Incremental Backup

general discussion
1

Hi,
I have set incremental backup for the clients, the problem is that every time the backup runs it creates a new folder with complete backup, which consumes the storage space
and my clients have about 10GB data each, Is there a way that it only updates with the new and changed files within the folder.

Thanks & Regards,
Santosh M.

2

Hi,

unchanged files are hard linked: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link
Thus they don’t really need space. Explorer etc. do not know this and may report “wrong” directory sizes. You have to look at the whole volume to see how much space really is used.

Regards,
Martin

3

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the reply, Actually I checked with each folder properties. The full backup was done on 20th Mar 2012 which the folder size was 601MB and then the incremental backup was done with adding 2 files of 2MB size to the folder then the incremental backup folder size was 603MB same happened whenever the incremental backup was done. Now if i select all folders and see the properties the size shown id 601MB + 603MB + …= Total Size is gone in GB’s. Can you help

Thanks & Regards,
Santosh M.

4

That’s what I mean with hard linked files. Those files are stored only once, but the copies are indisdinguishable. Thus the Explorer does not know which one to report and which one not to report and does then report them all. If you want to see how much space a backup uses you have to look at the storage usage of the whole volume (or UrBackup).

5

Thanks,
I checked with the folder Urbackup and the size goes on increasing as the backup happens but if i check the disk volume size it stays same does not increase. So what if i delete the old backups will it affect the next incremental backup or existing backup taken. And when does the cleanup process happens, I have set it everyday between 3am and 4am.

Regards,
Santosh

6

You can delete everything you want to. There might be some warnings but otherwise new backups won’t be affected.

Backup deletion:

www.urbackup.org/Administration_Manual.php#x1-360007.1
7

Thanks Martin,
Your backup software is the best, keep it up.

Regards,
Santosh M.