properties. Once that window opens select the Tools tab then, Optimize.
Ah! That's definitely worth checking out. I did not know it was configured to defrag by default. Hopefully I can tell when it ran from a log file or something.
-Thanks
Thanks. I was under the impression that SSD drives were not defragmented, but they are actually once per month. There's a good article on it below.
So then, everytime my disk is defragmented, Acronis will create a new image backup?
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheRealAndCompleteStoryDoesWindowsDefragm…
Windows 10 Optimize for SSD is actually a TRIM command sent to the drive not a defrag routiine.
So then, everytime my disk is defragmented, Acronis will create a new image backup?
No - any full backup will only be created according to your backup scheme, not just because any defrag has happened.
Are you 100% sure it was an incremental and not a new full? If you have X amount of incrementals set, once you reach that, the next backup will be a full. The name of the backup should have "full" or "inc" in it. If this large once does have "inc" I'd be inclined to say defrag as well. You could always mount both backups and then use something like treesize free to compare the size of the folders in the last backup to the current backup. In some cases, those on fastring updates may have received a newer Windows 10 upgrade that would save the entire old OS as windows.old which could also double your inremental backup size.
You are correct! My settings have the following radio button checked:
"Create a full version after every 5 incremental versions"
That raises the question, should I do a full backup after every 5? My instincts are to do one full, and all the rest incremental. What is the best practice for backing up a laptop?
-Thanks
My disk has not been optimized for 17 days. What triggered the full backup is my settings have the following radio button checked:
"Create a full version after every 5 incremental versions"
My instincts are to make only one full backup, and all the rest incremental. In your opinion what is the best practice for backing up a laptop or PC?
Some info. on chains:
A task for Incremental or Differential will always begin with a full backup. That is necessary, as that becomes the baseline.
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 a 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 alert you much if the full backup were missing or unreadable.
Personally, I do only full backups. I like the security of knowing that each backup is complete in itself and depends on nothing else. However, they naturally take more time than would an incremental or differential.
My instincts are to make only one full backup, and all the rest incremental. In your opinion what is the best practice for backing up a laptop or PC?
Heed Tuttle's advice. Even though you can due incrementals forever, it is not wise - it's risky. An occassional full is good because it is self-reliant (independent of other backup tasks). The longer you allow incrementals to run and/or the more you make, the less reliable they are likely to be overtime. Differentials are more reliable than incrementals, but also backup all changes since the last full so they can get big as well.
I'm not sure how often you backup - daily, weekly, monthly? If using daily backups and incrementals, I would do 1 full + 6 incrementals = 1 version chain per week. That way, worse case, you would (hopefully) never have to go back more than 1 week to restore, if something did cause an incremental to fail (for whatever reason - like the hardware it is being written to starting to fail and corrupting some of the data - like an incremental that lives on it)
Really up to you though and what your comfortable doing - or how comfortable you are going back in time if you have to rely on a full because an incremetnal is giving you trouble.
Here's another alternative to consider... Do your main backup 1 full + x incrementals - let's get risky and go 30 incrementals (1 month). Then do a second backup which will also have a full, but do weekly differentials - mabye keep 8 versions of those (2 months). You'd only be taking 1 differential a week and primarily taking incrementals, but you'd have to have 2 backup jobs in this case. Really, it's not a lot different than a weekly full and 6 incrementals, but it diversfies your backup and recovery options and gives you different points in time you can recover from while limiting the number of actual fulls that would be taken each month.
The more incremental backups between full backups the greater the risk something may go worng. I rarely have mor than 5 incremental backups.
Way off Topic Comment: The other day I was having problems with my mother-in-law's computer and decided to do a restore (Windows 7.1 Pro 64). It looks like when I built the computer I set up a weekly backup (with 5 five incremental) and a daily back up with a large nuber of increments). I astounded that there were 48 incremtal backups. The most shocking thing was that I was able to successfully restor from increment 47. This PC has ATI 2014. After doing that and eventually getting her emial to work I found that her ISP was having problems with connections to its outgoing email server (IMAP).
Ian