Disc-bootable backup software

Ok, just to be sure I didn't fail Backups 101: From my understanding if I have a set of incremental backups I can restore from any point an incremental backup was made, not only from the latest incremental correct? And a set of incremental backups after a few months or years of backups will actually take up more space than a full because they will contain deleted data that wouldn't be present if you did a full correct?

Assuming that is true and I didn't fail on the basic fundamentals of backups.... I am trying to find out what options there are for doing backups off of a boot disk to an external drive (most likely USB). Thing is, there are a few requirements I need it to be capable of:

1: This will be a windows system, and most of those backup bootdisks are Linux based, which depending on the distro tend to have good to glitchy NTFS support last time I used them, especially NTFS write support. Dunno if that's gotten any better nowadays.

2. I want to backup the entire OS drive, not just a partition, but the boot sector and MBR itself. Well... most likely I will stick with MBR, but just in case, can any handle GPT as well?

3. Pretty sure 99.99% of backup apps do this, but just tossing it out there, it would be preferable if it would compress the backup image too. Speed of backup/restore isn't an issue here, just reliability..... and not taking up terrabytes to backup gigabytes.

4 Not sure how possible this is, especially on a drive-level rather than partition level backup, but it would be nice if it would ignore the page and hibernate file, since those would be huge, change all the time and thus set off the incremental backup, and and have zero reason whatsoever to be backed up.

5. The system will have two SSDs in RAID0, will backup programs have an issue with this? (There will also be a RAID5 but those are just storage and don't need to be backed up over a bootdisk. Also, I would only need the latest version of the data on the RAID5 backup, no need to go back to any certain earlier points).

I used to use Acronis a few years ago, but from my understanding their latest version of the software is terrible. Are there any good free or paid offerings that will let me do all this?

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From my understanding if I have a set of incremental backups I can restore from any point an incremental backup was made, not only from the latest incremental correct? From my understanding if I have a set of incremental backups I can restore from any point an incremental backup was made, not only from the latest incremental correct?

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If you have multiple incrementals, you must use the full plus all the incrementals up to the point you want to restore.
Ex. You have a Full backup plus incrementals A, B, C, D. If you want to restore to point C, you need the Full + A, B, and C.

Note: Most of my answers will reference Acronis TrueImage, because that's what I use. You'll have to do your own research if you're using something else.

1. Acronis and other apps have used Linux for a long time now. I don't think that's an issue.

2. Yes, there is support GPT depending on the version.
Acronis TI started GPT support with version 2011 with the Plus Pack. TI2012 and 2013 support GPT out of the box.

3. I usually compress the backups. I haven't heard of specific issues with it, but that's your call.

4. Acronis omits the pagefile and hibernation file. It just puts a placeholder in the archive.

5. Ooh. That's a tough one. Acronis does support RAID, but you should probably look up your motherboard/RAID combination.

As for other products:
Macrium Free supports GPT, but not incremental/differential. They list RAID support, but I'm not sure how good it is. Macrium uses WinPE.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Paragon B&R 2012 Home supports GPT, but they make no mention of RAID. It also uses WinPE.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/brh/features.html

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Originally Posted by Midknyte

If you have multiple incrementals, you must use the full plus all the incrementals up to the point you want to restore.
Ex. You have a Full backup plus incrementals A, B, C, D. If you want to restore to point C, you need the Full + A, B, and C.

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I know you need all the previous incrementals, but what I wanted to make sure of is that in that scenario, I don't have to restore from D right? I could restore from B, or C if I wanted to?

Also, this is a bit out there but, what would my options be if I run out of space? Would I have any way of combining several incremental into one, thus losing the ability to restore to any point in between but saving the space of any deleted files they had backed up?

You should be able to back up from any one of those files/dates. With Acronis, it will warn you when you get low on space and then will either automatically or you can manually delete the earliest backups.

I'm not sure how Acronis does that delete operation though so I'd let it do the process itself.

You can also set the low space warning level in the Acronis GUI to any level you want in options> local storage settings (version 2010)

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I could restore from B, or C if I wanted to?

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Yes, you can choose any incremental you want. Like I said, you need the full and the "in between" incrementals too.

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Would I have any way of combining several incremental into one

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No. Incrementals reset the archive bit, so it wouldn't know what files are newer than others.

Concerning the selection of software, let me just point (sorry for getting into your discussion) that especially in disk imaging programs it's worth harvesting as much feedback from others as you possibly can. Not concerning how many functions it has etc. The specific trouble is you do NOT know the quality (worse: usability) of the tool until you really tried to RESTORE and succeeded. That may be months or even years from the point you happily started to back up. This way, I have had a false confidence in Macrium Reflect. All its menus and buttons were fine, it was pleasant to see it storing all the data (and system), I was a happy user... until the moment came to make some use of what was stored. What Macrium Reflect offered me then was only excuses. Do ask users if they used their software already to really restore. This is what you need it for, right?

That's an excellent point. What I've done for years is test out the ability of any backup software I've ever used in as fail-safe a mode as I can.

I install TrueImage immediately after installing a fresh operating system and then make an image and then try to restore it to make sure it works. If it doesn't then not a lot of time is lost since it only takes another hour or so start from scratch again.

Then once I have a program that I know I can rely on then using other programs to use for backups isn't nearly as risky since I have a program that does make reliable backups.

Interesting that you mention Macrium because I tested it a couple of weeks ago on my laptop's XP reinstall and it did not work properly at all. Both the BartPE and WinPE boot disks would not function and the Macrium GUI re-image gave me nothing but errors and grief.

Added to the agro was having to download a 1.6 Gig megafile to create the WinPE boot disk. What a pain.

Exactly. Actually, you are in a much better condition than me as you can get your hands-on experience. I want to keep my cultivated system as long as possible and not to tamper with it too much, so I have to depend on testimonies of others, while everybody seem to have their own preference. (But I was lucky to find a workaround in my calamity the other day. Things might still have been worse.)

That's actually kind a big reason I asked, I was looking into Acronis since I used it in the past, but the current version (2013) seems to have many complaints...