Smart backup appears to be not smart at all

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Istvan
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:03 pm

Smart backup appears to be not smart at all

Post by Istvan »

Hi,
I am trying to back up data from a remote Synology to a local Lenovo IX2. I always do the backup runs overnight so that my computer and the NAS device can be used for normal business during the day. The backup was set to smart because I had thought I was a good idea.
I have about 350 gigabytes of data to back up and generally it backs up about 70-100 gigabytes one night which is a good speed for me.
I started tonight's session just now and the "smart" backup mode was switched to Full Backup and thus the entire 350 will be backed up all over again, even though it hasn't fully been backed up completelly yet at all in the first place.
Since tonight I'll only be able to back up about 30% of the entire volume, it would require several more nights to back up the rest but I am certain that at one point into let's say 60-80% of the backup it will switch to full again and thus the end result will be that some files are not backed up at all ever, instead of resulting in a smart backup.
Honestly this is extremelly frustrating. I am still in the evaluation phase of this software and have about 10 days to go.
How to proceed? Especially without having to start the entire backup all over again.

Xyzzy
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 9:25 pm

Re: Smart backup appears to be not smart at all

Post by Xyzzy »

Have you ever completed the first full backup? Can you tell (from files names being processed) if B4a just wants to complete the first full backup, or just starts all over?

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1914
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: Smart backup appears to be not smart at all

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Dear Istvan,

Please open Backup Properties->Type and select "Incremental".
Then press Save.
Next time you run the backup, there will only be increments executed.

The problem in your case is that Smart is trying to keep a proportion of the backups executed.
For example, when you have a Full of 50 GB and you run 1-2 increments of 70-100 GB, Backup4all will trigger a new full as the size of the increments is larger than the full size. In time, having a large full and smaller increments is the best solution.

Istvan
Posts: 9
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:03 pm

Re: Smart backup appears to be not smart at all

Post by Istvan »

Thank you both.
I'll give Adrian's solution a shot.

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