Scheduling Incremental Backups

I think I'm misunderstanding something about creating incremental backups with True Image 8 (build 791). An illustration:

Say today is Monday. On Monday afternoon, both Norton Ghost 9 and TI allow me to schedule a full backup to occur on the next day, Tuesday. Ghost also allows me to schedule daily incremental backups to start on Wednesday.

I can't seem to do this with True Image. In order to create daily incremental backups starting on Wednesday, I have to select the file of a full backup. But if the full backup won't happen until Tuesday, there is no file to select!

With True Image, can I not schedule incremental backups until a full backup has already been created?

 

I don't know if I am missing something here, but you cannot create incremental backups until after you have created a full back up.

I have a full back up every Wednesday from one schedule. Another schedule runs incremental backups on Thurs, Fri, Mon and Tuesday. Each one overwrites the previous one so there is only one full back up and four incrementals per week.

HTH
John

PS Why are you running Ghost as well?

 

I was previously using Ghost.

So, apparently I am correct: TI cannot create an incremental image until a full image has been created. Moreover, it seems that a set of incremental backups cannot be older than one week. There were no such limitations with Ghost. Whether or not that matters is something for me to think about.

 

No software can create an incremental backup until the full backup has been created. That is the whole point of incremental backups, they only backup changes since the last full backup. The incremental backup file is much smaller (usually) than the full backup and therefore does not take as long to create.

In the TrueImage scheduler you can set your backups to occur as and when you want i.e daily, weekly, monthly etc. Every day of the week, some days of the week etc. etc.

HTH
John

 

Hello bulldog356,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please note that you can schedule incremental image creation before the full image is created. All you need to do is to type in the exact name (and path) of the full image you have scheduled when you schedule the incremental image creation.

If you need to create incrementals more seldom than once a week you may use the "Monthly" option when you choose when you want the image to be created.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thanks for your reply. I'll try to explain myself better:

To schedule an incremental backup in TI, I have to create a full backup first. Then I schedule the incremental backup by choosing the filename of the full backup.

Not so with Ghost: I don't have to wait for the full backup to complete before scheduling incrementals. I can tell the program, for example, to create a full backup tomorrow morning and then make a series of incremental backups from that full backup. That is possible with Ghost because you don't need to specify the filename of a full backup in order to create incrementals.

Having to specify the filename of a full backup in TI also makes it impossible to create a series of incremental backups. For example, in Ghost I can schedule a full backup to occur every Sunday with incrementals from Monday to Saturday. When the second Sunday arrives, the original full backup is not overwritten; a separate full backup is made, with incrementals to follow. I can continue in this manner, if I wish, until I run out of space on the hard disk.

But, like I wrote originally, I have to decide whether this is a capability that really matters to me. TI also has advantages that Ghost does not.

 

Hello bulldog356,

Please accept my apologies for the vagueness of the explanation. When you schedule the full image creation you give it the name. Immidiately after you have scheduled the full image creation you may schedule the incremental back up creation indicating the same name that you have given to the full image file and choosing "Append changes incrementally" in the appropriate screen.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

ATI will automatically create a full backup if none already exists.
In other words, there is no reason to schedule a full backup. Incremental is all that's needed. If there is a "base" file to work off of, it'll do incremental. Otherwise, it'll do a full.

It's smart like that.

 

Thanks to all for the information.

 

wdormann,
I noticed that I can schedule an incremental like you say and that the first backup is large. However, if I create a Full Backup first, then create the incremental with a different name, I find that the two backups are not the same size. They differ by a few megabytes (~37mb/~39-40mb) with the incremental being smaller. I would think that they would be pretty close.

So, is an initial incremental backup that supposedly creates the full backup actually the same as a full backup? Clear as mud?

 

Yes. It is the same.

 

OK, thanks.