Incrementals, Differentials and Fulls
For example sake,
1st of month - Full backup
2nd-9th of month - Incrementals
10th of month - Differential
11th-19th - Incrementals
20 of month - Differential
21st - 29th - Incrementals
Okay....so my question is as follows. If I want to delete some B2D files to create free space, could I delete the Incrementals and differentials from the 2nd thru the 19th? And if I want to restore data from the 20th - 29th, do those restore jobs need any of the .bkf files from the 2nd thru the 19th?
Here is a similiar question/answer: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/mixing-incremental-and-differential-backups
You cannot delete something in the middle of the backup chain. This will break the chain. So, a short answer to your question is NO.
Unless you have a VERY good reason, do not mix differential and incremental backups. See first part of my article below
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/pros-and-cons-various-backup-schemes
The newer versions of BE makes it very hard for you to do so for very good reasons. Also, for the newer versions of BE, you cannot delete part of a backup chain.
It is better to run more frequent full backups, rather than trying to use fancy backup schemes. If space is a concern, then all the more reason to keep your backup chains short so that they can be deleted as soon as they expire. You should not just worry about backups, restores are actually more important than backups. If you cannot do a restore easily, then your backups are useless.
