Acronis Server Cloud Backup - User Guide - Manual (Page 28)

28 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2013
2 Backing up data
In this section
What is a disk/partition image? ............................................................... 28
Full, incremental and differential backups .............................................. 28
Backing up partitions and disks ................................................................ 29
Making reserve copies of your backups ................................................... 31
How to make bootable removable media with a backup ........................ 31
Adding an existing backup to the list ....................................................... 33
Deleting backups and backup versions .................................................... 33
Backup options ......................................................................................... 33
Validating backups ................................................................................... 49
Consolidating backup versions ................................................................. 49
Cloning backup settings ........................................................................... 51
2.1 What is a disk/partition image?
When Small Office Backup backs up a disk or partition, it stores a sector-by-sector snapshot of the
disk or partition. This includes the operating system, registry, drivers, software applications, data
files, and system areas hidden from the user. This procedure is called "creating a disk image," and the
resulting backup is often called a disk/partition image.
By default Acronis Small Office Backup stores only the hard disk sectors that contain data.
Furthermore, Acronis Small Office Backup does not back up pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys (a file that
keeps RAM contents when the computer goes into hibernation). This reduces image size and speeds
up image creation and recovery.
A partition image includes all files and folders (including hidden and system files), boot record, and
FAT (file allocation table). It also includes files in the root directory and the zero track of the hard disk
with the master boot record (MBR).
A disk image includes images of all disk partitions and the zero track with the MBR.
2.2 Full, incremental and differential backups
Acronis Small Office Backup offers you three backup methods:
1) Full: contains all of the data at the moment of the backup creation. It forms a base for further
incremental or differential backups. It can also be used as a standalone backup.
2) Incremental: Only those files will be included which have been changed since the LAST backup.
3) Differential: Only those files will be included which have been changed since the last FULL backup.
We suggest you to choose one of the following three approaches of using the backup methods:
"Full" - A standalone full backup might be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to its
initial state or if you do not like to manage multiple files.