Incremetal, Cyclic, Retention....?

I'm moving from Acronis to (hopefully) Paragon. I've got Hard Disk Manager 12 Pro (but still within the refund window), which includes what I hope is all the backup functions.

I'm confused though, because I don't see how to do some (what I thought to be) fairly straightforward stuff:

> Select some files (not a whole partition, maybe on a network drive)
> Exclude some of the files based on file name wildcards
> Use a password
> Define a backup location on any attached or network drive
> Select Incremental backup, to start with a full backup
> Backup every X hours, if the computer is on
> After Y incremental backups, do a new full backup, and resume incremental
> After Z full/incremental cycles, erase the oldest backup set (full+incremental)
> Run if the computer is on (don't make me log in or identify myself)

It seems like I can do some of these things with one set of functions, and other of these things with another set of functions, but I can't just do exactly what I described above, which I could do with Acronis. (Since Acronis committed seppaku in the transition from 2010 to 2011, I'm not going back).

My question is, what's the best way to get as close as possible to the above formulation with Paragon, and what is it that I have to give up/compromise on?

Any help with this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I do think I can be much help because I only do full images when I manually decide to since I don't use a program like Acronis or Paragon for data file backup. Since I'm not a power user in this regard take what I say with a grain of salt and hopefully somebody with better knowledge will come to your rescue.

The first place for you to look is in the manual at "Cyclic Backup".

For anything out of the ordinary in Paragon you will normally get pointed to the scripting language. In the Backup and Recovery you can go through a wizard and then elect to save the generated script. Then you can modify it to (hopefully) do what you want rather than start from scratch. I don't think this is available in HDM but have a look. You may have been better off with the Backup & Recovery program for these things?

I tried to use the scripting language to make the program work the way I wanted to use it and since it didn't let me enter things like filenames other than going in and editing the script I considered it useless. If you don't have a programming background it will be to obscure for you to use out-of-the-box.

Paragon does the basic backup and restore well and is less buggy than Acronis but the range and control of features from the UI is better in Acronis. You can't even automatically validate an archive after creation in the same task from the UI in Paragon. You have either do it manually after creation or modify the script.

 

Thanks for the input. More grist for the mill.

 

wirerider,
You should download a copy of the User Manual, from paragon site. It should help with some of your questions.

... For just a File backups, I would use another backup pgm that is designed just for file backups.
.... However, for "Partition Image (or entire hard disk image) Backups" this is where the Paragon pgm shines, inmho. I have found it to be reliable for backing up and restoring partitions and entire hard disk image. That being said ......

Basically, I only use paragon's backup functions (in paragon backup and recovery home pgm) to perform "Full Image (either, Entire Hard Disk or Multiple Partitions) Backups", but here are the answers to the questions you asked .......................

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/manual.html

Paragon pgm adds the scheduled task as entry in Windows Task Scheduler and Windows Task Scheduler is actually running your scheduled paragon backup.

1. So, Windows Task Scheduler has an option (at least it does under win xp) under Daily Schedule, Advanced button, "Repeat Task Every X Hours" (based on win xp task scheduler).

2. Windows Task Scheduler has options to run when on, but don't need to be logged in.
.... Just un-check "Run only if logged on and enter "Run As Userid" in properties of task.

You can Backup to an External Hard Drive or a Network drive location ... not sure what your problem or issue is in doing this ?

... Archives can be password protected. On SmartBackup Wizard, Check ON "change backup options" and select specify Password for Archive.

... Click SmartBackup, select "Other Files and Folders" and select Files to Backup.
... Check On "change backup options" to get option of specifying "include/exclude file masks".

.... Does *not* have these options.
... For Partition Images Backups there is a Cyclic Option, but its *only* option is to either create Cycles of Full Base Images (limited to a Single Partition) and delete base image (after a certain number of bases is exceeded) --or-- create initial base and subsequent differentials and delete differentials (after a certain number is exceeded), but *no* option to automatically cycle/delete the set of base and differentials.
.... Therefore, the Cyclic Backup feature will *not* create you a New Full base, it only creates a number of new differentials (cycled/deleted).


To do anything more involved requires modifying the paragon scripting (and the HDM 12 Pro Version, includes Scripting support) and/or using another Scripting language.
... For example, I only create Scheduled Weekly - "Full Image" - Backups. So, I created a Scheduled - Script in another Scripting Language to "Delete" the oldest weekly backup generation that exceeds (5) Weekly "Full Image" - Backup Generations.

 

wirerider,
Just wondering if you came to a conclusion of advantages vs compromise ?