Determine Date of Base Image for Differential Backup File ?

[chris]

Thank you for the new forums.

What is the easiest way within Windows to look at a differential -chg- backup file, and determine the date of the base full-image file that it requires?

I'm deleting older backups for space, and of course cant afford to delete a required full-image file.

Cheers

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

If the backups were created in Windows you could look in the log file (IFW.LOG). A search for the filename (minus the extension) should find it. Otherwise, you could start a validation of the differential, cancel it, and then look in the log (the base/full will be listed). Using the filename you could determine the date, but I'd think normally the filename would be enough.

I usually use filenames for differentials that include the full's name so they stay grouped together. I don't want to have to try and figure it out later.

[smileypete]

I usually date stamp the backup but make it the first part of the filename. For a differential backup I do an automatic search for the most recent full backup and always use that.

Viewing the images directory sorted by name then gives a list of backups in date and time order, the differential backups are always based on the preceding full backup.

If you're OK with batch files, you might be able to adapt the following to what you want.

Full Backup.BAT
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start "" "C:\Program Files\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2\imagew.exe" /b /d:w1@0x1 /f:"E:\Backups\Images\$~YYYY$-$~MM$-$~DD$-$~HHMM$ Full Backup" /v /desc:"Full Backup of C Partition"
-----------------------------------------

Changes Backup.BAT
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for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /a-d /b "E:\Backups\Images\*Full Backup.TBI"') do set latest=%%x

start "" "C:\Program Files\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2\imagew.exe" /b /base:"E:\Backups\Images\%latest%" /f:"E:\Backups\Images\$~YYYY$-$~MM$-$~DD$-$~HHMM$ Changes Backup" /v /desc:"Changes Backup of C Partition"
-----------------------------------------

(Some of the above lines got word-wrapped but will be OK pasted and copied into Notepad).

You could even incorporate the time stamp of the full backup into the filename of the changes backup, but I find I don't need it with the above method.

cheers,
Pete.