Incremental backup - file size

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by ChristerTX, May 17, 2007.

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  1. ChristerTX

    ChristerTX Registered Member

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    I'm creating in incremental backup of my laptop's "My Documents" folder.
    Every time I do that, a new backup file is created.
    The new file today was over 2 gB and so was the one created yesterday.

    Why is that? Should not the backup only include NEW and CHANGED files and hence over write any old versions of the changed file in the previously created file?

    With this rate, the needed space for the backup will be infinite. How should I manage this??

    Regards / Christer
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    No need for True Image to do this. XCopy with the appropriate switches will do this and will update the backup with just changes in subsequent backups. And your files will be in native format. If you want to compress them, use the built-in winzip that is in XP. What is the size of the My Documents folder?
     
  3. ChristerTX

    ChristerTX Registered Member

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    Can you elaborate on the procedure ? Is XCOPY a program that can be scheduled?
    We are talking about 15gB of data.
     
  4. rodnh

    rodnh Registered Member

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    Hi Christer,

    I agree with DwnNdrty. There are better options than using imaging software for simple backup of files and folders. XCOPY that comes with windows is one. XXCOPY is another freeware program that I think is preferable because it doesn’t use or rely on the archive bit setting for file selection. Either of these solutions can be automatically scheduled by setting up a batch file and using windows scheduler. Another option is the freeware version of SyncBack. That uses a graphical interface and is very easy to set up and schedule, with no switches to learn and no batch file to set up. Like XXCOPY, SyncBack doesn’t use or depend on setting the archive bit. Another freeware option is Karen’s Replicator. That’s also a graphical solution that can be scheduled but I don’t know if it needs to use the archive bit. There are probably other good choices out there also.

    I personally use both XXCOPY and SyncBack and I prefer not to automatically schedule any backups. I use a clickable desktop icon to initiate any backup because I may want to backup at varying times during the development of a single important file. That leaves me the flexibility to easily backup at any time I think it’s desirable without relying on a fixed schedule. The process can be completely transparent to the user if desired. Once a backup baseline has been established, only changed, added or deleted files are processed. And all files are kept in their native format for direct opening in their source software. There is no additional proprietary “restore” or “mount and extract” procedure needed to gain access to the backed up files. The only downside is that you need the same amount of disk space for the backup files as the originals, since they are not compressed in any way by the backup software. They are simply copied over to wherever you designate. I use an internal slave disk that serves as one location (the primary one) for the backup files.

    I use TI-7 quite a lot, but mainly for OS/applications partition imaging and disk-to-disk cloning. TI-7 doesn’t have individual files and folders “backup” (read image) capability, but I wouldn’t use it if it did. Imaging as a sole backup strategy for normal work files seems unnecessarily risky and "clunky" to me.

    Rod
     
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