Easy Mode/Expert Mode: Using Fast Backup
SyncBackSE can make backing up even faster if you choose the 'Fast Backup' option. Read this help page carefully before you go ahead as there are some important considerations to make when choosing this option. You'll also find some Frequently Asked Questions about Fast Backup below.
'Fast Backup' option is displayed when you create or modify a profile and select the option from the tree:
| · | Perform a fast backup: Enable this option to greatly improve a backup profiles performance. Note that this option is only available when a profile is configured in a certain way. For more information, including side effects of fast backups, please see the section below. |
| · | Keep fast backup data based on the actual destination directory (each destination has a full backup): If this option is unticked then a fast backup works much the same as an incremental backup. This means that only new or modified files are copied from the source to the destination regardless of where the destination is. If you are not using variables, e.g. %DAYOFWEEK%, in the destination then you can leave this option unticked as it will make no difference. |
If you are using variables in the destination then you should consider ticking this option. If this option is ticked then the fast backup works in a different way. It keeps track of which files and folders are in each destination. This means each destination directory will have a complete backup and not just contain the new/changed files.
| · | Differential backup (do not update the fast backup data): If this option is ticked then a fast backup works much the same as a differential backup. This means that only new or modified files since the last full backup are copied from the source to the destination. If you are not using variables, e.g. %DAYOFWEEK%, in the destination then you can leave this option unticked as it will make no difference. |
For example, if your destination is X:\%DAYOFWEEK%\, and you force a rescan on Mondays, then your Monday backup will be a full backup. Your Tuesday backup will contain new and changed files since Monday, WednesdayÆs backup will contain new and changed files since Monday, etc.
| · | Delete all the files and folders in the destination before the backup: If this option is ticked then all the files and folders (just the Zip file if compressing to one Zip file) in the destination are deleted before the backup is made. The files and folders are not deleted if a re-scan has been forced or is required. |
This option is best used when "Keep fast backup data based on the actual destination directory" is unticked. For example, if you keep 7 days worth of backups (using the %DAYOFWEEK% variable in the destination), and force a rescan each Monday, then by enabling this option you'll ensure that the Monday backup contains a complete backup and that the backups for all the other days just contain new/changed files since the previous day.
| · | Force re-scan: Click this button to force SyncBackSE to scan the destination next time the profile is run. Please read the notes below about the consequences of forcing a rescan when using FTP. |
| · | Force a re-scan when: This lets you define when SyncBackSE should perform a complete re-scan of the destination. For example, to force a complete re-scan every Monday you would select %DAYOFWEEK% from the list, select equals from the drop-down, and type in 1 (1=Monday, 7=Sunday) in the edit box. See the section below for details on why this may be required and what it does. Please read the notes below about the consequences of forcing a rescan when using FTP. |
Important Information About Fast Backups
Explaining Fast Backups
When you backup files to the destination it is assumed that no other application, or person, will be changing the files in the destination. For example, if you backup your files to another drive you are not going to be editing or changing those backup files (except using SyncBackSE to replace them as appropriate). Because of this SyncBackSE should be able to remember what files, and directories, are on the destination without needing to scan it to find out.
How 'Fast Backup' works
First, you need to enable the Fast Backup option on the Fast Backup tab. The Fast Backup tab is not visible if the profile is configured such that it cannot use the Fast Backup option. When the profile is next run, SyncBackSE will remember which files and directories it copied to (or deleted from) the destination directory. This means the first run of a profile, after Fast Backup is enabled, will take the same amount of time as without Fast Backup enabled. However, for the second and subsequent runs of the profile it will not need to scan the destination directory because it remembers what it did the last time the profile was run. This means the scan time is substantially lower (at least twice as fast, often far more) especially if the destination is on a slow device, e.g. networked drive, FTP server, etc.
Can I use Fast Backups on all profile types?
No. The Fast Backup option is only possible when no changes are being made to the destination. This means it cannot be used with backups from FTP or Zip files, synchronization profiles, or profiles that use prompting. It is for backup profiles only.
Sometimes SyncBackSE scans the destination directory even though I've enabled Fast Backups. Why?
There are a number of reasons why SyncBackSE may scan the destination directory:
| · | The Force Re-scan button has been pressed for that profile. |
| · | The settings on the Fast Backup tab specify a re-scan should be performed under certain conditions. |
| · | The ûfull command line parameter was used. |
| · | The fast backup data has been deleted. |
What options does using Fast Backup disable?
When using Fast Backups you cannot enable the following options in your profile:
| · | Force the file modification date & time to be correct (may be required when using SAMBA or network drives). |
| · | Reset the archive file attribute on files once they have been copied. |
| · | Files cannot be moved, only copied. |
| · | The destination cannot be watched for file changes. |
What side effects are there with using Fast Backups?
Because a Fast Backup will not scan the destination (except on the first run after it is enabled for that profile) that means only the changes will be applied to the destination without regard to what is actually on the destination. For example, you could change the destination directory, run the profile, and then only the new/modified files would be copied to the destination (and not all the files as would normally be the case).
This has important consequences when your destination directory is dynamic, i.e. it uses environment variables that can change in value. For example:
| · | Create a normal backup profile and set the source directory to C:\My Documents\ and the destination directory to D:\%DAYOFWEEK%\ |
| · | Enable Fast Backup for the profile. |
| · | On the first run of the profile (let's assume it's Monday and the destination directory is empty) all the files will be copied to D:\Backup\1\ |
| · | When the profile is run on Tuesday then only the new or modified files will be copied to D:\Backup\2\ |
| · | On Wednesday new and changed files will be copied to D:\Backup\3\ and so on until Monday. |
| · | When it is run again on the following Monday then only the new and changed files will be copied to D:\Backup\1\ |
| · | Enable the option "Keep fast backup data based on the actual destination directory". This will create full backups for each day and not just incremental backups for Tuesday to Sunday. |
Or
| · | Enable the option "Delete all the files and folders in the destination before the backup" and force a rescan on Mondays. There are three ways to do this (using this example): |
1. The best and easiest option is to configure the "Force a re-scan when:" settings to force a re-scan every Monday (select %DAYOFWEEK% from the list, select equals from the drop-down, and type in 1 (1=Monday, 7=Sunday) in the edit box).
2. You can do this manually by clicking the Force Re-scan button on the Mondays.
3. Use the -full command line option (for Monday only when scheduling).
This will mean that the Monday backup is a complete backup, and the backups on Tuesday to Sunday contain just the new/changed files since the previous days backup.
Note about "Delete all the files and folders in the destination before the backup"
This option should be used with care because it will delete all the files and folders in the destination before running the profile. However, if you are compressing to a single Zip file it will just delete that Zip file and no other folders or files.
An important detail to remember about this setting is that the destination files are not deleted if the profile run is doing a rescan. For example, if you've configured your profile to rescan on Mondays (%DAYOFWEEK% equals 1) then when the profile is run on a Monday it will not delete the destination files. However, it will delete them if there is no rescan. This has consequences if you run your profile more than once and also if you do not ever do a rescan. For example, if you configured your profile to rescan on Mondays then when the profile is run on a Tuesday it will delete the destination files and copy over the new or changed files since the last profile run. However, if you run it again immediately (and assuming it is still Tuesday) it will delete those files and then copy over any new or changed files since the last run, which may be no files at all.
Example Fast Backup Configurations
The following section provides example backup configurations.
To keep 7 days worth of backups, and have a full-backup on Mondays and incremental backups on all the other days of the week:
| · | Create a backup profile |
| · | Configure your source as appropriate |
| · | Set the Destination to something (the %DAYOFWEEK% is required) like D:\My Backups\%DAYOFWEEK%\ |
| · | Go to the Fast Backup tab and enable the options: Perform a fast backup and Delete all the files and folders in the destination before the backup |
| · | In the "Force a re-scan when:" box select the %DAYOFWEEK% item, select Equals from the drop-down list to the right of the box, and enter 1 into the box to the right of the drop-down list (we use 1 because Monday is day 1, Tuesday is day 2, etc). |
| · | You should schedule the profile to run just once every day |
To keep 7 days worth of backups, and have a full-backup on Mondays and differential backups on all the other days of the week:
| · | Create a backup profile and configure your source as appropriate |
| · | Set the Destination to something (the %DAYOFWEEK% is required) like D:\My Backups\%DAYOFWEEK%\ |
| · | Go to the Fast Backup page and enable the options: Perform a fast backup, Differential backup (do not update the fast backup data), and Delete all the files and folders in the destination before the backup |
| · | In the "Force a re-scan when:" box select the %DAYOFWEEK% item, select Equals from the drop-down list to the right of the box, and enter 1 into the box to the right of the drop-down list (we use 1 because Monday is day 1, Tuesday is day 2, etc). |
| · | You should schedule the profile to run just once every day |
To keep 7 days worth of backups and have full-backups for each day:
| · | Create a backup profile |
| · | Configure your source as appropriate |
| · | Set the Destination to something (the %DAYOFWEEK% is required) like D:\My Backups\%DAYOFWEEK%\ |
| · | Go to the Fast Backup tab and enable the options: Perform a fast backup and Keep fast backup data based on the actual destination directory |
| · | Go to the Advanced tab and configure the profile to delete files from the destination that do not exist on the source. This ensures that your backups don't get cluttered with redundant files. Those deleted files will already exist in previous days backups. |
| · | You should schedule the profile to run just once every day |
To keep full-backups on a set of disks:
| · | Create a backup profile |
| · | Configure your Source as appropriate |
| · | Set the Destination, e.g. X:\%SERIAL%, where X: is a drive that accepts removable media, e.g. a CD/DVD drive, Zip drive, floppy disk drive, etc. |
| · | Go to the Fast Backup tab and enable the options: Perform a fast backup and Keep fast backup data based on the actual destination directory |
| · | Go to the Advanced tab and configure the profile to delete files from the destination that do not exist on the source. This ensures that your backups don't get cluttered with redundant files. |
| · | Each time you run the profile use a different disk. You could keep 10 days worth of backups by rotating a set of 10 disks. Each disk will have a complete backup. |
What about FTP and Fast Backups?
One of the benefits of using Fast Backup and FTP is that it can really improve the backup time. Apart from not having to scan the FTP server to find changes, SyncBackSE also does not need to set the date & time of the file on the FTP server to match that of its equivalent file on your PC. This can further reduce the backup time.
If you don't care if the date & time of the files on your FTP server match those on your PC then you can untick the "If the FTP server cannot set a files date & time then change the local files date & time to match that on the server" option on the FTP tab.
There are important consequences to doing this: the date & time the file should be set to (on the FTP server) is kept in the Fast Backup data. Therefore, if you force a re-scan (so erasing that data) then the last date & time information is permanently lost. What does this mean?
| · | When you do a restore all the files will be retrieved from the FTP server along with their last modification date & time, which is not the original value. As the date & times won't match, all the files will be restored unless you've configured your profile to ignore file date & times. |
| · | When you next run a backup all the date & times will be mismatched so forcing a complete backup (unless you've configured your profile to ignore file date & times). |
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