I did not have 100% certainty based on Rick's responses (he uses v6 and I have
the new v8), so I went to the Acronis True Image Forum. I got one reply to
this question:
"Using v8, I have made a Complete BU file and using that file as reference have
made 6 daily Incremental files. If I wanted to do a complete system restore, I
am confused whether I do:
A. First restore the Complete image file; then restore the LAST Incremental
file, or
B. Restore the Complete image file; then the oldest Incremental file; then the
second oldest Incremental, then the 3rd Inc.; then the 4th Inc. ; then the 5th
Incremental file and finally the 6th and latest Incremental file.
Which is it? The Help and FAQ do not give the answer in English that is 100%
clear to me."
I got one response, which was:
"If you want to do a complete system restore you simply select the latest
incremental that you wish to restore from and TI will automatically apply all
images from the related full backup and all the incrementals up to and
including the restore point you have chosen."
Question to WIN-HOME List members: This seems like such a simple answer....let
Acronis do all the work implied by "B." above by simply selecting the LAST
Incremental file. Has "anyone" actually done a complete restoration and had
success?
My second question got answers that were NOT satisfying. I had NOT defragged.
The Incrementals were made very close in time to each other with little or no
changes to the disk by me. Can any Acronis users add clarification? her is
the way I stated the question:
"On a PC that uses 10 GB, the Complete tib file was 7 GB...perfectly normal and
expected. Next I made the first Incremental file about 10 minutes later. I
changed one txt file with 25 word change. The size of the Incremental *.2tib
file was 193 MB! Then 10 minutes later I did another Incremental (*3.tib) with
a minor change in ONE txt file and that Incremental file size was 508 MB!!!!!
I left the PC "on" and the next day with NO changes made by me, did a third
Incremental file (*4.tib) which was 14.5 MB!!!
Then without making any changes, made a 4th Incremental the next day (*5.tib)
and it was 560 MB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today without making any changes to the PC, I made a 5th Incremental image
which was 107 MB!!!!
Can "anyone" explain "what" Acronis is "doing"?? I thought an Incremental file
was to capture ALL changes since the most recent image file was made (I asked a
separate question earlier, whether the Incremental file is "changes since the
last Complete image" or is "changes since last Incremental image file was
made"....and am waiting for the answer to that question. In any event, the
Incremental file sizes should NOT be going UP and DOWN in size, should they,
when NO changes have been made to the computer? The changes seem WAY TOO LARGE
for just "changes since the last image file was made".
here are the 6 "answers":
1. Since this type of software is interested in sectors and not actual files I
assume sectors are being changed.
2. Windows page file? Tried doing incrementals on a non-system partition?
3. TI 8 doesn't image the page file so that's not it. Your ver 6 does. (so
this responder answered responder #2 who has earlier version than my v8)
4. Defrag program running in the background ?
5. From the manual: An incremental image created after a disk is defragmented
might be considerably larger than usual. This is because the defragmentation
program changes file locations on disk and incremental images reflect these
changes.
6. Windows tries to rearrange bootfiles etc. on its own, when the PC is idle.
Maybe this has an effect on the image files?
Can this List add any light on the subject? I did NOT defragment the disk.
Phil
--- I am having more fun than should be legal!
--
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