Plugged Differential Images

Can one retrieve a previous version of a file by plugging the last "differential" image containing the needed version of the file?

For example... "differential" images are made each night, and if the last friday version of the file is needed, can one plug the last friday image to retrieve the file?

In my case, I can't tell if I have properly plugged the "differential" image because when I attempted to look for a prior version of a file, it appeared as if files created after the date/time of differential image were also present in the plugged image.... Is the flaw in my efforts to plug the image or in the limitations of a "differential" image?

Thanks for any guidance.

JWegge

 

When you plug a differential (or an incremental for that matter), the base and the other differentials are also plugged automatically. If the required version of the file you want to restore is showing, you should be able to select it for restoration. It's quite logical really when you think about it. If the file was on the original full backup, and it was in a changed sector at the time of each differential, different versions of the file will appear in the full and in each of the differentials and all will be shown when the image is plugged. But, if you do a full restore backwards from a given differential, TI will ignore all of the previous versions of the file and will only restore the final version.

 

Thank you for your reply:

But if as you say "the other differentials are also plugged automatically", and "different versions of the file will appear in full" are you saying that the plugged image is some sort of composite of all of the versions of the image? If so, I guess I could then rely on the date/time stamp to insure that I have retrieved the correct version of the needed file.

On the other hand, what happens if a file is deleted prior to a differential backup? Will it still show as present when the differential image is plugged? And if an full restore is done, will the deleted file not appear in the end product?

I see the logic... but it would seem that what you see is not necessarily what you get in the end. Hopefully Acronis will have some commentary as well.

Thanks again.

JWegge

note: I ran a test by modifying a text file created yesterday.... saved it... then ran a differential backup.... and plugged the image.... only the file modified today was present in the plugged image....

 

Yes, that's correct.

Correct again.

If a file is deleted prior to a differential, it will still appear when plugged as it was presumably in the 'base' full image or some previous differential. BUT, True Image is smart enough to know that it has been deleted, so if you do a full restore or a restore from a differential after it is deleted, it will not appear in the restored image.

If the file was created after the previous image and before the differential (which is what you seem to be saying), then that's exactly what I would expect. The creation and modification of the file were both done after the last image, so only the end result (the modified file) would be included in the differential and it would not be in any previous differential because it didn't exist then or in the 'base' image. Mmm.. Reading that seems a bit confusing, but I think you'll get the drift.

 

Hello JWegge,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I'm afraid that Ozmaniac is not completely correct, since Acronis True Image 9.0 actually allows you to plug and afterwards restore individual files and folders from the particular differential image.

The point is that if you store the initial full backup along with a number of subsequent differential images in the same folder, then independently of which file you have selected Acronis True Image 9.0 will suggest you several restore points according to the dates differential images were created on (see the screen shot below). If you want to restore a file to the state it has at the last Friday for example then just select the respective date in order to plug the corresponding differential image.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov

 

Thank you for your reply.... but to take your example to the next step... if a file is created after the 12:26 image but before the 3:04 image... and then modified after the 3:04 and before the 3:06 image, then it should only appear in two of the three plugged images.

However, when I ran a similar test yesterday, the same modified last version of the file appeared in all plugged versions of the data.... In other words when I plugged the initial base image (and which also had later differential backups), it contained the file created after the date of that initial base image!

Hopefully you can create a similar test scenario... and see if an intermediate rather than last version of a file appears in the plugged image.

Thanks for your assistance.

JWegge

 

Hello JWegge,

I'm afraid I was unable to reproduce the problem you have described.

That's what I've done:

- Created test_full.txt file on an empty NTFS partition E:

- Created Full image of this partition;

- Created test_differential_01.txt file and created first differential image;

- Create test_differential_02.txt file and created second differential image;

- Modified test_differential_02.txt file and created third differential image;

- Plugged all the images according to the instructions I have provided in my previous post;

- Made a screen shot (see below);

As you can see all the changes made to the files backed up partition contains are represented correctly.

If you still can not plug your differential images in a proper way then please make sure that you use the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please uninstall any previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image, prior to installing build 2337.

If the problem still persists with the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0 then please provide us with the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- Make a screen shots of your consequent steps taken during the image creation\plugging process along with the screen shots of the resulting mounted drives (similar to those I have attached to this post).

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Thank you very much for your diligent efforts. I will attempt to create the requested data & documentation for follow-up.

Sincerely,

JWegge

P.S. After a few experiments, I think the problem may be caused by the "my documents" tab in the differential images which appears to display the current version of the file... but the backup dated version of the file can be found in the actual folder/directory in which it was stored at the time of making the image.