How to backup on two external drives using the daily rotation scheme

Summary

This article explains how to backup on two external drives using the daily rotation scheme. You can use the mirror backup type to create an image of the source files or you can create zipped backups using incremental , differential  and full backup types.

On this page:

How to mirror backup on two external drives

How to create incremental backups on two external drives

Backup scenario: daily incremental, weekly differential and monthly full backup on two external drives

Details

A backup rotation scheme is a method for effectively backing up data where multiple media are used in the backup process. The scheme determines how and when each piece of removable storage is used for a backup job and how long it is retained once it has backup data stored on it. Different techniques have evolved over time to balance data retention and restoration needs with the cost of extra data storage media. Such a scheme can be quite complicated if it takes incremental backups, multiple retention periods, and off-site storage into consideration.

Each day you back up to another drive using only the catalog from destination. This way you will have all backups on two drives.
Example: If the Monday backup goes to Drive1, the Tuesday backup goes to Drive2, the Wednesday backup goes again to Drive1, backing up all new and modified files since Monday. The files modified on Tuesday will be on both drives.

This way, if something goes wrong with an external drive, you have the backup on the other drive.

Use the Mirror backup type if you want to have in destination an exact copy of the source files, without zipping them.

Steps to follow:

1. Open Backup4all and select File->New Backup (Ctrl+N).
2. On the first page, enter a name for the backup in the Name field.
3. In "Where do you want to save your backup " section, select the external drive destination. Press Next.
4. On "What do you want to backup " page, add the files and folders to be backed up. Press Next.
5. On "How do you want to backup " page, select Mirror from the drop down list.
6. Press Advanced mode.
   
7. Go to Advanced page and uncheck Use local catalogs option.
8. Press Save->Save and run.
9. You just need to run the backup and change the external drive next day.
   

Steps to follow:

1. Open Backup4all and select File->New Backup (Ctrl+N).
2. On the first page, enter a name for the backup in the Name field.
3. In "Where do you want to save your backup" section, select the external drive destination. Press Next.
4. On "What do you want to backup" page, add the files and folders to be backed up. Press Next.
5. On "How do you want to backup" page, select Incremental from the drop down list.
6. Press Advanced mode.
   
7. Go to Advanced page and uncheck Use local catalogs option.
8. Press Save->Save and run.
9. You just need to run the backup and change the external drive next day.

Backup scenario: daily incremental, weekly differential and monthly full backup on two external drives

 This scenario can be used with

Steps to follow:

1. Open Backup4all and select File->New Backup (Ctrl+N).
2. On the first page, enter a name for the backup in the Name field.
3. In "Where do you want to save your backup" section, select the external drive destination. Press Next.
4. On "What do you want to backup" page, add the files and folders to be backed up. Press Next.
5. On "How do you want to backup" page, select Incremental from the drop down list.
6. Press Advanced mode.
   
7. Go to Advanced page and uncheck Use local catalogs option.
8. On the Scheduler page, press Add
9. Press Set password and type your Windows login password. Press OK.
10. In the new open window, from the Schedule Task list, select Weekly and choose a start time
11. Check the days you want to run the backup. From Monday to Thursday. Press OK.
    
12. Press Add, press Set password and type your Windows login password again.
13. In the Action section, from the backup type list, select Differential. Press OK.
    
14. In Schedule Task list, select Weekly and choose a start time.
    
15. Check Friday and press OK.
16. Press again Add, press Set password and type your Windows login password.
17. In the Action section, from the backup type list, select Full. Press OK.
    
18. In Schedule Task list, select Monthly and choose a start time.
    
19. Choose the last Friday of the month and press OK.
20. Press Save.