Implied Archive Bit Option

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edland
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2002 4:21 am

Implied Archive Bit Option

Post by edland »

I have a large volume of data (120gb) that I already have in offline archives. I would like to start using AIS to do full volume incremental backups starting with existing changed files but I don't want to rearchive all of that data again. It would be nice to have the option to tell AIS that a set of files / directories has already been archived on the first pass. The database would be loaded with the current attributes of these files but no backup processing is done. After this cycle completes this "archive" status would be cleared and any changed files would be backed up as normal on subsequent cycles. Attempting to restore any of these "virtual" files would either be disallowed if selecting from a dialog or result in a message written to the log if any were found during a more generic selection.
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Fake Backup

Post by Barry »

We do not base any backup on the archive bit but on the date modified and / or size change. This way we can facilitate incremental backups of the same data using different scripts.

What I think you are asking for is a fake backup, pretend to backup everything now and then run real incremental backups based on changes the next time the backup is run.

Would anyone else find this useful?

Barry
Margaret Blauvelt
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 7:21 pm
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Fake Backup - or Only Files Since Date

Post by Margaret Blauvelt »

Barry,

I would find it useful to be able to back up files only modified after a certain date. I have two hard drives, and one is MUCH bigger than the other. I normally back up to CD, but sometimes I just want a quick backup to my other hard drive of what has changed recently because I want to be sure to keep it and I don't want to babysit my CD-RW drive. As it is, I include files I don't really need to copy because I already have backups, and I am short on space on the small drive.

Soon it won't matter much, because I'm going to move everything on the smaller drive to a new partition on the larger one. Then the ONLY things on the little drive will be in compressed format, so I probably won't run out of room. But still, it's a situation that might come up again.

Another possible scenario might be someone connected to a network, whose PC gets backed up, say, nightly, but who wants to run AISBackup two or three times in the day just on that day's changed files.

I know this thread is old, but I thought I'd add my thoughts now anyway, since I'm finally reading it.
Margaret
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Reducing the number of files selected for backup.

Post by Barry »

Hi Margaret.

This has been implemented by setting a new parameter to a numeric value 1 to 999 indicating files whose modified date is after the specified number of days.

This parameter can also be set to ‘Ask’ where AISBackup will prompt for the number of days prior to calculating the backup.

The option works in conjunction with the limited number of sessions or generations parameter to keep disk usage to a minimum.

I hope that implementing it this way negates the requirement to keep resetting the date after the ‘proper’ backup is run.

Please let me know if this meets your requirement.

The option can be set when creating a script, an existing script may be changed via Manage Backup / Edit Script Parameters.

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/downloadaisbackup.htm

Barry
Margaret Blauvelt
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 7:21 pm
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Post by Margaret Blauvelt »

Barry,

Sounds perfect.

It's not in version 1.7 but will be in the next release, or did I miss something?
Margaret
Barry
Site Admin
Posts: 1529
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:16 pm

Days since modified

Post by Barry »

Hi Margaret

This option is in version 1.7 as it was fairly simple to implement. Using the archive bit would not have been so simple because of the way AISBackup has been designed. If anybody thinks that the 'Modified since date' option would be good please let us know.

The version with the days since modified option has been uploaded to:

http://www.aiscl.co.uk/downloadaisbackup.htm

Barry
Margaret Blauvelt
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 7:21 pm
Contact:

Post by Margaret Blauvelt »

Barry,

That works great! I set it to back up only files modified in the last 60 days, which allows plenty of time for CD backups, and it cut down the number of files copied to my little 2nd hard drive by about 75%. It also took under 3 minutes to run, as compared to 13.

(That convinces me - I'll have to add it to my list of good features.)
Margaret
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