Excessive Incremental Backup Size
My last incremental backup was roughly 10x the size of any others. I've added nothing to the system. I checked the forum here for similar posts finding the reasons can be defragging or restoring neither of which I've done. Using Win 7 64 U.
My concern is that I've picked up some malware which is altering files thus causing Acronis to back them up and now I have an infected backup as well as a bad system. I'm using Norton Security and it's up to date. I've not visited any unknown sites or d/l anything.
Is this something to be concerned about or just one of those things?
Any file sytem changes will result in an increase in an incremental. Mounting two of the incrementals and comparing the content coudl definitely be useful.
Defrag is a big one.
Updating the OS is a big one (for instance Windows 10 "upgrades" leave the completely old Windows.old folder in addition to the new live version of the OS - hence doubling the content on the OS drive.
Restoring a full disk backup to the same drive and then running an incremental will see the entire drive as new data and back everything up again.
I don't think it's malware - but something along these lines that changed the blocks of data on the disk which triggered them to back up again. I suspect your next incremental (unless it is slated to be a full) should be a smaller size again.
Thanks for the replies. I did not defrag the volume between backups and bitter experience taught me to turn off Windows Updates so those two cannot reasonably be the causes although there doesn't seem to any alternative ideas. This is Win 7 so any of the many issues Win 10 has don't apply.
I also did not restore even a single file. In fact, I pretty much played hooky yesterday due to warmer weather. I was out riding my motorcycle instead of working for most of the day.
I did think of a possible - Norton - which does maintenance when the machine is idle including 'performance tasks' whatever that means. I suppose Norton could have used the hours of idle time to make some major changes which MAY have included a defrag. Norton is 100% opaque to the user as far as I can make out.
So I'm not going to worry about it at least for now. Tomorrow is another incremental and I'll be interested to see where that comes down.
Again, thanks for your inputs.
Keep us posted - cust curios, but how much was the total incremental backup - even though it's 10 x larger, if let's say incremnetals are roughly 1Gb and the incremental was 10Gb, that's really not that bad.
Something in that size range could be the inclusion of a new iTunes backup, moving a couple of videos to a different folder on the disk, etc.
Also, what type of backup job do you have - "Entire PC" or "Disks and Partitions"? Entire PC can include other attached drives that may be connected at the time of backup that you may not be expecting to backup. "Disks and Paritions" backups are specific to only the drives that have been selected.
No iTunes activity nor did I do anything with videos. Something else is afoot but I feel better due to an oversight on my part.
The backup today was about 3x normal. I went back through my historical incremental backups to find that I was wrong in the OP. A month ago almost to the day I had an incremental which was 20x normal. The following day I had one which was 5x normal.
Yesterday mine was about 10x normal. Today I had an incremental 3x normal. I don't think these away from the norm backups exactly a month apart can be a coincidence. My guess remains with Norton that it's doing something on a monthly schedule (defrag?) which, while opaque to me, is touching a great many files.
Since nothing bad occurred in the month after the previously large backup, I don't anymore feel worried about my machine being infected with something. I appreciate the comments in this thread but feel a bit embarrassed at what I now take to be a false alarm.
Some versoins of Norton (Internet) Security include a disk defragmenting module - it is hidden away and it can be difficult to diasable. Hopefully it is smart enough to know that it should not defragment SSDs.
Ian
Thanks for the info, IanL-S. The version I have of Norton is a gimme which comes with my Comcast cable. If there is even a way to detect if it defrags, I can't find it and I've looked.
Paul, try doing a google search on your exact Norton product name and defragmentation and see what hits you get that may shed some more light on whether this is happening?
Since mine isn't the regular Norton, I'm unsure if the returns are valid. It seems Norton made a special edition for Comcast to bundle with its service. This is the sort of stuff that queries to either Symantec or Comcast CS would just frustrate the squat out of me so I'm going to let it lay.
Based on looking at the history, I seem to be on a simple monthly cycle of a <1 gig incremental backups for 28 days and then two large for two consecutive days. I'll see if the pattern continues in February as it did in Dec and Jan.
Paul, the only other suggestion is to check the Windows Event Logs and see if there are any entries there that would suggest or confirm that Norton is doing any defragmentation when it performs maintenance.
In version of Norton I have experience with maintainence includes defragmentation. Some versions (particularly System Tools) is are extremely agressive - close browsers so it can clean out cookies and the like.
Ian
This version does not seem to go after cookies or other browser storage that I can see. It only operates when the machine is idle for a period of time. I'll return to see a billboard saying the performance chores are complete or words to that effect.
Paul, what does it say in Norton if you look at the About... information, it may give a better idea of what the product is based on at least?
Pasted below. Note the vendor is Xfinity / Comcast. Point is somewhat moot now. I was at my last incremental yesterday so it's doing a full now.
Device Name:
Not Available
Version:
22.8.1.14
Serial Number:
P8BT7GRPY839
End Point ID:
{7B87499F-8B49-4493-9367-6152BA50D075}
LiveUpdate Channel:
Traditional
Current SKU:
01001226
Family SKU:
01100474
Media SKU:
21356600
Vendor Name:
Xfinity
Paul, thanks for looking but I can see nothing there that would suggest it applies to the Norton software, just to your Xfinity / Comcast box itself.
If your next backup will be a new full, then that should be of a similar size to your previous full backups, as things like defrag only impact on incremental or differential backups where it is looking for what changes (in sector data) have occurred since the last full or incremental was made.
I would guess this is one to just keep an eye on and if the behaviour is consistent across your backup scheme then nothing to worry about.
Yes, Steve. That's the Help / About from the software. There is also a list of credits like you see in Photoshop.
I appreciate your and others' interest here. I'll post a follow up if there is anything disturbing about the full backup, but so far, so good.