incremental backups
hello - could someone pls explain how to do this
lets say on day 1 I do a full backup
on day 2 i refer to that backup and choose incremental as the option
on day 3: I have 2 files- the day 1 and the day 2 - which one do I choose as the reference?
on day 7: can I start to delete files 2 to 6 to save space and make my incremental backup for day 7
when I restore- which file do I reference?
Thanks
As a general answer,
If you create a full backup, then an incremental, both files would be needed to perform a restore. You would have two versions to choose from. The full or the incremental. To restore to the most current, you would choose the incremental backup and the restore would use both the incremental and the full backup files to perform the restore.
If you create more than one incremental backup, all the incremental backups following the full are needed to restore to the most current backup.
If you delete any of the incremental backup files, any previously created incremental backup files after the date of incremental backup file you deleted will be of no value and should also be deleted since they need the previous files to exist for the backup version chain (backup set) to be vaild.
If you choose to delete all the incremental backup files, the next incremental will be based on the full.
If you only delete (for example) the last three incremental backup files in a version chain that consists of one full backup and six incremental backups, the next incremental backup will be based on the full and the next three incremental backup files.
If you do choose to manually delete the backup files, it is best to use True Image to perform the file deletions.