simple backup scheme

i have Acronis® True Image Home® version 10.0 (build 4,871)

i intially created a secure zone but that didn't work for me because when it came time to make an incremental i was asked to increase SZ size to no end. no matter how much i increased the size it would ask for more space.

i decided to backup to an external drive. reading threads around here i am now confused about what's simplest.

all i want is to make one full backup and from there on make an incremental or differential backup every week or so such that i only need the full backup and one smaller backup file to restore. i don't want umpteen differetials or whatever. is this possible?

thx for your suggestions and help!

 

You probably want to make a full and a differential. With a differential backup you only need the full and differential made on the date you wish to restore to. If you were to use incrementals then you would need the full and all the incrementals up to the restore date.

However, since the differential contains all of the modifications since the full, they tend to be larger than a daily incremental which just captures the changes since the last incremental. A bug in TI9, and I think it still exists in T10 but I am not certain, is although you only need the full and a differential to restore you need all of the intermediate differentials for the validate function to work properly.

Personally, I would be very reluctant to just have one full and then a huge chain of differentials or incrementals from that time on - probably particularly if they are incrementals since a bad one will render anything created later in the chain useless.

 

so you recommend a full backup once week?

if so, wouldn't i have to delete the last full and then go thru the long wait of making another? or is there another way?

what backup plan do you use?

 

If I were doing incrementals/differentials I probably would go a full once a week and an incremental each day for the remainder.

You have to judge how important your data is and how often do you really have to back it up. If you are waiting a long time you must be dealing with a very large amount of data.

I only do full image backups on my OS whenever I think they need it! IMO, the OS/apps really aren't a huge deal because I have everything I need to restore it if I didn't have a backup, it would just take time. I keep a copy of the image on a second local disk, a networked computer and I also burn the occasional one to DVD for good measure. I do not consider DVDs a good media for your primary backup and in addition, they are very slow.

Things you create yourself like pictures, movies, spreadsheets, letters, etc are the things you have to pay attention to since you can't buy them anywhere. I keep all of these files on a disk on another PC and an incremental runs in the night to back them up. I then copy them, yes, copy with XP so there is no intermediate format with all of the files in a big container file, to another location from time-to-time. I copy to DVD as well and just put the DVDs in an old spindle pack. I bet for some older files there are probably 50 or more copies of them in the spindle pack.