TI 9.x incremental/differential archiving

[NineEyes]

How does TI 9.x determine the files it needs to save during an incremental or differential backup? In other words, how exactly does it know which files have changed since the last full backup (for differentials) or incremental (for incrementals)?

Does TI 9.x:
1. Use the archive bits in the file system?
or
2. Compare the files in the file system with those in the backup series?

The answer to this question will determine whether I can, say, perform a full backup of a drive, and then continue performing incremental backups of that drive to a different backup series.

[Clearline]

I'd like to know the answer to this question too.

[Menorcaman]

-{ Quote: "Does TI 9.x:
1. Use the archive bits in the file system?
or
2. Compare the files in the file system with those in the backup series?" }-Hello NineEyes,

The answer is - Neither.

Simplified explanation. When creating a Disk or Partition image, Ti doesn't work at the file level. It takes a "snapshot" (for want of a better word) of the in-use sectors on the source drive and then saves the data contained on these in-use sectors, along with a copy of the snapshot, as a .tib image file. When you then create an Incremental, TI takes a new snapshot of the in-use sectors and compares it with the one stored in the previous image file (be it a Full image or an Incremental). It then only saves the data contained on the in-use sectors that have changed, plus a copy of the latest snapshot. Creating a Differential image works in a similar manner except that the new snapshot is always compared with the snapshot stored in the original Full image.

Hope the above makes sense :P ;D

Regards

[NineEyes]

Menorcaman,

This does make sense, and it's good news. This means that if somebody performs a full backup on a drive, it won't affect someone elses incremental backup of that same drive. Excellent.

I have a number of machines which perform daily incremental backups to an internal drive. Periodically, I like to perform incremental backups of these machines to an external drive. Looks like I'll be able to do this without a problem.

Thanks!

tjf

[Clearline]

OK, So if you make a full image, the modify the drv, removing or moving data to other drvs. Then you do a differential.
When I restore the dfferential, would the end result be a modified original (new structure, but with the old files back in that had been moved)
or
would it look like the drv when the differential had been done?

A scenario of my question:
I get a new system, do a full BU. Then partition or add drvs, moving My Docs, and tmp structures off the main drv. Also removing all the junk prgs that come with a new PC.
For safety, I store the OEM image to a disk. and would like to store just a differential with it, as long as it doesn't reintroduce the earlier systems that were removed, otherisee would need a full backup.

I am going to be doing full backup anyhow, but figure that the differential off the OEM BU would be smaller for archiving

[Menorcaman]

-{ Quote: "OK, So if you make a full image, the modify the drv, removing or moving data to other drvs. Then you do a differential.
When I restore the dfferential, would the end result be a modified original (new structure, but with the old files back in that had been moved)
or
would it look like the drv when the differential had been done?" }-Hello Clearline,

The latter.

Regards

[Clearline]

Thank you