Various questions on functions and limits of HDM 16

[Mikey63]

I am struggling to get HDM to create the backup policy I am after, so I am after advice on the issues, or maybe my backup plan itself.

I have a 1TB disk in my laptop, split into 6 partitions for various functions.
(1,2) Two are an XP boot, for which I have disk images and don't need regular backup as they don't change. I keep them because I have apps that don't work on Win7.
(3) One is Win7 OS. I think incremental backups on this will fill with windows detritis, hence my desire not to backup whole 1Tb like this. Instead, I have a folder backup of \users as a compromise. It captures desktop, documents, and multiple IMAP emails under \appdata (not essential but GB and takes ages and security hoops to reload online).
(4) Personal data files: incremental is appropriate. Includes non-standard types like matlab and pSpice.
(5) Project data files: incremental is appropriate. Includes non-standard code files.
(6) 600Gb of Workspace. Incremental is appropriate, but lengthy baseline image that I don't need or want to create every week.
I have a USB 2TB backup disk.

Issues:
a) I started with single backups of 3,4,5,6. Paragon promptly lost the single backup task to (6), although the backup files are still there. I can't see a way to add it back or reconnect with those files.
b) I want to move the backup folders, but even though the single backup tasks (3,4,5) are there, I can't see how to edit the path. Same issue with the setting for 4Gb files. It seems I have to re-create all these from baseline in the new location to be able to use incremental backups?
c) I added one backup job for C\users, but whilst it says I can chose #increments before baseline, this doesn't appear to be an option. Nor does anything less frequent than daily, meaning 1Tb baseline every week if I set all partitions like this, for <1Gb user files. I also distrust frequent baselines when I can only store 1-2, as failures only show when the damaged files are used.
d) Having added the backup job, I appear to have run out of Free HDM backup tasks. I read that I can activate 5x, did so again, was allowed to create 1 more task then was again asked to re-activate.

Thanks for any advice

[Mikey63]

Apologies, too many questions. Let me isolate them.
* Is there any use to an incremental backup of the Windows drive?
I tried this once and Paragon asked for a boot media to do a disk image of C:, which somewhat defeats my backup plans of mostly scheduled incremental backups for user data.
I also wonder if it just fills with Windows detritis: prefetch files, temp files, maybe even pagefile or hyberfil.

[aoz987]

I can try to help.
first, too much info, let's try to narrow it down.
first, WHAT do you want to back up; what is important.
AND, it is frequently-changing data (in which case an incremental or differential backup may be of benefit), OR is it more static, in which case periodic FULL backups can be done.

you can back up specific partitions, and store them. IF the actual backup job, or single backup, gets LOST on the LIST screen, and you haven't deleted the actual files, then you still have the backup. actually, that is my preferred method, I make sure I have the FILES stored externally, and I clean out the list periodically.

IF you select to back up PARTITIONS, (such as the C: drive, in the partition screen), paragon may select OTHER partitions to accompany this, which are critical for windows boot methods.

so, what is the first and most important thing you want to back up? let's go from there

[Mikey63]

Thanks for the response.
WHAT do I want to back up:
* My pictures, videos, music, MS office files, schematics, simulation models ...
84k files, 100Mb one one partition. Frequently changing but usually not large files.
* Coding projects. Different partition, less frequently changing. 30Mb.
* Working drive, e.g.: raw video prior to processing. 600Mb. Changes in chunks, relatively regularly.
* User profiles on Win7 C: drive. Perfer to include \appdata as this is >10Gb of multiple IMAP emails.
I think all the above could be incremental.
The rest I can do by cold boot image.

The problem with losing the backup job, is I then have to re-create 600Mb of baseline. Actually I'm being told by HDM that I've run out of jobs, and had to re-register, which I did, without HDM changing its' opinion. I don't see anything from Paragon about this limitation?

[aoz987]

sorry for delay, I just spent past 3 days creating a provisional patent application !! and I can't draw !
ok, for your situation
WHERE are the backups stored, what media, external, etc? and, what size device is it, and how much space available?
if I am reading the above correctly, you don't have more than about 20 gig to back up. if so, that does not take much time at all (on my machine), you might as well do a FULL backup, WITH verify, of all the images.
BUT, first, go to your back up media, ans see whee your back up files are located. see if there are names in that folder such as JOB....xxx..., etc. AN, if so, what are their sizes.

[Mikey63]

Good luck with the patent! They don't care if you can't draw, that's not the passmark. They will come back with some prior art: it's their job. However, you can usually just drop down the claims till you reach novelty. Bear in mind you can't change the description once submitted, but you can change the claims.

My Bad: where I wrote Mb, it's actually Gb. I have about 800Gb total to backup onto a 2TB external drive. My laptop only has USB 2.0 so that's an overnight job for a baseline. The problem with a Full drive backup is that means all my backups have to be via a cold boot USB because the whole drive includes Win7. HDM only lets me pick single partitions or whole disk. I do discover that, whilst the New Backup button is locked, the wizard still lets me create jobs, so I'm now trying multiple jobs, one per partition, set daily as this is the only option for incremental. However, I don't want daily, nor delete every 7 days. Firstly, it means re-creating the baseline overnight every week. Secondly, with none of the half dozen disk failures I've had was it obvious that it was a failing disk within a week: so that schedule WILL result in lost data. I'm hoping HDM counts to 7 still even when I skip days?

The manual says Verify only adds 2-3% to the time so I don't understand why it wouldn't be on by default. I also don't understand how that can work? The likes of Acronis re-read and I think CRC the whole file.

I have jobs and incs where I set them, and about the sizes I expect. There's not much compression, about 10%.

[aoz987]

re: patent - thanks for encouragement. I am using google Sketchup and WOW, I've learned 3d drawing pretty fast, and have 80% of drawings done. I have filed provisional with prior drawings, but this will be cleaner, try to make it at least look nice.

re: backing up single partition - see attached, if you select disk/partition in the create backup, you can select multiple, a combination , whatever you desire. something does not sound like it is working right if you are limited to one partition?

re: verify only adds 2-3% of time - that is not an actual verify. ther is a SEPARATE option, to check integrity, that I believe should be on by default, but since it is not, I always turn it on. that option comes up in CREATE BACKUP JOB, but it is NOT present in SINGLE BACKUP, at time of backup. BUT, once the backup is done, and you click to see other backup options for that, it DOES show option for "check integrity". I ALWAYS run that after doing the single backups. and it takes about as long as doing the backup, it reads data inside to make sure it is all intact. that initial option of 2-3% is something that just checks data writing as it goes along, I believe.
re: 800 gb - now it makes sense. one suggestion, get a USB 3 interface card if yo have room in your computer, if the external drive is CAPABLE of usb 3.0

re: that much data backup - something I do is primarily image my c: drive, which has the operating files, windows 10 boot, etc.
THEN, for data, I do not use paragon, I use a program called "syncovery". It allows me to SYNCHRONIZE my d: drive (where all my data is), to the external drive, file by file, not as an image. this way, I can run it, it will do an EXACT mirror, copy newer files, keep "x" number of versions (older versions, etc).
the combination of Paragon and Syncovery for me have been ideal. that way, my IMAGE file (for c: and other essential partitions) is about 50 gig, and I have about 1 tb of data (music, photo's, financial, etc) that gets SYNCHRONIZED (and a couple other multi-terabyte drives), and this makes it a lot easier than going through an image such as paragon uses. it is not a deficiency of paragon; it is just easier to have the file by file bckup.
and syncovery can ENCRYPT files on upload (then decripts them on download), so they are secure, so I can have some additional cloud mirrors, such as office 365, which allows 1tb per user for 5 users.

so first thing I'd check is if you CAN select multiple partitions, such as is shown in diagram.
IF SO, then WAHT SIZE are your essential partitions (operating partition c: drive, the windows 7, etc?)
AND, if you have ALL your files lumped together in the c: drive (multi-hundred gigabytes), ther is a way to EXCLUDE directories, from the image backup, so that you could EXCLUDE your data directories, thus decreasing your IMAGE of essential stuff, and do the DATA separatelyl.

get back to me, i'll keep trying to help. I went thorugh this about 30+ years ago, to figure out the best ways for stuff. I came upon syncovery about 15 years ago, and paragon about 10 years ago (after I got fed up wit acronis). despite occasional hiccups, paragon has been a lifesaver. I HAVE HAD to restore data, clone drives, etc, and paragon DID WORK !. so all the complaints about glitches, interface issues, etc, while valid, do not seem to detract from the core of the program, data integrity.

you'll get there !

[aoz987]

also, I believe that PARAGON has a file-by-file backup method, not sure if you can select directories, I believe you can, so you could use that, test it it out, maybe it will careate a full set of files, then just incrementally add/subtract to/from it, without requiring new build later, etc?

[Mikey63]

Thanks for the responses. Pretty much working now, I appreciate your time. I discover that I can set up custom schedules without scripting, via the grey 'new strategy' button. This is good because I think a new full backup every week is probably a way to delete a good backup and replace it with a damaged one, as well as tying up too much machine time. It seems Paragon doesn't try to catch up if it misses a backup, and if backups overlap it tries to run them all simultaneously, so they all run slow. Nor will it wake up my laptop to do a backup. So I have weekly differential jobs and I force the baseline on my schedule.

I'm least fussed about C: Although I've got >100 applications installed, I can re-install the last couple onto an image. So I really just care about regular backups of user files. I used to have the profiles on my data drive, and I think that worked better for security, infections, but I abandoned that recently as it's a PITA to maintain. Good to know that Paragon will image well: I am replacing Acronis.

Single partition: yes, I can select multiple, thanks. Operator error.

Verify: check integrity takes about double the time, so that is consistant with a proper read-verify check. It seems remiss that it's not selectable on single backups. Unfortunately, this is a laptop with eSata not USB 3. I've broken two disks using external adapters: on one, the power supply couldn't deal with the transient peaks, and on the other, I only used two mouting screws on the disk and that seemed to be insufficient to deal with grounding properly.

I'm using EFS: I assume that the Paragon images don't decrypt so the backups should be secure? Syncovery sounds interesting.

My remaining issue is that my 600Gb full image is taking >26hours. I will make a separate post on that one.
Thanks again,
Mike

[aoz987]

re: syncovery, yes, depends on the strategy you want to uuse
re: image, 600 GB, > 26 hours, this would fit for time calculations; this is why I set up an IMAGE to be my c: drive with programs, and not data, and then do data separately, and once it is created, just keep it updated. no matter whether syncovery, or paragon, it takes time for that amount of data, and even to the cloud, same issue