Differential backup suddenly growing to almost full size

[Bob Coleman]

My apologies to mythos. I was reacting to at least the following two statements:

• And of course once it grows it stays that size which forces me to redo a full backup and start over.

• I tried it but once the size grows it's never reduced again. I need to start over with a new full.

I somehow interpreted them to imply an expectation that once it grows, it should then get reduced again. Upon rereading, I don't think that was implied. I apologize for the misinterpretation which led to my extended treatise above.

[Bob Coleman]

It has been suggested by Terabyte Support that the cause of the differentials becoming large might be files somehow being moved.

Several file change monitoring tools have been suggested. I'm not familiar with any of these tools. If, in fact, the only "change" to files is moving, would any of these tools detect and or report that? Just something to maybe think about. I have no idea what the answer is.

[mythos]

My apologies to mythos. I was reacting to at least the following two statements:

• And of course once it grows it stays that size which forces me to redo a full backup and start over.

• I tried it but once the size grows it's never reduced again. I need to start over with a new full.

I somehow interpreted them to imply an expectation that once it grows, it should then get reduced again. Upon rereading, I don't think that was implied. I apologize for the misinterpretation which led to my extended treatise above.

No problem, thanks for your help.

It has been suggested by Terabyte Support that the cause of the differentials becoming large might be files somehow being moved.

Several file change monitoring tools have been suggested. I'm not familiar with any of these tools. If, in fact, the only "change" to files is moving, would any of these tools detect and or report that? Just something to maybe think about. I have no idea what the answer is.

You're absolutely right. They monitor file changes and not file positions so they're p[ointless. But some people just like to post rants. I guess it makes them feel like experts. Whatever... noone reds them anyway.

[OldNavyGuy]

It has been suggested by Terabyte Support that the cause of the differentials becoming large might be files somehow being moved.

Several file change monitoring tools have been suggested. I'm not familiar with any of these tools. If, in fact, the only "change" to files is moving, would any of these tools detect and or report that? Just something to maybe think about. I have no idea what the answer is.

Download FolderChangesView from Nirsoft, turn on logging, and move a file.

The file will be reported as a delete in the old location, and a create in the new location.

It won't record what a system level optimize does, but the best way to test that scenario is to not optimize before creating an image, and see if it makes a difference (using the built-in Windows optimizer, and a third-party optimize tool on my system showed minimal differences).

Download Process Monitor from Sysinternals, and set up a filter for "dfrgui.exe" (Microsoft® Drive Optimizer), and run an optimize.

Speculation is not troubleshooting.

[mythos]

There is no location change, everything is where it was. Any change that happens is on the cluster level. But yeah, keep repeating the same things. Whatever makes you happy!