I familiar with restoring a back up image from an external USB HD. My question is, what is the correct procedure for restoring a system image from an incremental or differential back up image. Would I restore the first saved image and then the last incremental or differential back-ups ?
What backup software did you use to make the backups?
Hi Bree!
I have 2 USB HD's one Hd contains Acronis and the second HD I use Aomei.
I back up 4 PC's regularly 3 Windows Pro and 1 Windows 7 including my the Grandkids PC.
I have always created full system images, but just recently started creating incremental back-ups using Aomei to save on backup size and ease of use. I have never attempted to restore from an incremental or differential back up. That's why I asked the question.
Thanks!
I gave up on Acronis 5+ years ago. Tried AOMEI and had some problems, ended up using Macrium Reflect.
Anyway, see here for Acronis: What do I do with incremental backups when restoring?
For AOMEI, I believe you select the incremental or differential you want to restore and it automatically includes all previous one plus the full.
Ztrucker Thanks for the info. I tried Macrium Reflect and found the interface awkward. Just my opinion.
Incrementals and differential are just different methods of providing image snapshots at the time you create them (they just use different storage methods)
The question is really: which system image date do you want to restore? Point your recovery software to the full, incremental or differential image file created on THAT date / point in time and THAT's the system image that will be restored
ComputerGeek Thanks! What you say makes sense to me now.
Just remember, incremental and differential images are useless without the original full image and any incremental/differential images between it and the one you want to restore to, so never delete backup images unles you know what you're doing.
The best way to handle this is to setup the software so it automatically handles image sets, maintaining what it needs.
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