How to automaticly delete last backup folder after new backup in IFW

[badamsiosllc]

Hello, y'all!

Once a week, I make a full backup, then an incremental daily. I can't figure out how to automatically delete the prior backup, without doing it manually.

How does one go about that?

TIA!

[OldNavyGuy]

I wouldn't advise deleting prior incremental backups...either automatically or manually.

An incremental backup contains all changes since the last backup...of any kind (Full or incremental).

So if you delete the prior daily backups, you only have the changes since the day before.

A differential backup contains all changes since the last full backup.

In that case, you could delete the prior daily backups, and still retain all changes.

[Bob Coleman]

So if you delete the prior daily backups, you only have the changes since the day before.

Could that last backup even be processed in the absence of backups it's derived from?

I interpreted, perhaps incorrectly, the original question to be how to delete a full backup and the changes based on it after making a new full backup. I don't know the answer or if there is a way.

[badamsiosllc]

Sorry, I guess that was poorly worded. Oldtimerz disease heading my way!

Monday mornings, I make a full backup. Tuesday through Sundays, I make incremental backups. I want to remove the last weeks backups, after the next full backup is created.

I don't have room for differential backups.

[Brian K]

See if these scripts are suitable...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads ... ws.395254/

[badamsiosllc]

Yep! Thanks!

[OldNavyGuy]

Monday mornings, I make a full backup. Tuesday through Sundays, I make incremental backups. I want to remove the last weeks backups, after the next full backup is created.

What happens if you need to do a restore, and the current backup series is corrupt?

You have nothing to fall back on...unless you are archiving previous weeks' to an offline drive.

A 2 TB external USB drive is less than $100 US.

[badamsiosllc]

Well, I reckon I could keep 2 backups per machine... Also, I use verification...

How-some-ever... The wife doesn't know it yet, but in 25 days, she's getting me a raid 5 controller and 3 more 4 TB drives. The one I found supports auto-fail-over to a 4th drive, and is hot swap-able. I've been saving my pennies for that for a LOOOONG time:)

This is all going to a Linux Mint box, with a 2nd 4 TB drive. I call it my NAS.

1st thing is, 1 TB is dedicated to Timeshift, to backup Linux which must be ext4. The other 3 are NTFS, in case I have to turn the 4 TB back into an external drive so I can hobble to which ever machine dies, and plug it in. When I get the raid setup, I have a 1 TB drive I'll use for Timeshift.

Next thing is, 2 weeks worth of backups from 3 Windows machines is a little over 2 out of those 3 TB's. This is all for a total disaster. If I let the special smoke out of my hard drive, I have IFW to thank for a quick recovery. Let's hope the drive and backups aren't corrupt in the same time until Xmas.

[OldNavyGuy]

I would consider external+offline storage for backups.

If ransomware gets on your network, all your connected devices will be toast.

[badamsiosllc]

Okay, I consider a NAS, external storage, and onedrive offline. If someone wants to ransom the 2 pennies an 81 year old man doesn't have to rub together is his pocket, they're more than welcome.

For that matter, I can get a license for Windows 11 for $12.00 from groupon. Hell, I can get a license for Windows 2022 server with 5 cals, for $30.

I have Norton AV for my PC's, which looks out for ransomeware, and if someone want into my linux box, past Avast, It'll take me a couple hours to get back to normal.

So what's a backup good for, if not to restore the system to the day prior to any attack. Man, I'll be dead before I give a rip:)