Is it okay to launch a backup that includes some folders and add others in successive backups?

Getting Help
1

I have to make a backup of a computer with almost 1 tera of information.
Approximately backing up 150 gigs to Google Drive took 6 hours.

Is it okay if I launch a backup that includes, for example, some folders and once finished, add more folders in the following days?

–files-from example Day 1

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

–files-from example Day 2

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
C:\Users\User\Documents

–files-from example Day 3

C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
C:\Users\User\Documents
C:\Users\User\Desktop
C:\Users\User\Pictures
C:\Users\User\Music
C:\Users\User\Videos

2

Yes, it is totally fine. Restic will still only back up what has changed/been added since the last backup run.

When you do add folders to your backup set, restic will however not be able to identify which parent snapshot to use. This is not a problem but it means restic has to scan all the files to detect if they have changed or not, so it’s just a matter of more disk I/O on that first backup run after adding more folders. Subsequent backup runs after that will use a parent snapshot automatically and not have to do the extra scanning.

If you add folders and want to avoid the extra scanning, you can use the --parent option to the backup command (giving it the ID of the last backup snapshot before you added folders).

3 Likes
3

Thanks a lot! I will try this way.

4

You can use --parent latest option it will be faster.

1 Like
5

Thanks @KamikazeePL :+1:

6

I think adding new folders affects also the forget command because the default for --group-by is host,paths

so depending on the policy you may keep more snapshots than expected.

2 Likes
7

Thanks for the info. :+1: