Forever Forward Incemental Configuration

[Froggie]

As @al3x has mentioned, your whole  operation may be handled manually, and if you select the proper RETENTION settings all will flow as you expect... a manual FULL followed by 5 manual INCs followed by your next manual FULL.  Have we understood you correctly?

[N8AKTIV]

OK, I see - the cleanup process depends on the schedule and not on the backup-job/scheme itself.
Unlike in Acronis, you have to handle this type of backup manually myself.

[al3x]

The cleanup of old backup chains by setting a retention policy is independent of schedules. So you can manually backup from within the GUI and it will still delete the old full backup chain.

[Gork]

Maybe slightly off topic? Sorry if so...

But what if you mix differentials in? Wouldn't it be nice not to have to keep track of the history of the chain in order to decide what kind of a backup you should manually select? One diff after every full, 3 diffs to every full and 5 inc to every diff. And wouldn't it be nice if a new full would occur every first backup of a new month? Or every time there had been 8 diffs since the last full, even though some of those diffs may have already been deleted by the retention policy? It would be nice to have more logic available. For those who don't run their computer enough to warrant a schedule based on a date and time, it would be nice to be able to just push a "start backup now" button and the logic already used to create the backup plan would determine the type of backup that starts.

I guess I bring this up because this type of logic would allow the OP to easily perform exactly what they are bringing up.

[Bespoken]

Maybe slightly off topic?  Sorry if so...

But what if you mix differentials in?  Wouldn't it be nice not to have to keep track of the history of the chain in order to decide what kind of a backup you should manually select?  One diff after every full, 3 diffs to every full and 5 inc to every diff.  And wouldn't it be nice if a new full would occur every first backup of a new month?  Or every time there had been 8 diffs since the last full, even though some of those diffs may have already been deleted by the retention policy?  It would be nice to have more logic available.  For those who don't run their computer enough to warrant a schedule based on a date and time, it would be nice to be able to just push a "start backup now" button and the logic already used to create the backup plan would determine the type of backup that starts.

I guess I bring this up because this type of logic would allow the OP to easily perform exactly what they are bringing up.

There are conflicting situations in your explanation of what would be required (combination of full/diff/inc vs occasional user). Not sure why there is resistance to using the schedule facilities that are actually quite flexible. The FAQ's that discuss backup processes may help clarify a practical approach.

Outlining the requirements rather than stating what is being tried and missing may lead to suggestions on how the existing facilities could be used.

[Gork]

The idea of conflicting situations in this case is foreign to me, so I cannot comment on that.

I don't understand the resistance to the idea of using logic rulesets based on the state of the chain. If I want a specific number of diffs per full and a specific number of incs per diff and always want a diff after any full, instead of a schedule based on dates, why not? It would make it very easy for me to set things up, for instance, for my 85yo mother to be able to just click on "back up" any time a backup is important to her and the chains would take care of themselves in-between my visits. It would make it easier for me to just click on "back up" without taking a look at the chain to see if it's time for a new full, a diff or an inc then choosing that one manually. I've been using schedules or manually looking into what type of backup then manually choosing how to proceed for years.

I'm only saying it would be a nice addition.

[Bespoken]

The idea of conflicting situations in this case is foreign to me, so I cannot comment on that.

I don't understand the resistance to the idea of using logic rulesets based on the state of the chain.  If I want a specific number of diffs per full and a specific number of incs per diff and always want a diff after any full, instead of a schedule based on dates, why not?  It would make it very easy for me to set things up, for instance, for my 85yo mother to be able to just click on "back up" any time a backup is important to her and the chains would take care of themselves in-between my visits.  It would make it easier for me to just click on "back up" without taking a look at the chain to see if it's time for a new full, a diff or an inc then choosing that one manually.  I've been using schedules or manually looking into what type of backup then manually choosing how to proceed for years.

I'm only saying it would be a nice addition.

Let me try and clarify my comment. You said
"If I want a specific number of diffs per full and a specific number of incs per diff and always want a diff after any full, instead of a schedule based on dates, why not?"

then said

"For those who don't run their computer enough to warrant a schedule based on a date and time, it would be nice to be able to just push a "start backup now" button and the logic already used to create the backup plan would determine the type of backup that starts."

I considered those as two discrete and conflicting situations, a technical user vs an occasional user. Sure you could create a situation where they are both the same.

Setting up a schedule for your mother would take away the need for any manual intervention and make sure that a comprehensive backup is in place. The backups would be performed according to a schedule, and if the PC was off at the scheduled time it would be started as soon as the PC was turned on. You should also clarify if the backup is a System Backup, a Data backup, or a combination.

The schedule features provided allow:
- independent control for Full, Differential, and Incremental
- the number of each type to be kept
- performing a new Full after any number of each type

What do you feel is missing in the backup strategy with using a comprehensive schedule? For example:
- is there a point in time when a backup was needed for recovery but the last version was out of date, and would have been addressed if a manual backup system was used.

For your mother, assuming a combination System and Data backup, an extra few incremental backups, where there was little or no change, would take very little time and be very small.

The only potential downside of too many backups from using a schedule process is running out of space on the backup media, but the schedule also has purge capabilities that could handle this situation.

Sometimes stepping back from what we have been doing for years and exploring new processes may turn out to be a good thing. But that is your choice. I am just trying to help.

[al3x]

Actually, I can see how a manual backup button that still respects settings of a schedule could be useful in some situations. For example, your USB disk isn't attached all the time. Still, from time to time you're going to attach it. And then you want to decide if it's time for a new backup while still respecting your schedule, e.g. if it's already a new month and time for a full backup or similar.

But to make that work and still have a GUI that isn't confusing, that could be a challenge I suppose.

Here's an idea, maybe this could work.
Currently we already have these 3 buttons on a backup task:



1) Pause button to (temporarily) turn off all schedules.
2) Button for running the schedule right now (which is essentially the next planned backup method)
3) Button to run the predefined backup method (default: incremental backup)

Can we use button 2 to run our schedule manually? Well, not really, I guess, because this button runs the *next* scheduled backup instead of the one we would want right now.

So instead - what if there was a setting in the backup schedules menu to overwrite the behavior of button 3? Instead of running the predefined backup method, it would run the last (!) backup method the schedule defined (essentially like the "Run missed schedule at the next system startup" option).

Example:
- You set up a schedule to run a new full backup on every first Saturday of the month.
- On every Sunday of the month you want a differential backup.
- And on every other day you want incrementals.

So now, what if you set up your schedule and you click on button 3? Let's assume it's our first Saturday of the month. It would trigger a full backup. What, if it's Sunday already? It would trigger a differential backup instead (which could still be a full if there's no full backup available). So you will always trigger the last backup method according to the current schedule just as if the schedule was triggered.

But then the schedule would also run automatically, right? Yep, but just click button 1 once and the schedule will be paused indefinitely while still keeping the function of button 3.

Maybe this could be a feature for version 6? I don't think it would be too complicated to implement (hopefully) as we already have the logic behind the "Run missed schedule" option. It would "just" (I know, it's probably more ) need to be applied to the Backup button.

Hope that makes sense - and feel free to throw in your own ideas or if my idea doesn't check out at all. 

Cheers,
al3x