ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE ECHO - FOR LINUX User's Guide download pdf (Page 13)

Chapter 3. General information and

proprietary Acronis technologies

3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images

A backup archive is a file or a group of files (also called in this guide “backups”), that

contains a copy of selected files/folders data or a copy of all information stored on

selected disks/partitions.

When you back up files and folders, only the data, along with the folder tree, is

compressed and stored.

Backing up disks and partitions is performed in a different way: Acronis True Image Echo

Server saves a sector-based snapshot of the disk, which includes the operating system,

registry, drivers, software applications and data files, as well as system areas hidden from

the user. This procedure is called “creating a disk image,” and the resulting backup

archive is often called a disk/partition image.

Acronis True Image Echo Server stores only those hard disk parts that contain data (for

supported file systems). This reduces image size and speeds up image creation and

restoration.

A partition image includes all files and folders independent of their attributes (including

hidden and system files), a boot record and file system super block.

A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with master

boot record (MBR).

By default, files in all Acronis True Image Echo Server archives have a “.tib” extension.

It is important to note that you can restore files and folders not only from file archives,

but from disk/partition images, too. To do so, mount the image (see

10.2 Mounting

partition images

) or start the restore wizard, select image and select Restore specified

files or folders.

3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis True Image Echo Server can create full, incremental and differential backups.

A full backup contains all data at the moment of backup creation. It forms a base for

further incremental or differential backup or is used as a standalone archive. A full backup

has the shortest restore time as compared to incremental or differential ones.

An incremental backup only contains data changed since the last full or incremental

backup creation. Therefore, it is smaller and takes less time to create. But as it doesn’t

contain all data, all the previous incremental backups and the initial full backup are

required for restoration.

Unlike incremental backup, when every backup procedure creates the next file in a

“chain,” a differential backup creates an independent file, containing all changes

against the initial full archive. Generally, data from a differential backup will be restored

faster than an incremental one, as it does not have to process through a long chain of

previous backups.

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ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE ECHO - FOR LINUX User's Guide Page 13