True Image 2021 Perpetual version - Incremental vs. Differential and scheduled backups

Hello BJB,

After a full backup, each Differential backup would include all changes since the full backup. If choosing Incremental, each incremental backup would include the changes since the last incremental. Don't think of it in physical terms of "sector by sector" though.

As for choosing, that can depend on how often you wish to produce a new full backup, how much data may be changing, how much storage you have, etc. My preference is incremental, with maybe up to about a dozen increments.

You can set up the backup schedule for whatever you'd like. You can choose how long until producing a new full backup. You can choose how many backup chains to keep and True Image will handle the cleanup for you. Just turn on the cleanup rules when you configure a backup.

If you are doing Disk/Partition backups, it will produce .tibx files. Warning: do not delete any of these files in Explorer. Always use True Image to cleanup as the files in a backup chain are linked together.

Take it away from here and post further questions as need may arise.

BJB,

Bruno offers the basics in a quick rundown.  I would caution on the dependency of files within a backup chain.  The key to remember in that is that a backup chain can contain any number of full, inc. or diff. files and each of them will be dependent upon the other.  This causes many to dislike the .tibx file format as previous .tib file format did not have this limitation and yes, I consider it a limitation.

When creating a task keep backup chains short with as few files as possible.  It will mean more efficiency, less chance of corruption, (especially if using inc. method) and require less total storage space.  Using cleanup rules will help you achieve this objective.

@BrunoC and @Enchantec,

After using Trueimage a while this makes a lot more sense to me!

If I have a good amount of NAS space for backups,  what is a safe amount of incremental backups before a startover and cleanup?  After re-reading this, I think I want to go incremental so my backups don't take hours with differential  as the timeline moves out from the initial backup. 

That being said I am sensitive to the issue of having too many incremental though and risk corruption. 

I see 12 mentioned above. Is that a good choice for someone that has a good amount of storage space, but doesn't want each backup to take too long?  That is about what I did with my old backup program.  Once a quarter I started fresh. I like that it does the cleanup (so deletion of un-needed incrementals? automatically...)

One more question. I am replacing an old 1TB mechanical data drive with a 2TB SSD. This drive stores images, videos, and documents.  Would a file by file backup and restore to the new, unformatted drive be better or a restore of a full backup and then have to expand the partition however TI does that? Do both maintain the "date modified" attributes? Does the fact I am going from a mechanical drive to an SSD make a difference on the decision? Should I initialize, partition and format first or will TI just do it?  Sorry, that's more than one question!😀

Thanks,

BJB

BJB,

My general feeling is that as the time between backups increases, the number of incrementals should decrease... not as a hard rule, but just a guideline. For example, I do daily backups with 9 increments so I get 3 chains a month. For weekly backups, maybe I'd do 3 or 4 increments. My thinking is not to have a single chain spanning a very long time as the longer the span of a chain, the greater the chance that something could go wrong.

As for the drive replacement, is this an internal drive? Is it a system drive? Are you able to connect both drives to the system at the same time? When I've replaced data drives only, I often just copy using Windows. The file "date modified" seems to be maintained, but folders have the date of the copy. To use ATI, I'd take the easy approach and just do a File and Folders backup of the HDD with restore to the formatted SSD. Or, do a Disk backup of the HDD with a File based restore to the SSD. Others may do it differently.

So I think you are saying my understanding is correct.  Differential backups will increase over time as their starting point is the base backup.

Incremental backups may decrease over time barring huge increase in New file.

I do weekly backups. With 4 increments we are talking a fill backup a month.

The drive I am replacing is an internal, data drive, not an OS drive where file by file would never work. I can have that drive live stillmin the PC and my new SSD in a drive caddy.  Don't think there is a difference formatting a drive in a USB 3 Sata to USB caddy vs. Internally?

Seems like you are saying a file explorer copy, an ATI file restore from an ATI file copy backup or image give me the same time stamps. I don't really care about folder modified dates, just files.

I apologize, I tried to organize answers with your post quoted but android chrome did not cooperate. It would not let me get out of the pasted quote....

Thanks,

BJB

I think your understanding is correct.

I recently did a similar update to an SSD. In my case, I had a 1TB HDD as D:. I added an SSD to the system to replace D: but left the HDD in the PC as drive G:

I attached the SSD (Samsung 870 EVO) to an external USB 3.0 drive caddy.  From Disk Management, New Simple Volume was used to initialize the SSD. I then just copied over everything from the HDD using Explorer. It took some time but easy.

Next I powered down and installed the SSD in the PC and unplugged the HDD. In my case I needed to change the SSD drive letter to D: with Disk Management.

Powered down again and plugged the HDD back in. On reboot, I again adjusted the drive letter for the HDD.

I recall having a couple minor issues with symbolic links / junctions between C: and D: as they seem to have followed the HDD. You'll want to verify all your links.

@BrinoC,

Thanks!  Sounds similar to what I will do.

BJB

Thanks again for all the help. My first scheduled weekly backup ran and I am trying to determine if it ran as a totally new backup image or incremental.

My first backup was run right after I created the backup job or settings or whatever TI calls it right after install. This is setup for a complete drive.  My last backup program created a new, smaller, additional file the second time it ran and each subsequent time. What I see with TI is one file with a newer date.  Did it run as a a new backup as it was the first scheduled one or does incremental combine the files somehow?

I should not be getting a new backup until backup number 5 per my settings. I also set cleanup at the default like 5 months or something in days..

Thanks,

BJB

Any ideas on this? I am relying in TI now and want to make sure it is setup correctly.

Thanks,

BJB

Any Disk backup using Incremental in ATI 2020 or 2021 now stores the incremental 'slices' within the same .tibx file as the initial Full backup for the task and will only create a new .tibx file after the configured number of incremental slices has been reached.

See the following KB documents published by Acronis with regards to .tibx files.

KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file

KB 63227: Acronis True Image: Do not delete .TIB or .TIBX files outside of Acronis True Image

KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020: new tibx backup format FAQ

KB 63425: Acronis True Image 2020: Limitations of tibx backups

KB 63516: Acronis True Image 2020: Incremental backups do not create separate files when using new backup format

KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format

KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020: tibx backups in local destinations

@Steve Smith,

Thanks!  I was the one answering questions about my old backup program so I really appreciate this.

Hard for me to wrap my brain around the concept but at least I know it is working as intended.

Thanks,

BJB

BrunoC wrote:

BJB,

As for the drive replacement, is this an internal drive? Is it a system drive? Are you able to connect both drives to the system at the same time? When I've replaced data drives only, I often just copy using Windows. The file "date modified" seems to be maintained, but folders have the date of the copy. To use ATI, I'd take the easy approach and just do a File and Folders backup of the HDD with restore to the formatted SSD. Or, do a Disk backup of the HDD with a File based restore to the SSD. Others may do it differently.

@BrunoC,

I am getting ready to pull the trigger on my drive replacement and think I now know what you mean about symbolic links.  Comfortable now that I have a good backup of the drive.

I have all my "my documents" folders pointing to D:/Documents, D:/Music, etc. etc.... on my old drive D.

I will be making an exact copy of this drive D to the new drive D the same way you did with a USB caddy.  So when it is first booted up in the new PC, it will be formatted, and have all my folders already on it.

Was it windows "my documents" symbolic links that broke for you or some other link?  So does that link somehow "know" you replaced the drive even though the path is the same?

Or is it that during the first bootup that until you assigned D to your new drive, windows did not see those folders....

I have  C, D, E, and F drives.  When D is replaced, I think that first bootup with the new formatted drive (from the caddy) may be found as D since E and F already have drive letters assigned? 

I always like to figure out problems before I have them if possible!  :)

Especially since I have seen some real nightmares in my research where people have had issues with "my documents" after messing it up.

I wonder if it is safer to change "My documents" to the default locations (without moving my files) and then change it back after I install the new drive?  I always get scared I will mess up and hit "move" by mistake!!!

Thanks,
BJB
 

 

BJB, like you I have My Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music located on the D: drive. These presented no problems at all. I also have my Temp folders on the D: drive and these too worked well.

I did have a problem with a junction I had created separately. I don't recall the details, but it was just one that I found.

Probably a good idea to list all your junctions ...dir /al /s c:\ and direct the output to a file.

OK, got it.  Thanks! 

I do not do any symbolic links so I am good there.  Long ago had issues so don't do it. 

I wasn't sure if windows would get mad about my docs if my first bootup that new D drive came up as G or something....    I think if I pull a D and put in a new drive without a drive letter assigned, seems like it should grab D...

BJB