Question Question About Incremental Backups

[Dave1117]

Currently using a seagate dashboard continuous backup. The issue is it's filled up my entire 1tb drive somehow, yet I only have 200gb of data total on my pc. I'm looking into new options.

What i'd like to know is if there's a way to back up to a single external HDD, without having to delete the current backup to create space. In other words, I don't want there to be any period of time where a backup is not present. I don't wanna have to delete the current backup to replace with the new one. Software that could update the backup automatically would be ideal. Seagate dashboard claims to be able to do this but it's failed miserably in doing so. I don't even understand how it could be using up all that space.

Seagate has the option of using "snapshots" which seem to be basically just a new copy each time you backup. Which means your backup drive must be double the capacity of your data in order to create new backups without deleting the old.

 

[rgd1101]

you need double the space to do keep a current backup and make a new backup
snapshot sound about right, what is wrong with it?

to use Incremental Backup, make regular backup.
the incremental is based on the regular.

 

[USAFRet]

The better tools have functionality to know the available drive space, and delete older ones as it goes and the drive fills up.
Or, only keep X number of Full/Incremental. Your choice.

I use Macrium Reflect for this.
Macrium has a specific checkbox..."Delete the oldest when there is less than X% free space". (default to 5GB, I believe)

What is your backup situation at home? What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong... forums.tomshardware.com