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jaypeecee
New Member
United Kingdom
24 Posts |
 Posted - December 19 2007 : 16:01:45
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Hi Folks,
I need some advice with disk image scheduling. Firstly, incremental vs differential. What are the disadvantages of differential backups? And, how often should differential backups be carried out? What would be a sensible backup regime based on full backups and differential backups? I've already run a manual full disk image backup using Reflect 4.1 - can I produce a schedule of backups using this full backup. Or, should I have created a schedule first?
Any help would be appreciated. When I've got this one sorted out, I'll then need advice regarding scheduled file backups!
JPC |
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Nick
Moderator
United Kingdom
6303 Posts |
Posted - December 19 2007 : 16:37:09
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Hi
When backing up to an external or network drive then consider using a full image followed by incremental images. This uses less disk space as only changes since the last incremental image are saved. When restoring all the files in the backup set need to be accessed, but this has very little (if any) extra overhead for the restore process if all the files are in the same directory.
Differential images save all changes since the last full image. This produces larger files but only a maximum of two backup files are required to restore, the full backup and the current differential. However, if all your files are in one directory, then the number of files required to restore is irrelevant, so use incremental images.
A good approach could be to schedule a full backup on Monday followed by incrementals each day for the rest of the week. The incrementals will automatically append to the most recent full backup in the destination directory, so you could start by scheduling incrementals to append to the most recent full image/backup in the directory of the full image you've already created. Then schedule a full backup for each Monday only.
Note: If you select 'Weekly' as the scheduling period you can choose which days of the week you want to run.
You should create regular full backups instead of just continually incrementing one full backup because:
1. If any individual backup file becomes corrupted (disk failure) then the entire backup set is toast.
2. You cannot control the disk space used since all files are required to restore. Your backup disk will eventually become full.
Hope this helps
Nick - Macrium Support
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jaypeecee
New Member
United Kingdom
24 Posts |
Posted - December 20 2007 : 11:04:36
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Nick,
Thanks for the information. So, incrementals is the way forward. The next thing is the mechanics of how to set up the backup regime you have outlined. I presume it means having two separate XML Definition Files - one for the full backups and one for the incremental backups. Is that correct? If I set the full backup to take place on Mondays, I assume I can set incrementals to occur every day of the week excluding Mondays.
With Christmas rapidly approaching, I want to get these scheduled backups set up as soon as possible.
JPC |
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Nick
Moderator
United Kingdom
6303 Posts |
Posted - December 20 2007 : 11:30:05
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Hi
Yes, that's correct. You create two XML definitions, one for the full backup and one for the incremental (selecting append to most recent image in the same directory). Then schedule both using the 'Weekly' interval. Select Monday only for the full backup and the rest of the week except Monday for the incrementals.
Regards
Nick |
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jaypeecee
New Member
United Kingdom
24 Posts |
Posted - December 23 2007 : 13:00:46
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Nick,
I'm making progress but I appear to have discovered a bug in your software. When I was setting up my incremental backups for both disk image and file backup, there is an option to Enable Disk Space Management, which I selected and chose 14 days for both images and file backups. However, doing this also triggered off the requirement for a password even though I had not enabled Password Protection nor had I entered a password. I spotted this anomaly in the summary at the end having set up the incremental backup details. I noticed the letter 'Y' against Password. So, I cancelled out, set up the incremental backup again but this time did not Enable Disk Space Management and the 'Y' against Password had turned to 'N'.
Obviously, Disk Space Management is essential but how do I select it without turning on the requirement for a password? It doesn't make sense anyway as I hadn't set a password even though the summary was saying that a password was required.
BTW, if I check 'Check here to subscribe to this topic' immediately below, does it turn on automatic e-mail notification of a reply?
JPC |
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Nick
Moderator
United Kingdom
6303 Posts |
Posted - December 28 2007 : 14:23:18
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Hi
Sorry for the delay in replying, I seemed to have missed your latest post.
We can't seem to reproduce the error you have found. If you are still having this problem would you mind sending the XML file with the error to support@macrium.com. Take the 'XML view' then right click and 'View Source'. You can then save this and attach it to an email.
You can get round this problem by editing the XML file manually to remove the password. Press any key whilst in the 'XML view' to edit the file and make sure the password node in the XML file looks like this:
<password Type="Clear"></password>
Hope this helps
Nick - Macrium Support |
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jaypeecee
New Member
United Kingdom
24 Posts |
Posted - December 30 2007 : 18:40:43
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Nick,
I have e-mailed you, as requested.
JPC |
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