Big file in Macrium daily incremental

I run a full image monthly, then an incremental every day. The incremental is usually 3-6 GB, unless there's a Windows update, then it's maybe 10-15 GB.

But.

Every single day, Macrium creates both the regular small incremental AND a big one, say 50 to 60 GB. Then, the next day, it deletes the previous day's big file and replaces it with a new big one.

Huh? Wassup?

I believe your problem lies in your Macrium backup schedule. A screenshot of it would be helpful.

May I ask why you chose that particular backup strategy? What is it you do with your computer that would generate 3-6 gb of incremental data changing daily?
With that strategy, a restore would take forever and be very cumbersome.....Restoring a full backup and then having to restore 30 incrementals individually.

I agree with glasskuter, much better to have a full image say every 14 days and differential in between.
Typically my full image is 40GB and the diff's start at 1.7GB and by the 14th one it's up to 9GB.
See below.....

Buddy said:

I run a full image monthly, then an incremental every day. The incremental is usually 3-6 GB, unless there's a Windows update, then it's maybe 10-15 GB.

But.

Every single day, Macrium creates both the regular small incremental AND a big one, say 50 to 60 GB. Then, the next day, it deletes the previous day's big file and replaces it with a new big one.

Huh? Wassup?

Click to expand...

Sounds like you have incrementals forever option switched on.

@glasskuter I'd be lucky if I generate 1GB of data a day. Probably more like 100-200MB. I've always assumed the daily 3GB-ish size was due to various Windows page files and such. Yes, a full restore on the 28th day of the cycle would be a PITA. Until I got this computer, my backup routine was, shall we say, pretty sketchy. So yeah, there are probably elements of the routine that sprung from an uninformed perspective. The idea was full image just prior to Patch Tuesday, then incremental each day to capture changes. Definition attached.

@OldNavy I'm surprised how small your full image is. Mine is 250-ish GB. Gonna mull over your scheme.

@cereberus Where is the "incrementals forever" option? Would that cause the 50GB file that is written daily, then deleted and replaced the next day?

Buddy, i should add my documents are kept on a separate drive to windows but i use the same principle for back ups. The differential after 14 days is usually less than 1 GB

OldNavy said:

Buddy, i should add my documents are kept on a separate drive to windows but i use the same principle for back ups. The differential after 14 days is usually less than 1 GB

Click to expand...

I made two mistakes when I unboxed and set up this PC. The first was allowing it to set up OneDrive and then not uninstalling it immediately. The second was not partitioning the drive. By the time I reached those conclusions, there was so much water under the bridge that I decided to leave well enough alone.

So yeah, 40GB sounds reasonable for a Windows-only image. And it shouldn't have a lot of change requiring a big incremental or differential.

And I hope I don't kick off another round of comments on OneDrive vs. Google Drive. For me, that ship has well and truly sailed.

Buddy said:

The second was not partitioning the drive.

Click to expand...

Unless a 1TB or larger drive is involved there's not much need for further partitioning over what a clean install or initial set up of Windows does which usually is 3 to 5 very small partitions of less than about 25GB and 1 being the large boot/System/System/C: partition.