TrueImage 7.0 looks good; Incremental creates 2nd file bigger then first?

[Matt]

Acronis True Image seems to be a great product. Thanks for the
suggestion in the other thread.

I have been evaluating TrueImage 7.0 and have created and restored a
few images. (I love the image creation of an online system/OS
partition without having to reboot!) I've also done an incremental
image backup, and I find that TrueImage 7.0 creates a second file
that's slightly larger than the first.

I'm left to wonder: What's the point of my incremental backup if it's
going to more-than-double my backup storage size? If that's the case,
why not run a separate, full backup?

It's also unclear as to whether or not I restore with the original
backup .tib file (and I'm putting the backups all in one file, fyi) or
the newly-created one. I seem to have trouble executing a restore
with the new one. However, this point is minor if the above point is
not addressed, because I won't run an incremental if it doubles my
backup-storage size and will instead just run a new, full backup every
time.

I would, however, REALLY like to be able to generate incremental image
backups that make my backup store not any larger then the
delta/changes that actually occur in the partition. Isn't this the
point of incremental backups in the first place?

(I'm posting this here as well as sending question to Acronis support.
I bet I get answers more quickly from here than Acronis.

Thanks for any help
Matt

 

[Will Dormann]

I have been evaluating TrueImage 7.0 and have created and restored a
few images. (I love the image creation of an online system/OS
partition without having to reboot!) I've also done an incremental
image backup, and I find that TrueImage 7.0 creates a second file
that's slightly larger than the first.

I'm left to wonder: What's the point of my incremental backup if it's
going to more-than-double my backup storage size? If that's the case,
why not run a separate, full backup?

No, that's not right. First, make sure you're running the latest
version. Build 582 is the latest, and I can't say one way or another if
the previous version behaved the same way. (I have not tried it)

When you create an incremental backup, you first select which TIB you
are going to "base" your incremental backup off of. When you create an
image, you select an existing file as the target. Then it will prompt
you if you want to create an incremental backup. TrueImage will create
a new file with an incrementing number after that first file that
contains only changed files since the last backup. For example, I have
a job scheduled to create a full backup on the 15th of every month.
It's set with a max file size of 1.9GB (To fit on an ISO DVD), and it
created these files: (TrueImage automatically appends the number after
the file names)

Foo_C_15th1.tib 1.9GB 3:17AM
Foo_C_15th2.tib 0.8GB 3:21AM

Just now I tested doing an incremental backup, using the first TIB above
as the "base" of it. (Though I'm sure either file would work). It
created an additional file:

Foo_C_15th1.tib 0.1GB 11:39PM

The first two files were not modified in any way. When I did the
incremental backup, it only added the files which are new or have
changed since the last backup.

It's also unclear as to whether or not I restore with the original
backup .tib file (and I'm putting the backups all in one file, fyi) or
the newly-created one.

You can restore using any of the files. TrueImage will detect that
they are all part of the same set. When you go to restore, it will
prompt you for which date you would like to restore to (The date of the
original backup, or the date of any of the subsequent incremental
backups). VERY cool feature.

I would, however, REALLY like to be able to generate incremental image
backups that make my backup store not any larger then the
delta/changes that actually occur in the partition. Isn't this the
point of incremental backups in the first place?

Yes, that's exactly the point. Perhaps you missed a step in the
procedure, such as selecting an existing TIB file when it asks you for
the target?


-WD