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[BrandonFL]

Tony said: 

Depending on the level of fragmentation, an incremental recovery point created after a defrag could be almost as large as a base image.

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So, in other words, it's always a good idea to defrag before backing up?

I use NSR 2 and have it set for full backup twice a week with only one independent recovery point. That seems to work best for me.

[Tony_Weiss Administrator]

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BrandonFL wrote:
So, in other words, it's always a good idea to defrag before backing up?

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While you don't necessarily need to always defrag before a base image, but if you plan to defrag, don't do it before a recovery point (incremental) image. And if you do defrag, start a new base image. Since the imaging is sector-based, and defragmenting restructures the sectors, the recovery point will create an image of all sector changes on the disk. So depending on the fragmentation of the drive, you could have a very small recovery point created quickly, or a very large recovery point created that takes a while to complete.

[Kreg · Accepted solution]

If I understand your question correctly? I would advise the creation of a base point from time to time instead of creating one base followed by a infinite number of incremental backups.

One thing to consider with incremental backups:

If for instance you have 300 incremental's, for one reason or another incremental 100 gets corrupted, damaged or what ever.

This would render incremental 101 through 300 unusable and you would be force to restore to 100 or earlier. So in my opinion bases should be created periodically. In theory there is no limit to the number of incremental backups that can be created, however given the odd chance of file corruption base files are a good thing.

In fact from time to time I create stand alone base files and save them to a different location. My preference is to create a stand alone base when I set a system up for the first time. This is what I call a true base point. Then I create a schedule creating a base point once a week with daily incrementals. After the forth base is created (4th week), the oldest base is deleted along with its incrementals automatically and so on. This limits the actually storage space for my backups so I don't run out of space and I have a fall back option to restore to the original state of the system. This of course is my preference for scheduled backups.

Best regards,

[Vincenzo]

OK I think I've got it now. 

Thanks to all for the help.