Backup Scheme
I am curious to know which backup scheme would use the least amount of space on a USB drive. If you have it figured out, I'd appreciate it if I could "use" your settings. Thank you in advance.


- Accedi per poter commentare

It really depends on the size of your destination disk and how long you want to retain backups. An incremental scheme is the most space saving. All backups start with a full. This is typically about 70% the size of the original data (mileage will vary) with compression. Incrementals will then just backup the changes since the last backup ran. Typically, this is small, but depends on how much has changed since then (like if you did a major Windows 10 update or added a large iTunes backup of an iPhone or something like that).
As a personal recommendation, I like to do a daily backup with the incremental scheme and keep 6 incrementals. As an example, a full runs Monday and then a daily incremental Tuesday through Sunday. I retain 3 backup chains so this repeats three times, starting with a new full on Monday and more incrementals Tues-Sunday. Then once the 3rd backup chain is complete and AFTER the 4th full completes, the oldest entire chain is deleted automatically.
I do this because it gives some history to recover from and fits well on my backup disk without worrying about running out of space. I also don't like letting incrementals go too long, as risk of corruption (in any backup program) increases the longer the backup chain gets and the longer it carries on. You could easily do this for 2 weeks safely in most cases (1 full + 13 incrementals), but fulls are the most reliable of any backup type, so I feel more comfortable having a weekly full, just in case. It's a lot better to have to restore from a week ago, than a month if your incrementals somehow have been corrupted and you have to return to an older full as the only option.
- Accedi per poter commentare