True Image (or any of these imaging apps) - how do you manage the backup images?
I understand the basics of True Image or Shadow Protect, where it does a full image on day 1, then incrementals each day after that. over time you have LOADS of incremental backups and have 2 questions:
1) At some point the hard drive will get filled up. I haven't been able to find any instructions on how to cull the backup drive (assume we're backing up to a single external hard drive). so the hard drive is full and you have images for the last 3 months. Other than manually deleting some / all of the incrementals, is there a way to automate the cleanup so you don't run out of space? You can't just delete the initial full account, because then you can't restore (except maybe some new files that have been created since the full image).
2) and along the same lines - if you delete some of the incrementals, do you risk losing some files? On day 1 it does a full backup. day 2 you make a change on file a. the incremental backup saves only the blocks that changed, right? On day 3 you create file B and that gets backed up on night 3. Now on day 10, to make some space, you delete night 3's backup. that totally eliminates file B, since the only place that exists in the backup is night 3, right? Is it better to do differentials? they get bigger and bigger, but what if night 3's file gets corrupted. do you lose the ability to restore at all? Or just what's in night 3's file? Like file B.
thanks!
1) At some point the hard drive will get filled up. I haven't been able to find any instructions on how to cull the backup drive (assume we're backing up to a single external hard drive). so the hard drive is full and you have images for the last 3 months. Other than manually deleting some / all of the incrementals, is there a way to automate the cleanup so you don't run out of space? You can't just delete the initial full account, because then you can't restore (except maybe some new files that have been created since the full image).
2) and along the same lines - if you delete some of the incrementals, do you risk losing some files? On day 1 it does a full backup. day 2 you make a change on file a. the incremental backup saves only the blocks that changed, right? On day 3 you create file B and that gets backed up on night 3. Now on day 10, to make some space, you delete night 3's backup. that totally eliminates file B, since the only place that exists in the backup is night 3, right? Is it better to do differentials? they get bigger and bigger, but what if night 3's file gets corrupted. do you lose the ability to restore at all? Or just what's in night 3's file? Like file B.
thanks!
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sys - yes it helps. I understand the process. But with these apps, how do you implement that process?
If you just make a single task - incremental unless full doesn't exist, then do a full
will fill up the drive over time with the single full and many incrementals you can recover as far back as that original full backup
how do you tell it to do a full each week? And then once it does the 2nd week's full, it overwrites lat weeks. So friday, you could recover from up to a week ago. on monday, after you overwrote last weeks full with this weeks full, you can only recover from that full. how do you keep a x week or y month ability to roll back?
paper - I am looking to image the entire hard drive to get all the data - music, pictures, outlook, etc. data is all over the place so I figure to grab all the data.
If you just make a single task - incremental unless full doesn't exist, then do a full
will fill up the drive over time with the single full and many incrementals you can recover as far back as that original full backup
how do you tell it to do a full each week? And then once it does the 2nd week's full, it overwrites lat weeks. So friday, you could recover from up to a week ago. on monday, after you overwrote last weeks full with this weeks full, you can only recover from that full. how do you keep a x week or y month ability to roll back?
paper - I am looking to image the entire hard drive to get all the data - music, pictures, outlook, etc. data is all over the place so I figure to grab all the data.
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I agree with aleghart. Acronis is an imaging software, not a backup software.
Keep your system and data separate. Backup your system with Acronis and some backup software for your data.
I personally use HandyBackup, a $40 solution. I hate most backup software made by Symantec or CA.
Keep your system and data separate. Backup your system with Acronis and some backup software for your data.
I personally use HandyBackup, a $40 solution. I hate most backup software made by Symantec or CA.
ASKER
paper - I am trying to backup all data on the machine. all too often I find an app is storing important data in other than my docs (olympus camera software is the most glaring I can think of. all the pictures you take with an olympus camera / download with their app use the default location of program files/olympus. I am sure you can change that, but rather than try to change every app, I'll just backup the whole PC? otherwise, when you add a user, you have to be sure to add their my docs, desktop, favorites, etc...
existing user installs a new app? Need to make sure it's data is getting backed up. as said before - because 1 TB drives are out there and cheap, just backup the whole machine.
but back to the initial post - how to reliably manage the images?
existing user installs a new app? Need to make sure it's data is getting backed up. as said before - because 1 TB drives are out there and cheap, just backup the whole machine.
but back to the initial post - how to reliably manage the images?
Use folders.
1 For full weekly. and another 6 for daily incrementals
They should overwrite the previous files after a week.
You may want to rename or move the full week to a different directory weekly,, so that you can have up to 2 weeks of backups.
Otherwise, consider going back to tape...
I hope this helps !
1 For full weekly. and another 6 for daily incrementals
They should overwrite the previous files after a week.
You may want to rename or move the full week to a different directory weekly,, so that you can have up to 2 weeks of backups.
Otherwise, consider going back to tape...
I hope this helps !
ASKER
Sys - I am trying to follow what you are saying. on thje external drive - 2 folders weekly and incremental.
2? jobs? 1 that runs 1x a week and is a full backup only to the weekly folder.
a 2nd job that runs 1x a day and is incremental only? (which will make a full on day 1 and then incrementals after that for the week) and this goes to folder incremental.
what causes the 2nd job to overwrite the existing incrementals? Or will that keep making incrementals in week2, 3, 4?
I understand that job 1 will overwrite the existing full in the weekly folder. but job 2 I am stuck on.
2? jobs? 1 that runs 1x a week and is a full backup only to the weekly folder.
a 2nd job that runs 1x a day and is incremental only? (which will make a full on day 1 and then incrementals after that for the week) and this goes to folder incremental.
what causes the 2nd job to overwrite the existing incrementals? Or will that keep making incrementals in week2, 3, 4?
I understand that job 1 will overwrite the existing full in the weekly folder. but job 2 I am stuck on.
ASKER
a) Full backups will limit how many images of 250 - 500 GB drives you can image (taking the amount of data to the extreme - sure, the 250 GB drive won't be 100% full)
b) and all those pictures / songs / files on those 250GB+ data drives take a long time to backup every night.