Can an incremental corrupt a good "Base?"

[KennethS]

Howdy,

Suppose I have made, and have validated (or otherwise tested) a full TIB of a partition.

Then, over the course of a week, I make a bunch of incremental "additions" to that "Base" TIB.

If one (or more) of those incrementals is corrupt (or otherwise damaged), could I still restore the "Base" TIB, or does a defective incremental toast the sound "Base" with which it is associated...?

Sincere thanks for any help on this,

Kenneth

[MudCrab]

When TI adds to an existing backup image, it does not change the original file in any way. So if a future incremental or differential backup is corrupted, the "base" image file will not be affected.

The base image could be restored as could any incrementals up to the point of the corrupted one.

[KennethS]

Hello again,

I thank you for your response to my question...

The info you offered will radically speed up my backup routine.

All the best,

Kenneth

[MudCrab]

I forgot to add one thing regarding using Backup Locations. If you're using Backup Locations then TI can modify a "base" image if consolidation takes place. For example, TI "merges" an Incremental into the Full to free up space. After the consolidation, the original Full image no longer exists.

If you run manual backups or don't use Backup Locations, then consolidation will not take place. Also, as far as I know, consolidation will not take place in a Backup Location if there is sufficient room for the requested number of backups to be saved.

[Acronis Support]

Hello KennethS, MudCrab and anyone interested,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please also notice that for consolidation to succeed, both original archives have to be restorable. Otherwise, the consolidation process will fail, and leave the original archives untouched. So, if an incremental becomes corrupted, it will not be consolidated with a valid full backup and will not damage it.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/) or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov