Mirror/Differential??

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seh
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:50 pm

Post by seh »

Did a mirror backup of over 5000 files. An hour later, ran the same backup job again, and it backed up only 3 files. These were the only 3 files I accessed in the interim. Isn't this in fact a differential backup? Will it continue to backup only the changed files from this point on. That is exactly what we are looking to do.


Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,
That is how the Mirror backup type works in FBackup. It is in fact an incremental backup without zipping the files.

Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

seh
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:50 pm

Post by seh »

OK. But I only see one backup (the latest) on the destination usb drive. So how do I restore all the files (e.g. to a different computer), if only the latest incremental backup (which may only have 3 files on it)is showing?


Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,
The first backup is a complete one. After that only new and modified files are copied in the same location, overwriting the old version of the modified files. In destination, there will always be the latest version of all files. There are no multiple versions of the same file kept when using the Mirror backup type.
Please note you should not manually delete the backups in destination as FBackup won't re-copy the same unchanged files every time.

Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

seh
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:50 pm

Post by seh »

Following up on this, what is the restore strategy if I have the 1st mirror backup (full), and then 2 more weeks (14 more days) of mirror (i.e. incremental) backups. Do I need to restore all 15 backups, one at a time?
Alternately, if would prefer to start over again every 7 days, how do I start again with a new mirror (full) backup?


Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,
I just explained you that you cannot keep 1 complete mirror and 14 incremental mirrors in different places.

The new and modified files are copied over the complete backup, updating it.

Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

seh
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:50 pm

Post by seh »

OK - but does that mean the one backup file (containing both new & modified files)continues to get bigger indefinitely? What is the correct backup & restore strategy for mirror backups, assuming we regularly restore to a second computer, to keep it's data up to date and identical to the main computer?


Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1953
Joined: Thu May 23, 2013 7:57 am

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,
You should backup to the backup destination and also to the second computer using two backup jobs.

Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

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