Back up Job clarification and strategy

[blueman2]

I would like some clarification on backup jobs

 

I am backing up my 'C' drive to an an external drive 'D'. I started with a complete backup and have been doing incremental back ups ever since. I have a few questions regarding this proceedure:

• Where are back up Jobs (not the .qic files) saved to? There's no indication in the program and I want to know if they are being saved in the drive I am backing up or the one I am backing up to

• If I should have a hard disc 'C' failure will I be able to restore my files using the (D) drive only or are there files (backup Job files) being written to my C drive that I will need?

• Everytime I do a new Incremental Back Up it asks me if I want to Overwrite my exisiting Back Up Job. I say 'Yes'. Is this correct?

• With every incremental backup I wrtie the backup to a new backup file (using incremantal #s, i.e 001.qic, 002.qic, etc. Is this the proper proceedure?)

The instructions are not too clear in this regard so I thought I'd make sure this is right before I find I really need the files.

 

Thanks

[marlinsinger]

[*]Where are back up Jobs (not the .qic files) saved to? There's no indication in the program and I want to know if they are being saved in the drive I am backing up or the one I am backing up to

 

The jobs themselves are stored on your C drive. Don't remember exactly where, but it will be in one of the directories BUMP uses, probably one of the My Documents folders.

 

[*]If I should have a hard disc 'C' failure will I be able to restore my files using the (D) drive only or are there files (backup Job files) being written to my C drive that I will need?

 

You should be able to as long as you do a few things.

1. Make sure that when you create a job that System State is checked for backup.

2. On the rebuild of your system, you will have to install Windows and BUMP before you will be able to restore anything.

3. As there will not be any directory structure, you will have to check restore to Alternate location and Restore Original Folder Structure.

4. You will also have to restore using Device View so it can create a temporary catalog.

Assuming you do these things and Murphies law doesn't kick in, you should be able to restore everything.

 

[*]Everytime I do a new Incremental Back Up it asks me if I want to Overwrite my exisiting Back Up Job. I say 'Yes'. Is this correct?

 

It is doing this because you are changing the backup name. Which is a good thing for an incremental to a file.

The other option you have is to do a differential backup and overlay it each time. Eventually though, you are going to have enough incremental or a large enough differential backup, that it will be worth while to do another full backup. Remember on an incremental that you will have to restore each and every incr backup "IN ORDER" or you will have a botched up system. I personally just do full backups, as I have plenty of HDD space. After so many, I just start over with the number or delete the earlier ones, keeping at least 3 versions. That way if I deleted something a month ago and realize I need it, it may still be on one of my backups.

 

[*]With every incremental backup I wrtie the backup to a new backup file (using incremantal #s, i.e 001.qic, 002.qic, etc. Is this the proper proceedure?)

 

Definitely the way to do it. An incremental backup is one that backs up everything that changed since the last full, differential, or incremental backup, whichever is the "latest". A differential backs up everything since the last full back.

 

Hope this helps.