FULL BACKUP = multiple files?

Using Acronis True Image Home version 11, backing up to an external drive; running daily differential backups.

My questions involve the file names and how to identify the full backup.

The files with the earliest date must be the full backup, but they are about the same size as the subsequent differential backups. Is that to be expected?

There are 7 files with the earliest date (modified times range from 5:05pm to 5:27pm). The files are all named MyBackup(1)1.tib, MyBackup(1)2.tib, MyBackup(1)3.tib, and so on. The first six files are all the same size, with the seventh file being somewhat smaller. Do all seven of these files constitute "the full backup"? Why are there six files of exactly the same size? And why are there multiple files, instead of a single full backup file?

Each day's differential backup can be a single file or several files -- sometimes as many as six files for one day. Why is this? The most common pattern seems to be three files for one day's differential backup, with the first two being exactly the same size and the third file being much smaller. Does any of this indicate I've set the program up wrong? Does TI automatically create duplicate files (but there are days when only a single file is created)? What is the smaller file (always the last file created)?

Another mystery is why the earlier differential backup files are numbered 81, 82, 83, and so on, then after the first few days, start being numbered 810, 811, 812, and so on. Why did the naming of these files change?

And can someone please confirm that, in order to free up space on the drive, I can delete all the files between the original full backup files and the most recent set of differential backup files?

Thank you.

 

"The first six files are all the same size"
And what is that size?
If it's about 4GB, I'll guess that your external is formatted FAT which has a 4GB size limit for files. That's why the one file was split as it was.

 

Good call! The first six are each 4,194,304 KB, and the final one, which I guess is the "left over" data, is 3,267,691 KB. Should I reconfigure the external drive to use a different file system?

 

My C drive is NTFS. The backup is FAT. Should the file systems of the two drives be the same? Does it matter?
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Generally, you're better off with NTFS than FAT. NTFS is journaling files system, which provides some better protection against the files getting messed up. If file activity is interrupted, say, by a crash of the OS, the activity should be completed next time to boot up the OS. Also the file size limits are tremendously larger with NTFS. You can use either file system with ATI and move stuff back and forth, etc. within the limits of the file systems -- such at th 4GB limit of files sisze in the FAT system.

 

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Thanks Shieber. I'll look into changing the file system of the backup drive to NTFS.
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I'd still like an opinion or two on this:

....can someone please confirm that, in order to free up space on the drive, I can delete all the files between the original full backup files and the most recent set of differential backup files?

Thanks.

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Well, yes, sort of. For a restore, you only need one Diff and the associated Full. However, to run ATI validation, you need to have the whole set of pfiles present -- this is a program shortcoming down deep inthe software that they haven't tried to fix. At least, not unitl 12. Don't know if 12 has the same shortcoming.

So yes you can delete interim Diffs if all you want is to able to restore.


Btw, you can learn about converting from FAT to NTFS, without losing data, here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

 

Ok, thanks.

That is one of the articles I read last night (thanks). I found the Convert.exe utility in the System32 folder. I'm going to do a little more research before proceeding (and I'll backup my backup by copying the whole thing to my c:\ drive first -- there's still room). I also discovered my second external backup drive (a Maxtor, about 5 yrs old) was already formatted NTFS.

I found this in the help files for the WD drive:

"This Western Digital device [it's called My Book] is preformatted as a single FAT32 partition for compatibility with all updated Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The FAT32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 GB. This WD device cannot create partitions larger than 32 GB in Windows 2000/XP. Windows 2000 and XP users can overcome these file size limitations by reformatting the drive to NTFS using the Disk Management utility. See answer ID 1287 at support.wdc.com"

So after a little more research, I'll be ready to go.

Thanks again.