Mrs Howl
December 5th 03, 01:10 AM
I'd like to do a daily backup of my data files to a network server,
using the Windows XP built-in backup utility. My ideas:
Schedule a once per month 'normal backup'. (Normal means all files I
select are backed up regardless of how recently they have or haven't
been changed.)
Schedule a daily 'incremental backup'.
In this way, if I ever have to restore, I would potentially have to
dig through at most 30 incremental backups.
Questions:
Should I pick 'replace' or 'append'? If I do replace, wouldn't that
mean the various incremental backups would replace each other? That
would be no good, since I need to always keep the 30 most recent on
hand. If I pick 'append', does that mean that each backup will be
stored in the same physical file on the network? (Presumably the
backup software will see each increment inside it.)
But then append would make the file keep growing, wouldn't it? After
years of backing up, it would get huge, wouldn't it?
Also should the normal be replace or append? If I do append, I'd get
the same problem (file bloats to huge size), wouldn't I? If I say
replace, then what happens if I lose a file just before month-end, and
notice it just after month-end? I wouldn't be able to restore it.
Here's kind of a solution I thought of, but not sure how to implement
it.
1) Schedule two different normal backup jobs, each run bimonthly, one
on even months, the other on odd months. They'd both have the replace
option, so neither file would bloat. Between them, I'd have a normal
backup for each month.
Problem: monthly is an option, but bimonthly isn't.
2) Schedule two different incremental backup jobs. Each is run daily,
but one on odd months, the other on even months. But when the
beginning of a month approaches, I'd like the backup file wiped out so
that it doesn't bloat.
The trick is scheduling a job to run 30 days on, 30 days off, etc. Is
there a way? I don't see that as an option. Also, on days a full
backup happens, I'd like to exclude that from the days the incremental
runs. Is there a way to do that?
Is there a simpler way of doing what I want than what I've suggested
here?
using the Windows XP built-in backup utility. My ideas:
Schedule a once per month 'normal backup'. (Normal means all files I
select are backed up regardless of how recently they have or haven't
been changed.)
Schedule a daily 'incremental backup'.
In this way, if I ever have to restore, I would potentially have to
dig through at most 30 incremental backups.
Questions:
Should I pick 'replace' or 'append'? If I do replace, wouldn't that
mean the various incremental backups would replace each other? That
would be no good, since I need to always keep the 30 most recent on
hand. If I pick 'append', does that mean that each backup will be
stored in the same physical file on the network? (Presumably the
backup software will see each increment inside it.)
But then append would make the file keep growing, wouldn't it? After
years of backing up, it would get huge, wouldn't it?
Also should the normal be replace or append? If I do append, I'd get
the same problem (file bloats to huge size), wouldn't I? If I say
replace, then what happens if I lose a file just before month-end, and
notice it just after month-end? I wouldn't be able to restore it.
Here's kind of a solution I thought of, but not sure how to implement
it.
1) Schedule two different normal backup jobs, each run bimonthly, one
on even months, the other on odd months. They'd both have the replace
option, so neither file would bloat. Between them, I'd have a normal
backup for each month.
Problem: monthly is an option, but bimonthly isn't.
2) Schedule two different incremental backup jobs. Each is run daily,
but one on odd months, the other on even months. But when the
beginning of a month approaches, I'd like the backup file wiped out so
that it doesn't bloat.
The trick is scheduling a job to run 30 days on, 30 days off, etc. Is
there a way? I don't see that as an option. Also, on days a full
backup happens, I'd like to exclude that from the days the incremental
runs. Is there a way to do that?
Is there a simpler way of doing what I want than what I've suggested
here?