I use Window 2012 backup to bakcup my data file to another disk. The desintation disk has 2TB and the current data size is around 1TB.
From the attached file, there are 15 copies each copy is a "Full backup". However the destination disk still have 500GB space. Does it mean those copies are differential rather than full backup ? Where can I tell why the copies is a full or differential ?
Your screeshot says it and you highlighted it. The right column that says "Backup Type" shows "Full." Therefore, the backup is a full backup. If not, it would say "Incremental" or "Differential."
Brad Bouchard
And, as Joshua mentiond, your screenshot already says it :)
noxcho
I doubt that all 15 runs did full backups because 2TB would be too small then to keep so many images. Or you are always overwriting the same image abd it did run 15 times already. If you click properties of each run - does it say always full?
@noxcho We can only go on the picture that he provided (did you look at it?), and you can clearly see from his screenshot that the backup type is full.
AXISHK
ASKER
Basically, I want to configure Full backup on Sat and differential backup from Mon - Fri. How should I archive it ? Any screenshot and guideline on Window 2012 ?
Tks
Morgan Machin
No screenshots, but you would create the full backup (or just change the one you already have) to only run on Saturdays at your specified time, then you would create an incremental job to run Sun-Fri at your specified time. You can have the job overwrite the previous one, keeping one week of data at a time, essentially. The backup software built-in to Windows Server isn't the best in terms of features and flexibility, unfortunately. It will get you by, but you might check into something a little more aggressively built to perform backups, like NovaStor, VaultLogix, etc.
@Brad, on this sreenshot you see only one backup properties and it says full about this backup exactly. Not about all 15 backups. Again, he has there 1TB data transferred and even with compression 1TB would be about 500GB. Now imagine he has 15 Full images of 500GB each and will they suit to 2TB drive? I guess no.
Anyway, AXISHK, if you want really a flexible solution which saves the data in compressed file and perform backup retention itself then have a look on third party backup tools: www.paragon-software.com
They Hard Disk Manager 14 Server Basic looks pretty good.
Gerald Connolly
Have you considered using a "Incrementals Forever" + Synthetic Fulls regime to cut down backup times.
AXISHK
ASKER
Check this link below and I still can't figure out how to do the differential backup on Window 2012. There is no option to select the backup type when I click the "Backup Schedule". Base on the below url, i suppose it uses the differential backup if there is a Full system on the backup disk. However, the previous attached file shows that all 15 copies are full backup. Any idea ? I have attached the selection in Window 2012 that I have selected. Tks
@axishk, the diagrams in that link show why you effectively have 15 Full backups as what is described is a basic block level deduplication whereby once you have the original real full backup all the subsequent ones are synthetic, built from the original and the blocks that changed at that point.
This gives excellent compression ratios, standard compressions are only 2:1 at best, whereas these techniques can give compression ratios of 40:1 and above
AXISHK
ASKER
So, can we say that I can restore different 15 version ? The "Full" doesn't mean using a "Full" or "Differential" backup. Correct ?
Tks
noxcho
Yes, that's correct. It is moving already imaged blocks down and writing newer blocks to the main image. Thus the full image is most up-to-date image.
As for the restore - you can restore 1 version as bare metal recovery and apply file restore which can let you restore files from different states. I am assuming it if you select to restore the backup from specific date it will restore it as full and then transfer to restored system the changes from specific date.
@axishk, well yes you do have effectively 15 FULL backups, they are just stored in a highly compressed format
Brad Bouchard
So, can we say that I can restore different 15 version ? The "Full" doesn't mean using a "Full" or "Differential" backup. Correct ?
@Noxcho that is not correct. He still has 15 Full backups as referenced both by him in his screenshots, and the type of jobs he set them up as. They may be compressed, but they are full backups and his original questions which we've deviated from were: Does it mean those copies are differential rather than full backup ? Where can I tell why the copies is a full or differential ?
If he wants scenarios and advice or even recommendations on software/ways to back things up, no problem, but use a different question.
AXISHK
ASKER
As in my latest attached file, I can't specify the type of backup job in Window 2012. To clarify my understanding, there re 15 copies - 15 different versions that I can restore.
15 full backups of 1TB on 2TB? VHD comression is very small, according to what you say it must be compressed up to 90% which Windows cannot do. Either MS is cheating calling the increments or dedup as full otr the drive is not 2TB.