Amend backup files

[ueler]

Can you amend the backup files that TI creates? Such as if you backup every day of the week will Ti go back and overwrite or amend the created files?

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by ueler

Can you amend the backup files that TI creates? Such as if you backup every day of the week will Ti go back and overwrite or amend the created files?

Hello ueler,

If you're creating a full image each day then, provided you use the same file name for each new image, TI will just overwrite the previous full image.

However, if you created a full image e.g. Backup_C.tib followed by incremental images, TI will create an additional file for each incremental called Backup_C2.tib, Backup_C3.tib, etc. Now, the next time you create a full image called Backup_C.tib, TI will overwrite the original full image, thereby rendering the associated incremental files obsolete. These obsolete files will then be progressively overwritten by any subsequent incrementals.

Regards

[mumdigau]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Hello ueler,

If you're creating a full image each day then, provided you use the same file name for each new image, TI will just overwrite the previous full image.

However, if you created a full image e.g. Backup_C.tib followed by incremental images, TI will create an additional file for each incremental called Backup_C2.tib, Backup_C3.tib, etc. Now, the next time you create a full image called Backup_C.tib, TI will overwrite the original full image, thereby rendering the associated incremental files obsolete. These obsolete files will then be progressively overwritten by any subsequent incrementals.

Regards

Hi Menorcaman,

That is exactly the backup procedure I used in the past. In order to save disk space I now tried to move all image files (full and/or incremental) except the last one to DVD. But on the next incremental backup TI does a full image. Which image files do I have to keep on the harddisk so that TI continues with incremental images?

Best Regards

mumdigau

[Menorcaman]

Hi mumdigau,

In order to save disk space I now tried to move all image files (full and/or incremental) except the last one to DVD. But on the next incremental backup TI does a full image. Which image files do I have to keep on the harddisk so that TI continues with incremental images?

In the scenario you have provided - all of them I'm afraid!! Any incremental restore point requires the full image plus all incrementals up to that point. Without access to the original full image and associated preceeding incrementals, the remaining incremental on your hard drive would be meaningless. As you have discovered, TI therefore starts again with a new full image.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards

[mumdigau]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Hi mumdigau,

In the scenario you have provided - all of them I'm afraid!! Any incremental restore point requires the full image plus all incrementals up to that point. Without access to the original full image and associated preceeding incrementals, the remaining incremental on your hard drive would be meaningless. As you have discovered, TI therefore starts again with a new full image.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards

Yeah, I exspected that, to be honest. So there is no other way to save disk space in an incremental image scenario?

Ciao

mumdigau

[ChristerTX]

Hello,
I have followed this thread but still a little confused on what I should expect when doing incremental backups.
I thought that I would just have a few files that are filled up as my data on the PC increases in size, but this is what I see:

file1.tib 1,8gb Oct 27
file2.tib 2,9gb Oct 27
file3.tib 1 gb Nov 11
file4.tib 1,2gb Nov 16
file5.tib 1 gb Dec 1

So what is going on here? Why would the incremental file and my total backup increase with one gig when it is only incremental (i.e. only changed data) that is put in the file?
Why would I need to have so many incremental files? With this pace my backup drive will be full of these incremetal files in some time.

Cheers / Christer

[tachyon42]

If you defrag the drive after making an image then the next incremental will be large because defrag has moved lots of data to other sectors on the disk. TrueImage compares a sector from the original full image (taking into account any incrementals) with current sector if different then the sector is written to the new incremental.

The size of an image file (full or icremental) will also depend upon the compression method selected.

[Ozmaniac]

If you are using ATI9, why not use differential instead of incremental backup? Each differential may be a bit larger than an incremental, but you only need one + the full backup it belongs to.

[Menorcaman]

Hello Christer TX,

It's not only defragmentation that moves the data around. Merely starting Windows and opening and closing a few applications is enough to have an effect on the size of a subesequent incremental.

Unless you are imaging more than, say, 5GB of used data or you require the "roll back in time" capability of incremental images, why not just create a full images using the same file name each time? This would save a lot of space on the destination drive and wouldn't really take that much longer than an incremental.

Regards

[cconrad]

Originally Posted by mumdigau

Hi Menorcaman,

That is exactly the backup procedure I used in the past. In order to save disk space I now tried to move all image files (full and/or incremental) except the last one to DVD. But on the next incremental backup TI does a full image. Which image files do I have to keep on the harddisk so that TI continues with incremental images?

Best Regards

mumdigau

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Hi mumdigau,

In the scenario you have provided - all of them I'm afraid!! Any incremental restore point requires the full image plus all incrementals up to that point. Without access to the original full image and associated preceeding incrementals, the remaining incremental on your hard drive would be meaningless. As you have discovered, TI therefore starts again with a new full image.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards

But the manual says this:

Originally Posted by The Manual (TI Home 9.0, page 24)

If you are going to create an incremental backup (see 3.2 Full, incremental and differential backup), select the latest full or incremental backup you have.

In fact, if all incremental backup files are stored together, it doesn't matter which one you select, as the program will recognize them as a single archive. If you stored the files on several removable disks, you must provide the latest archive file; otherwise, restoration problems might occur.

That makes it sound like I can move all the earlier files to DVDs and only keep the most recent one accessible to TI. But indeed that does not seem to work. (It creates a full backup.)

Is there any way to keep doing incremental backups without keeping all of the files in the set in one place?

[Menorcaman]

Hi cconrad,

Bearing in mind that the original question asked which tib files needed to be kept on a hard drive, I see no conflict between my statement and that in the Acronis True Image User's Guide.

However, when archiving to removable media (e.g. DVD) TI needs to be able to "see" the original full image plus all incrementals up to and including the last one if you wish to continue adding incrementals to that particular set.

Regards

[cconrad]

That appears to be the case. However, the fact that the manual said "select the latest full or incremental backup you have" (my emphasis), suggested to me that you needed only have the latest incremental backup accessible to TI. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part.

[cconrad]

Or, more to the point, the next sentence in the manual, which says, "if you stored the files on several removable disks, you must provide the latest archive file," to me implies that you can do incremental backups while keeping some of the files on removable disks.