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Confusion on the difference between nonstop and normal (full/incremental/differential) backups

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Hi,
I set up an incremental backup to run every hour on my system, and I just found under "other backups" the option for a nonstop backup.

What is the difference between my incremental, hourly backup and the nonstop option? There were significantly fewer options for nonstop, really just choosing filetypes to ignore and which folders to include.

Would there be any reason to need both backup types, and any reason to not just use nonstop? That sounds like it's probably a better bet than hourly.

Thanks!

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A non stop backup uses different technology, and the whole thing ressembles an incremental backup with automatic consolidation.

In a non stop backup, the software create a full backup to start with, then it is looking for changes on a regular basis, if changes have occured, a "slice" of backup is created and stored temporarily. Every 24h, the slices are consolidated, and the overall size of the backup grows. Although you can delete intermediary versions, you cannot control the total size, and you cannot validate the backup.

With an incremental backup, you cannot set backups as frequently as non-stop backup, except if you use the Windows task scheduler. Just like NSB, you can consolidate your incremental backups, but, just like NSB, consolidation is a risky error prone process. This type of backup is however much more flexible. YOu can control how many versions you want to keep, you can validate your backups to increase confidence no corruption has happened over time, etc.

I personally don't see the benefit of non-stop backup, and in general I don't think you should put all your content in Acronis proprietary containers. If the container of the backup file gets corrupted, you will lose all your backup. Trust me, been there, done that.

You could consider using NSB as a redundant backup technology if you really have to capture and keep a bunch of frequent changes.

Use a normal backup for your system and applications.

All right- thanks! I will only use the standard, not the nonstop, unless someone else feels otherwise.

Thank you!