Frequency of total backup

Use this forum for help with AISBackup
Post Reply
dolph
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2002 9:23 pm

Frequency of total backup

Post by dolph »

I have prepared total backups for each of my logical drives. And, routinely, I do backups of the changed and/or new files. How often do you recommend that I discard these and do a new set of total backups? Or is this necessary?

The same applies to the emergency backup on a CD. How often should a new one be prepared?

Thank you.
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Backup frequency

Post by Barry »

Hi Dolph

There is no reason why a backup to CD-R or other 'write once' media should not be appended to forever. The only down side is the Backup Contents File will take longer to load as it grows. Other reasons why you may want to restart a backup are:
  • You want to store the existing backup off site.

    You have made major changes to the computer hardware so earlier versions of the operating system stored on the backup are incompatible.
Backup’s to disk based media may eventually fill the media. You can restrict the number of backup sessions retained but in situations where you want to keep everything you may want to periodically copy the whole backup to CD-R prior to deleting the existing database. To delete disk based backups use the Manage Backup / Reset Backup – Backup Everything option, this option will also delete the existing backup if you want it to.

Emergency System Backup.

The Emergency System Backup should be used to get Windows up and running as quickly as possible. The only reasons to re-create this backup are:
  • Hardware changes make the backup incompatible.

    AISBackup has been upgraded so the copy of AISBackup on the Emergency System Backup is not compatible with the ‘live’ backups. Backup’s made on AISBackup version 1.0.5 to 1.6. are compatible so you do not need to recreate the Emergency System Backup after upgrading.
As a general rule: Prior to discarding a backup ask yourself “Is there anything on the backup that I am ever going to want”? If the answer is yes then keep the backup.

Barry
Post Reply