Why are my Incremental/Diff. Backups so large

can someone please explain to me whats going on

I did a base backup about 2 weeks ago. I go to do a incremental backup and its almost 16GB... WTF?? I have downloaded/installed barely nothing.. maybe 1GB and thats absolute MAX.. Same thing with the diff. backup its huge!!

IM getting this data when I click on the advance option and select compression level... it shows you the different sizes.

Surely something is not right?

 

Here's a start:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=129243

 

goddamn after reading that link I must say I am pretty pissed

TI is a good program, but I just dont have the cash to go out and buy 500GB HDD or the patience to load 20 CDR every time I want to make a backup

Seriously I have done so little since mybase backup it just makes no sense why it should be like this

I want a refund!

 

Cam05
I just checked mybackups and these are the sizes for me.
Complete backup of 60GB harddrive - 27Gb (normal compression)
1st incremental - 780Mb
2nd incremental - 1.3Gb
3rd incremental - 537Mb
4th incremental - 1.2Gb
5th incremental - 2.5Gb
6th incremental - 1.6Gb
The whole lot totals 34Gb.
The full backup takes about 20 minutes and the incrementals about 10 minutes which is to an external Freecom USB harddrive.
HTH
John

 

Have you defragmented the drives?
That will cause large incremental and differential backups.

 

I fearlessly forecast: Either you are changing/adding lots of files, or you are defragging between backups.

 

OMG so you guys are telling me with TI i cant defrag between backups ??!

 

You can defrag but it makes incremental and differential backups larger as you found out. Sorry, but that is a fact of life.

TI is not alone in this, all imaging programs that bypass the file system for speed behave the same way. They make a map of in-use sectors and backup based on that. If data gets moved, even if data is unchanged, it appears to the program as a modification needing to be backed up.

 

So my choices are either Defrag or Backup or buy a 250GB external HDD!

Those are pretty shitty choices...

Excuse me for being so pissed but this is the second piece of backup software I have bought this year (after symantec) that has disappointed me!

Acronis should make this limitation pretty clear whn purchasing this software because its a pretty big fricken draw back

 

Can I avoid this problem by selecting a Files and folders rather than "Entire disk". If I check the box beside drive C I should still get all the information off that drive provided I do not exclude any system or hidden files. But will I get enough of the booting information to enable me to reconstruct my drive C after a total failure?

 

Why don't you just keep two full backups (as you say they only take 20mins) and you can do them when you are working on the computer or do the backup at night. Delete the earliest before each backup.

If you have just data files that you need saving every night then I would use either Files and Folders or another programme such as Replicator (free).

The need to be able to replicate my system drive (80gig) in the event of a crash is critical to me so I had no problem in deciding to get an external USB to store the backup files. Make sure you can read and verify the USB backup files when using the Linux based Recovery CD. Others have had problems with some external HD enclosures not being recognised by the Linux based Boot CD.

Better still make BartPE with the Acronis TI plugin and you will be well ready when that system drive is trashed by a rogue programme or the whole drive fails.

On your last point you will not be able to boot unless you do a drive image of the C drive. Files and folders will not be enough. I assume you only have one partition on the system drive.

 

If you don't want to buy another drive then maybe you can work out a compromise.

Do you have your OS on one partition and datafiles on another? If so, you can back up your OS (including installed programs) as an image to a backup partition such as Tatou describes. One would assume that your OS disk doesn't change that much which would imply either less need for frequent backups and/or defragging.

You can backup your data files using Files and Folders or some other datafile backup program.By using a different data backup method you can defrag the data partition all you want.

My personal preference is a second internal HD for backups and my data for historical reasons is backed up by BackupMyPC which uses the Archive bit to trigger a backup. I may switch to TI Files and Folders sometime.

I doubt if I run my PC like you run yours but I don't bother with defragging much. If I ran a server I'd probably think differently.

 

You could reconstruct most of it but you aren't going to get a restore and boot solution. The real beauty of an image is that it captures everything to restore your drive to the same state. B3567 now even backs up the MBR with a partition image instead of requiring a whole disk image to capture the MBR.

 

Thanks seekforever for your patience in helping me get a better understanding of ATI. I apologise if I am "out of order" in posting follow up questions that are not directly related to the original issue of this thread.

I have just created an "entire disk" backup of my drive C. I deliberately did not clear out the recycle bin before making the backup.

When I mount the backup, it shows up as drive G. Browsing drive G with Windows Explorer, I see a folder called RECYCLER but when I double click on the recycle bin icon on my desktop, why do I not see any entries relating to drive G?

 

THe effects of defragging are explicitly mentioned in the User's Guide.

You can defrag all you want, but for a sector based backup such as TI or Ghost or ,,,, that is going to increase the size of incremental backups.

Unless you have a very odd system, there is no need to defrag often if you use a proper defrag program in the first place.

Get your self Perfect Disk, which is likely the best defrag program.
If you purchase it by 30 April 2006, there's a $20 rebate if you buy from Amazon. Last I checked, net cost AFTER rebate is about $12(USA).

 

What I think is happening is TI does not backup the system swap file but writes a placeholder, few bytes to "keep its place", in the image. This data is not worth backing up. TI may consider the recycle stuff in the same category and doesn't back it up. This makes my statement that an image "captures everything" not 100% correct but I don't think the omission of these two items is a problem.

Next time I do an image I'll make sure I have some stuff in the recycle bin to see what happens. I usually do a disk cleanup before an image.

 

Each drive has its own RECYCLER (or RECYCLED) bin.

TI sure better be backing up those critters.

 

Yes, they are there. Recycler is shown dimmed when image mounted and there is the typical cryptic long number foldername under it. Opening the folder showed the "deleted" files OK.

 

If I check the contents of the mounted Recycler folder I see that it contains the contents of my current Recycle Bin, not the one present at the time the mounted image was created. However, I'm pretty sure though that when the image is actually restored, the appropriate Recyle bin contents will be restored also.

When you consider how the Windows Recycle Bin is established and that all Recycler folders shows the same contents as each other, I'm not surprised that you can't see the "historical" contents of an imaged Recycler folder. Windows wouldn't be able to restore a file out of it even if you could!!

Regards