How to create an incremental backup

This article shows how to create an incremental backup of the given sources to a specified destination using Backup4all. The current method can be extended to other sources and destinations supported by Backup4all. The incremental backup type performs a full back up on the first execution, then increments will be executed, including only new and modified files. It will create in destination a different zip file with the backup sources from each source drive.

How to configure the backup job

Open Backup4all
Press New button to open the New Backup Wizard. Select the backup destination. Then press Next
On the What do you want to backup page, add the backup sources. Press Next.
On the Filter the backup sources page, you can set include/exclude filters for backup sources. Then press Next.
On the How do you want to backup page, you can select the backup type. In this example we will use the Incremental backup type. Then press Next.
On the When do you want to backup page, you can set the backup job to automatically run on the specified time and days. Press Next.
On the Personalize your backup job page, enter a name for the backup in the Backup name field. Press Save then Save and run.
In Explore View (F2) of Backup4all, we can see the backup sources.

Backup execution examples

We will perform several backup executions to see what we get in destination.

As we have sources from E drive, after the first backup execution, we get in destination a zip file 1_E.zip
For the second backup execution we will add a new folder called “02” in backup sources on E: drive.
After the 2nd backup execution we get in destination: 2_E.zip which is the second backup version, containing only folder “02”.
For the third backup execution we will change an existing source file on D: drive.
After the 3rd backup execution we get in destination: 3_E.zip which is the third backup version, containing the modified file from E: drive.