Accurate Backup

A normal backup works by comparing the creation time and the last modification time of a file against the previous backup time. Differential and Incremental backups will backup only those files with a more recent timestamp. If files have been restored, copied or moved into the Fileset and set to their previous times, or if a directory is moved within the Fileset, those files may not be backed up because they will have old time stamps. As a consequence, with normal backups it is necessary to do periodic Full backups to ensure that you have a copy of all files. Using Accurate backup overcomes these difficulties - the files will be backed up even when they were previously skipped. It costs a bit more overhead in the server to send a list of all cataloged files to the client, and there is some overhead in the client to save and process this list. However, when it is done, whether or not a file is saved depends not just on its time stamps, but also on whether or not it is in the Catalog list (in fact, the criteria to determine if a file is to be backed up can be configured). If the file is not in the Catalog list, it will be backed up even if it has an old time stamp. This effectively resolves the problem of moved files and directories that keep old time stamps and permits fully accurate backups.