Aller au contenu principal

Semi-Newbie question on Incrementals

Thread needs solution

I've been running Ghost for over a decade. Apparently Norton has stopped supporting it with Win 8 so I've switched to Acronis True Image. With Ghost, I've always run Full backups; I've never played with incrementals or differentials. In order to save backup time I think I'd like to start playing with them. My question is this: Assume I take a Full backup on Jan 1 and an incremental on Jan 8, 15, and 22. And then on Jan 29 I want to restore. Can I choose which point in time I want to restore to, or am I limited to either the Full or the last incremental? Thanks.

0 Users found this helpful

You can pick the Inc file you wish and the full plus all inc up to and including your selection will be restored. In other words, your system will match what your computer was at the time of the inc backup you selected to restore.

Here is one example of how you might set up your full and Inc and you can choose how many Inc and how many chains to keep.

GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains.

As you are new to TI, I would suggest you review signature link 2 below and also click on signatue link 1 and review some of the items listed inside link 1.

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.