Hi,Not sure if this is correct forum, but have just purchased Acronis back up proggy, and there is an option for differential or incremental. My question is, which is best, and for those that use this back up solution, what settings do you find best.I have created a rescue disk, and have backed up OS,W7 64, and my FSX drive. So any tips from users would be much appreciated.Cheers

Edited February 9, 201214 yr by ZK-SUH

Hi,Not sure if this is correct forum, but have just purchased Acronis back up proggy, and there is an option for differential or incremental. My question is, which is best, and for those that use this back up solution, what settings do you find best.I have created a rescue disk, and have backed up OS,W7 64, and my FSX drive. So any tips from users would be much appreciated.Cheers

Hi JulianGo for incremental, IMHO.

Hi Rick,Ok, thanks for that.

I tend to always go for the full backup. Why? Well, if one of your incrementals gets lost or corrupt I believe it makes your backup restore not possible (or not possible up to the point of corruption). Since I back-up at night when asleep it doesn't matter to me if the back takes 30min or several hours. I've had a few times where I had to restore my drive and for me it was just a little easier to do it in one swoop as a full backup. Oooh, this reminds me, end of the month. Time for another full backup!

Full image backup all the way. incremental saves disk space but restoring can be an issue if one of the incrementals gets corrupted. Do a full image b/u once a month and you'll be good to go. You can then either restore individual files or replace the whole drive in the event of a catastrophic failure.Vic

+1 for full image backup

Thanks Guys, appreciate your advice. Full back up it is.

I back up from the rescue disk. I always do a full backup every time. I don't like windoze running while files are being backed up.JimCYWG

I have a question about the full image backup. I have windows 7 and a bunch of programs on my C drive and FSX on my F drive. Will Acronis backup both hard drives and second, are you guys backing up to an external hard drive or do you have another internal drive for this procedure?

I have a question about the full image backup. I have windows 7 and a bunch of programs on my C drive and FSX on my F drive. Will Acronis backup both hard drives and second, are you guys backing up to an external hard drive or do you have another internal drive for this procedure?

Hi Mark,

Acronis will back up the drives that are checked, usually the drive with the operating system is checked by default with the option to check any other drives that are installed. I personally back up to another drive internally but having said that have also backed up to an external drive in the past.Your choice.

Thanks for the info. Currently I have backed up using Windows default but will look into Acronis.

Well just installed Acronis 2012. It may help others to know that I first installed the WD Free edition as I do have a WD drive on my computer. I then purchased the upgrade for 29.99 (rather than 49.99) and away we go.

Like the rest of the guys have said, I always do full backups. I have a backup from when windows 7 is installed BEFORE installing the drivers, and one when the drivers are there. I then make a backup after FS9 and FSX have been installed with their updates and another one after having installed all my "can't live without" add-ons. So yes, I do have a lot of backups and it's important to write comments (that you can easily do in Acronis) what each backup contains and how it differs from the rest. A real time saver!