Image backup utility that maintains one differential backup only

[Story.Yeller]

Does anyone know of a reliable disk image backup utility that can
schedule differential backups of a hard disc image, but that has an
option to delete previous differential backups each time so you don't
have multiple very large image files accumulating in a backup folder?

Genie Backup does seem to have very nice options along these lines
(user decides how many differntial backups to keep) but is a file-base
and not an image-based backup system. I currently use Acronis True
Image but it does not have this kind of option.

 

[Rod Speed]

Does anyone know of a reliable disk image backup utility that can
schedule differential backups of a hard disc image, but that has an
option to delete previous differential backups each time so you don't
have multiple very large image files accumulating in a backup folder?

Thats a rather dangerous approach because you are
stuffed if the latest backup didnt backup properly. Safer
to do the deletion manually once you have confirmed
that the backup is fine, or use incremental backups instead.

Genie Backup does seem to have very nice options along these lines
(user decides how many differntial backups to keep) but is a file-base
and not an image-based backup system. I currently use Acronis True
Image but it does not have this kind of option.

It wouldnt be hard to automate that outside TI.

 

[Story.Yeller]

Thats a rather dangerous approach because you are
stuffed if the latest backup didnt backup properly. Safer
to do the deletion manually once you have confirmed
that the backup is fine, or use incremental backups instead.


It wouldnt be hard to automate that outside TI.

Thanks for the help! I'm probably confused but I thought differential
backup provides an up to date backup of your partition so long as the
original partition image is present as well. Which means it is then
'safe' to delete the previous scheduled differential backups which are
no longer neeced if you only want to keep 2 backup possibilities
(i.e. the original image and the up to date differential image).

As for incremental backups, I thought you could NOT discard older
incremental backup files since you needed the entire sequence of
incremental backups to do a restoration of the current disk image.

I agree my method is not the very safest, leaving the option to
restore my partition image in only two states, but I am doing other
manual backups as well. I was just hoping to have a fully automated,
self-managing scheduled image backup system that doesn't eat up my
limited hard drive space with 'unnecessary' differential backup files
(like what Genie Backup offers).

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

Thanks for the help! I'm probably confused but I thought
differential backup provides an up to date backup of your
partition so long as the original partition image is present as well.

Yes it does.

Which means it is then 'safe' to delete the previous
scheduled differential backups which are no longer
neeced if you only want to keep 2 backup possibilities
(i.e. the original image and the up to date differential image).

No it isnt most obviously when the most recent differential backup
didnt work properly. Then you have lost the next most recent
differential backup and can only restore the original image.

Its better to not delete the next most recent differential image
until you are sure that the most recent differential image is fine.

As for incremental backups, I thought you could NOT discard older
incremental backup files since you needed the entire sequence of
incremental backups to do a restoration of the current disk image.

Correct, but they are also much smaller than differential images in most
cases, so there is no need to delete them due to the space they take.

I agree my method is not the very safest, leaving the
option to restore my partition image in only two states,

Only one state if the most recent differential backup failed.

but I am doing other manual backups as well. I was just
hoping to have a fully automated, self-managing scheduled
image backup system that doesn't eat up my limited hard
drive space with 'unnecessary' differential backup files

Thats what you get if you use incremental backups.

And you are able to restore at a variety of points in the past too.

Like I said, it wouldnt be hard to automate the deletion of the
surplus differential backups outside TI if you want to go that route.