Backing up changes only?

[Karen Miller]

I ran my back up through a cleaning disk and also used a new tape. Now it will back up but only changed files. It locks up on anything else. My question is, is such a backup (changes only) generally sufficient enough for backup safety?

Thank you

Karen

[Alexander M. Ermes · Accepted solution]

Hi Karen.
FIrst you must have a complete backup.
Then you can start incremental backups
( backup of changes only ).
But you should do a complete backup once a week
and incrementals for the rest, if you like it that way. Safest is complete backup, whenever possible.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Karen Miller]

Thank you re the safest backup but I am still stuck in that I cannot do a full backup. First I am having trouble disabling my screen saver - how do I do that?

Then it locks up on files such as the back-up program (Colorado HP) itself.

I am using a new tape and it has no trouble at all backing up changes only.

Thanks again.

Karen

[Joseph T. Wyckoff]

What platform are you using, i.e. HPUX, NT, LINUX...

What backup utility are you using (i.e NTBACKUP, Legato Networker, ArcServe, Omniback...)

What are you backing up (ie. C: drive, /STAND...)

What else is running on the box (ie. Antivirus, Oracle, Exchange, Informix...)

Try a smaller scenario - backup one file, or one directory. Then try two... exclude directories that cause problems... then figure out why later.

I assume you are on a windows platform (w95, w98, ME, nt4, nt2k) - windows in general has more 'open files' issues then UX platforms - clsoe any applications that you can close (ie shutdown Word, Excel, Exchange, SQL) and EXCLUDE directories where you KNOW things will be 'in use') The smae basic advice applies to UX - an Oracle database won't backup from a filesystem backup - unless oracle is 'down.'

Good Luck.