Todo Backup Free - how do full vs incremental by day?

This SHOULD be simple, but it's the weekend and my brain is really slow.

In ToDo Backup (not sure if the free is different than the paid version, but at the moment I'm using the free version), you can specify a weekly backup. And you can tell it to do incremental backups and every "X" backups do a FULL backup.

I'm having a problem, because I keep a backup disk off-site and swap it for the drive in the computer every SATURDAY. So I want the FULL backup to happen every SUNDAY. And the incrementals to happen Monday - Saturday.

What's happening with the current "make a full backup ever "X" backups" can cause the full backup to happen on a day OTHER than Sunday if the system has been off for a day or more. I swap the backup drives on Saturday and on Sunday I get an incremental backup instead of a full one.

I can create TWO backups - on for "Drive Z Full" that only happens on Sunday and one for "Drive Z Incr" that happens on the other days, BUT because of the way ToDo stores the backups, those will now be in two separate folders - it won't let me have to backups with the same name, and I can't see any way to force both the full and incremental backups into the same folder if they're different names.

Somewhere in all this, I'm making it harder than it needs to be - I just want the full to happen every Sunday and the incrementals every other day.

How do I do this, if it CAN be done?

@GracieAllen

I just checked here...

EaseUS Todo Backup (free) CAN do full, incremental and differential backups.



EaseUS Todo Backup - User Guide PDF

Yes, it can... My question was pretty specific, looking for a pretty specific answer. Anybody?

Using other backuppers also .
Tried to repair once with a Todo-backup , costed me lots of hours , coz it will format the complete drive , before writing the backup on it !
Will never use it anymore , Macrium fixed it in 5 minutes ...............

Great to know about Macrium. Anybody have an actual answer to the question?

From what I am reading you need 2 schedules, one for system files and one for user files. Someone else read this to verify I am reading it correctly.
In this article it states
Create a dedicated schedule to backup system only. And if there are some other important data need to be backed up too, create a new schedule for it. Do not include all stuff in one schedule.
How to Create a Schedule Backup with Todo Backup Personal Edition


If this be true that's a crock of crap. It would make deciphering backups a nightmare. Thank God for Macrium.

Again, good to know you prefer Macrium. Can someone who's using ToDo Backup tell me if it's possible to specify the DAY the full backup of the "make a full backup" every seven days, is created?

I used Macrium for a while. It may have changed drastically in later versions, but when I was using it, it was slow, cumbersome and fiddly to set up, and getting into the backups to grab something was also more difficult than necessary (purely my opinion from a number of years ago). And since it appears they've dumped their free version as of 2023, I'm less likely to try it.

From my quick look at Hasleo, I couldn't find a way to do this with THAT product either. They'll both do a full/incremental every X days, but if X happens to be Tuesday, you're going to be backup sets split across both backup disks, which is undesirable.

@glasskuter, Yes ..... 2 different schedules needs set up ! That's how i read it also !

The way I read the instructions that would be on still a third schedule as each schedule is set for a particular kind of backup. One schedule would be for OS, backup type full, whatever day of month you chose. You would have 2 other schedules, on for OS, incremental and another for your personal files incremental.

GracieAllen said:

I can't see any way to force both the full and incremental backups into the same folder if they're different names.

Click to expand...

The way I read it, you can't. You could however make the backups appear in sub-folders under each particular kind of backup.
such as:

Main Folder ToDo Backups

Sub Folder System
Sub-sub folder Full Image
sub-sub folder Incrementals


Sub Folder Files
sub sub folder Incrementals

That's what I'm seeing too. I was HOPING I was wrong. It's a PITA either way - either the disk backup is in one schedule and I can't control the day the full backup gets done, but ALL the full and incremental backups are in the same folder, OR, two schedules and the full is in one folder and the incrementals are in another.

Which, as it turns out DOESN'T appear to work anyway. I set it up in 2 schedules, with one set for Monday - Saturday, ONLY Incremental and NO number in the "create a full backup every" X days. It should NEVER do a full backup. Unfortunately, it does. So, on the day I start the schedule I get a FULL backup that ends up in the "full" backup folder AND a full backup in the "incremental" backup folder. Not sure what it it'll do the other days.

Looks like Hasleo isn't any better.

The other alternative ofc, is to switch to Macrium Reflect, which lots and lots of people use.
People who do all combinations of backup scheduling.

I know, it's not easy to... switch.
I was an Acronis fan, right up until I tried Macrium Reflect.
You can even run EaseUS and Macrium side by side. Whichever you like better... keep.

Since you do not like Macrium there IS another free backup program you can try...Aoemi Backupper Since I have never used it, I cannot voice an opinion but it says everything can be done on a schedule. Check it out. Free Backup Software for Windows | AOMEI Backupper Standard

Just FYI, many of us here believe in Macrium so much we tend to sing its praises because it works. I'm sorry you had a bad experience using it. I'm sure some people get tired of reading about all the allcolades but when one knows that something works well and dependably, we tend to spread the good word. My system drive is 77 gb and Macrium completes a full system image and verifies it in 17 minutes. I can restore my complete system in 12 minutes. Personally I use only full system backups, but I have set up Macrium for others on a schedule. It is a very straightforward process.

I've used it, and actually still have it on the desktop, but I stopped using it because Todo Backup is simpler. And Aomei has the same limitation. You can do a scheduled backup, but it has the same "make a full backup every X days"... Doesn't let you specify the day.

I may have to look at some of the other backup tools, OR find some way to reset the scheduling. Right now I have a System backup that DOES a full backup on Sunday and incrementals the other days, and a disk backup that currently does the FULL backup on Monday and incrementals on the other days. So, when I switch disks, the last incremental is on the NEW disk and everything else is on the offsite drive. Not perfect.

I just had one of "those" thoughts... What happens if I CHANGE the schedule Sunday morning and "recreate" it. Then just run the backup? I presume it'll first create a full backup - EVERYTHING I've done so far has created a FULL backup first, so after that it should start creating incrementals for the next "7" days... I'll try it Sunday, but I MAY have made this a lot harder than it needs to be...