[jeff_connors]

I just obtained Ghost 10.0 and a new external hard drive. I want to set up Ghost to make a back up and then manually perform incremental back ups. So far, it made a complete back up and then a second complete back up. My 200GB HD is just about used up. I'm running another back up now and chose only one back up recovery point. "Progress" reports it's comparing my C: drive against the back up C: file. It's been running about an hour and is only 3% completed. Is this normal? Is this an incremental back up? If it is, I would not think it would take this long (?). If I'm not configuring it right, please advise. I have read the book and went to symantec.com...not a lot help there. Thanks for the help!

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According to internet forums, incremental backups, despite the idea behind them, get bigger with each one you do. The reason for this is because the drive has been defragmented between the last but one backup and the most recent backup.

Basically, when you do an incremental backup, the software doesn't look at the data, it looks at the location of the data on the hard drive. Therefore if you do a backup, defrag the drive and then do an incremental backup, the Ghost software will spot that bits of the files aren't in the same places on the disk anymore and flag it up as a change. By the nature of defragmentation, it only means that the majority of the drive gets flagged as having been changed since the last backup, and that's why the file sizes go through the roof.

I personally would follow a more simple solution: Split the 200Gb into two partitions, and use one for your important stuff (documents, pictures, etc) and use the other one as a Ghost storage area. Just clone your installation to a ghost file on the second partition of the 200Gb drive. This way, when disaster strikes, replace the main drive and ghost it back from your backup file.

[Neil Jones]

According to internet forums, incremental backups, despite the idea behind them, get bigger with each one you do. The reason for this is because the drive has been defragmented between the last but one backup and the most recent backup.

Basically, when you do an incremental backup, the software doesn't look at the data, it looks at the location of the data on the hard drive. Therefore if you do a backup, defrag the drive and then do an incremental backup, the Ghost software will spot that bits of the files aren't in the same places on the disk anymore and flag it up as a change. By the nature of defragmentation, it only means that the majority of the drive gets flagged as having been changed since the last backup, and that's why the file sizes go through the roof.

I personally would follow a more simple solution: Split the 200Gb into two partitions, and use one for your important stuff (documents, pictures, etc) and use the other one as a Ghost storage area. Just clone your installation to a ghost file on the second partition of the 200Gb drive. This way, when disaster strikes, replace the main drive and ghost it back from your backup file.