integrate same drive content versions for reverse incremental backup

Hi w7 experts!


So I was trying to create reverse incremental backups (to minimize space used for backup) of a disk which really only has files on it, but different versions of the backup exist already on different disks, and now I wanted to integrate all of them into one in total smaller reverse incremental backup (saving several disks in the process).


The problem is, it will recognize the different disks and create a new separate backup for each, instead of recognizing (disk name/structure) or accepting (settings, commands) to integrate each backup version.


Do you have any idea how to make it work (disk/partition/file Zv1 on drive 1, disk/partition/file Zv2 on drive 2, disk/partition/file Zv3 on drive 3, etc...all to go into reverse incremental backup on drive N)?


Thank you in advance!
:)

Snick said:

Hi svnfrms2r,

See if I can help you.

1. What backup program are you using?
2. Disks?
3. For the machine in your specs?
4. I've read your post a couple times, still don't understand the reverse part. I believe you are saying you wish to consolidate all the incremental backups on several CD/DVDs into one incremental backup?
5. Purpose? Saving several DISKS in the process.

Apologies for anything unclear.


re 1: ashampoo


re 2: various disks, e.g. 1tb ssd, 1tb sshd, 2tb sshd, 2tb hdd, etc


re 3: yes, but it could be any machine, since it is a disk with directories and files, but the partition size and boot sectors do not matter, it really is only a storage medium for the files, though the structure changes little over time, hence the wish to just shrink the whole of backups



re 4: the reverse part makes it possible to have "bak 1" to "bak n-1" small, while "bak latest" is like a full current backup, and you can delete the old ones without loosing anything else


re 5: yes, saving space, which translates after integration of older backups into the incremental ones into saving so much space, that 2 disks will be saved for now, but more over time, e.g. when changes between backups are just say 10%, then it will take a while to reach full capacity of one drive even with 5-10 backups on it


Hope this makes it more clear. Perhaps I need to get in touch with some backup program creators and see what they say. The problem seems to be, that even if I put a backup disk from before into the same slot of the original (to be backed up) drive, it will find a different resource id and then take it as another drive, and make a full backup, ie not use it as a version of the original drive, hence not make use of the incremental backup option. I tried to find a way to override it, but that is probably exactly not wanted. Also tried to use the file/folder feature, but that does not do incremental backups.


Thank you very much for your attempt to help, understand, clarify and find a solution!
:)

RolandJS said:

"re 4: the reverse part makes it possible to have "bak 1" to "bak n-1" small, while "bak latest" is like a full current backup, and you can delete the old ones without loosing anything else" I know far less than others here, however, I want to learn more. Pretend you have two files with different dates, different byte-sizes. You're doing a bak1 and bak-1, what should happen to these two files?

Each file version should be backed-up with the reverse incremental backup method (which I am not an expert of), and it will create versions as per backup date such that each difference is recorded to allow retrieval of each file version.

My question is less about the method, and more about how to make it work when the backup medium's resource ID changes, since existing full backups on different drives need to be integrated into the whole (reverse incremental) backup.


Here is more info about the reverse incremental backup method, if you are interested:
Backup - Wikipedia
Incremental backup - Wikipedia
Reverse Incremental Backup | Intronis Backup
Reverse Incremental Backup - Veeam Backup Guide for Hyper-V
Ashampoo(R) Backup Pro 14 - Details
Ashampoo(R) Backup Pro 14 - Best Backup Software for Windows



In the worst case, I will have to transfer each existing backup version onto the drive to be backed-up, i.e. reinstate each older version, then take the reverse incremental backup, for each version. Just a work-around for this special situation, since the current backup versions are on different disks as full backups

Just to update this thread: no solution found so far, even the reverse incremental backup method experts asked so far had no solution, since the source drive ID changes in this scenario above. So far the only "solution" is what I outlined in the 'worst case' above, which takes about 7x 4h versus 3x 4h