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Well I'd like to have shared some ....

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nudone:
well, you've convinced me, george so i'm going to give OopsBackup a try this week. i've used geniesoft stuff for a while so i'm interested in using something that sounds better. thanks.

taichimaster:
You have convinced me as well!!! Just read through the feature list on the website, both the "BackInTime" and "ReverseDelta" sound quite appealing to me.  I am going to have to try this out.

I am currently using Backup4all and have been evaluatinng SFFS, and there are a few things that I wish Backup4all was capable of doing.

Can Oops!Backup do the following?

1.  Is the "BackInTime" feature capable to keeping track of changes that happened inside a particular folder?  For example, I would like to take a snapshot (exact mirror) of a certain directory whenever a backup task is run (be it a scheduled or manual job).  However, upon subsequent snapshots, I expect the application to backup the binary delta of ONLY the files that have changed after the initial snapshot (so as to save space).  I don't want it to re-save the whole directory when only 1 or 2 files out of 1000 have changes in them.  Upon restore, I want it to be able to handle relocation and deletion (very important).  Upon restore, I would like it to restore back to the EXACT state of the folder on a given date, handling creation, move, and deletions as needed.

2.  Does this ReverseDelta feature apply to restore as well?  For example, when only a very hundred bytes  out of a 10GB file has changed after a backup, can the restore be smart enough to just restore (add/overwrite/replace/remove etc) the bytes/blocks that have changed (as opposed to a full dumb copy back from the backup)?  This would be killer.

Thanks.

george7987:
Ok, I'm going to risk offering an answer here, but don't want to get in too deep, and would ask that you put further questions to them via their community forum at Altero OopsBackup Community Forum

But briefly, the way it works....When you first install, you basically specify all drives to be backed up. These will be covered by the common options like a) frequency of backups, eg backup every 1 hour, b) new full after 30 deltas c) no VSS (Windows Shadow Copy), d) no auto purge.

Then you pick out a particular folder
--- End quote ---
, which will include all its sub folders and files, and say it's a special folder. Do this for as many folders as you deem necessary that they require different treatment, and these are called a special folders in OopsBackup. For each Special Folder, you choose tailored values for a,b,c,d above, eg a folder with Quicken files, and for this you will specify that Windows Shadow Copy is to be used and the frequency is every 17 minutes.

Note that you don't specify times that backups are to occur, but how often they are to occur, and if the computer is off for a while, it'll do a backup if overdue when you logon, and then adjust the due time for the next backup according to the required frequency. If the frequency is specified in minutes, each different, it'll spread the backups of each special folder so they don't all happen at once, like one every 11 minutes, one every 17 minuters, one every 23 minutes etc. Frequencies in days or hours all occur 'on the hour', so if the frequency is specified as every 3 hours and 3 hours is up at 11:50, the backup will happen at 12:00.

So special folders are backed up according to their specific parameters rather than the 'catch all'.

Now here is how a backup works, a file within a folder is only further backed up from its state in the repository at the time of the backup, if it has changed. If a file is backed up, the latest version is always kept as a full complete copy of the file, and stored in the repository under the classification of Latest, and could be just copied again with windows explorer. The complete copy that would have been previously stored as the latest, is used to create a Reverse Delta, i.e. the differences, and in a restore this reverse delta is applied to the latest, in order to regenerate the second latest version again. All Deltas are stored under the classification of History in the repository. To restore further and further back, it just applies more and more Reverse Deltas to the latest which is the full copy. It goes backwards from a full copy of a file which is always available to get older versions, rather than forwards from an old full copy applying incrementals to get the latest as in conventional methodologies.

Now for obvious performance on a restore, you can choose to keep a full every so often, so if you want to go back 600 versions, you don't apply 600 deltas, but a few only to full kept at some time in the past.

Now, your question (1) I think should be answered as Yes, it only keeps deltas of files that have changed. In answer to the restore part of the question, let's say you specified a frequency of every hour, it backed up everything initially at 10am, so by 11am you had changed 3 files, so it backs up creating 3 deltas, by 12am you deleted a file, so at 12am what was the latest for it is copied to the History with the deltas, and there will not be a Latest anymore, etc.

You go to the backInTime screen to restore, you select the particular folder
--- End quote ---
, you select the snapshot, i.e. 11am or 12am, and choose restore all.

You will get back what the folder looked like as at the snapshot time. If you restore the 12am snapshot, it will not restore the deleted file. But you can only restore as at the snapshots in time, taken according to the backup frequencies you specified for the folder.

Re - Question (2), if restoring the latest, no deltas, incrementals whatever, are applied to anything, the latest is always kept as a full copy of the file.

If restoring a prior version at a snapshot in the past, obviously some reverse deltas are applied to get from the latest which is a fill copy, to regenerate the required prior version . Not sure if this answers your question.

The product like most is available on a 30 day trial. I've not found it to be unsociable software. the initial backup of course takes a while and can be posponed during the process, but after that, I have not found it to adversly affect the performance of my machine. Their support monitor the community board and are extremely quick in responding during office hours (US I think), so have a go at it, and ask them any deeper questions. Perhaps look at their Wiki at OopsBackup Wiki

george7987:
Oh....now I do feel like christmas has come, free imaging, this looks like the only part of Acronis I liked and it's free, and put together with OopsBackup, I've got all I want for now.

Have a look at Easeus Todo Backup

bleh75:
I really put it together for the computer illiterate.

I resemble that remark ;D

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