Acronis and incremental backups (I don't like this 1 bit)

[ssoni223]

Ok, I set up my slave drive and scheduled incremental Acronis backups.
I now have 3 files after 3 days.
(80GB, 2GB, 2GB.)

That means, after a few months, I'm going to have dozens of files.
This seems like a total mess.

I prefer to have 1 file.
Period.
I will just schedule a FULL BACKUP each time.

But out of curiousity, how exactly would I restore these multiple incremental files in event of a real recovery? Is Acronis smart enough to just apply new files over the older ones?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Arconis should apply new ones over old ones. The smaller files you are speaking of are just the files that have changed since the original backup. This is common and backup exec does the same thing

 

[Blain]

This will be moved to the "Windows/PC Software" forum. It has nothing to do with "General Hardware".

 

[ssoni223]

So after a few months, I'm gonna have DOZENS of files. But Acronis will know to apply one after the other over the original image? Seems like a long, redundant process. I think I prefer to do FULL backup each time. KISS

 

[Navid]

There are pros and cons to each scheme. That is why a combination may be the best approach.

If you only make full backups, they will be very large files. You cannot keep them all. If you create a full backup every day and delete the one from the day before, you will not have a history. If you delete a file today, your full backup tonight will not contain the file you deleted. if next week you realize that you need the file back, you cannot get it back because you deleted yesterday's full backup already!

To have history, you need to keep backups. To be able to keep backups, you need to do something to make them small. Incremental backups are small.
You already know the con with incremental backups!

There is also a "Differential backup".

I make an incremental backup every day. I make a differential backup every month. I make a full backup every quarter.