Backup software copying entire contents of laptop *twice*!

February 23, 2013 12:08 PM

I backed up the contents of my ASUS UL50VT laptop in 2011 to my Seagate external hard drive using their Memeo software. In 2012, I connected the Seagate again and ran a second backup, and it created a separate folder where it stored all the new files I'd gained since the previous time. So far, so good. Now when I try to back it up again, it has started from scratch--duplicating the entire contents of my 450 GB laptop to a third folder. I'm gonna use up all my hard drive space this way, stat. Any way to make it back up only the new files again, like it did before?
posted by manzanita to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Response by poster: PS: The software says that modifying or deleting anything in the backup files (on the external drive) will "irreparably damage the backup." That seems to rule out just letting it copy everything and then deleting all but the new stuff (which would be incredibly tedious anyway)!

Grrr. :-/
posted by manzanita at 1:08 PM on February 23, 2013

Best answer: Three backups in two years?!? Please allow me to suggest that part of the problem might be that you are doing it all wrong.

One possible reason that it is doing a full backup is that it has been too long since the last full backup and the software is playing it safe. Another possibility is that it has been long enough since your last incremental backup that you've forgotten how you triggered it.

Perhaps someone who is more familiar with the software has specific insights, but I'd let it complete this full backup and then try another backup in a few days and see what happens. If that works out, then, going forward, I'd try to make sure the thing gets backed up every week, at least. Ideally, you'd be able to share the backup drive over your network somehow and the software could backup whenever you were home.
posted by Good Brain at 6:35 PM on February 23, 2013