Macrium Free - New user

Terrypin · 01 Nov 2018

Just started using Macrium Reflect Free. I'm stepping through the excellent user guide but would appreciate advice on a basic point about scheduling please.

I've scheduled the first Full for 08:00 tomorrow morning, repeated weekly. Can I schedule the first Differential for say 08:05 without causing a problem? Or must I make it much later, say 10:00, to allow time for the Full to finish? At the moment I'm guessing the duration, based on my very first manual Full run last night, about 50 mins for 100 GB. That would mean all the subsequent six brief Differentials would not start until 10:00 as well, later than I'd like.

Also, with that plan, what would be sensible numbers to specify in the Retention Rules? Currently I've left Full at its default of 26 weeks, and Differential at 7 days, with Free space threshold set to 20 GB for this 2 TB external USB drive.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

ignatzatsonic · 01 Nov 2018

What's the premise of possibly making differentials every 5 minutes?

Are you making significant changes to your system partition that often?

Or does your data change rapidly and you use Macrium as your primary method of data backup?

I could see 5 minute intervals as ideal, but it would be a very uncommon situation.

Terrypin · 01 Nov 2018

5 minutes? Maybe my post wasn't clear enough. I'm asking if I can I specify the same time for my first daily differential as for the Full? Effectively asking Macrium to do two tasks at the same time. IOW, will overlapping, cause any problem? The 5 minutes delay was simply an example of avoiding a simultaneous start.

EDIT:
But I now see the flaw in my plan: there shouldn't be a differential on that first day!
Third attempt: I've finally edited it to the end of each day, including the first, at 22:00.

EDIT:
Fourth attempt! I was treating the differentials as a daily task, but if I make that weekly then I can get what I was trying to achieve. Does this look right please? The section I'm still unsure about is the retention?