Speediest backups for files backups
If I am using file backup to backup 3 folders incrementally, one of which never changes, would it be better to separate each of these into separate backup processes or just keep them as one big backup? I want to maximize speed. I also considered that separating the folders into two backup operations, one for the folder that rarely changes, and another for the folders that change often between backup schedules.
What is most efficient here for a speedy backup?
Any other suggestions for speed would be helpful as well.
Each folder is on the order of 15-25GB, with about 50GB being backed up.
Backing up the partition isn't an option here. I neglected to mention these backups are performed daily. (The partition itself is ~1TB, my backup HD is about the same size).
A partition backup will only be as big as the bytes in use in the partition. So, if a 1TB partition has 900 GB in files on it, the partiton backup would be roughly 900 GB. If it only has 50 GB of files on it, then the partition backup would only be about 50GB. I don't know which situation more closely resembles your own.
I only mentioned the partiton/disk mode option because it's faster than the file by file method. E.g., all I have on my disk drive D: are my pics, vid and music files, so backing up the entire drive is faster than backing up all these files in a file mode backup.
Otoh, I only have about 100 MB of data files on my C: drive, but have many times that much bytes in use -- lots of system and program files -- So backing up up those C: data files is faster for me in a file mode than in disk/partiton mode.
In any event, my original heuristic applies -- don't backup anything you don't have to if speed (or, for that matter, space) is a priority. It's alwasy faster (and smaller) to backup less bytes than more bytes. Some of us have other priorites (ease of organization, simplicity of tasks, whatever) but your priorities are up to you.
The 1TB partition is nearly full; I just want to backup specific files. Speed and security are my top concerns, since this computer is used by many individuals at all times of the day (there almost is zero downtime).
Could you explain why a partition backup is faster than a file backup? That seems counter intuitive to me.
Thanks for your help in this thread and others.
I don't know the full answer but it's a diff in how ati uses the file system. What I was saying was that for a given approximate number of bytes, a partition backup will usually be faster. Certianly, if yu want to backup say only 100MB out of 900MB used space, the 100MB option would be faster.