How to confirm an incremental backup worked

[mpman]

I run an incremental backup to a disk.  When I look at the backup files, the .bkf file date modified never changes, but the .cfg file date modified date does change to the latest backup date. The .cfg file size is way too small to give me confidence that the backup has actually worked (although in the job monitor it appears that the job has backed up correctly).  Is this the way the files work?  The date won't change for the .bkf file?

[AmolB]

Hi

The .cfg file is the config file of B2D. The actual backup is saved in the .BKF format.

To confirm if the incremental has worked or not open the restore window and

expand the incremental backup set. You should be able to see the files folders

which were backed up.

[mpman]

OK, I'll check.  Does it make sense that the date modified on the file doesn't change?

[AmolB]

Well the date modified of the .BKF files should show the date on which the backup was taken.

[mpman]

It doesn't, that's what is odd.  Only the .cfg shows the date the latest backup was run.

[teiva-boy]

What does the job monitor and reports say for the job?  It would show what was backed up, what the size was, and if it was successful.  

[mpman]

It consistently shows that it was successful and that about 11gb were backed up.

[Munir2Fast]

Check in the archive bit is un-checked for the data that was backed-up.

Incremental backups include only the files that have changed since the last full or incremental backup.

Backup Exec provides two incremental backup methods, one that uses archive bit and one that uses modified time to determine if the file was backed up. If you select to use the Full - Back up files - Using archive bit (reset archive bit) and want to run incremental backups, you must use the Incremental - Back up changed files since last full or incremental- Using archive bit (reset archive bit) method. If you select to use the Full - Back up files - Using modified time, you must use the Incremental - Back up changed files since last full or incremental - Using modified time method. The advantages and disadvantages described in this section pertain to either type of differential backup.

[EZAce]

Have you tried to test a small test restore of the backup.

I do find it funny that the date does not update. Are you looking at the creation date or modified date?

[mpman]

I am doing an incremental backup, changed files since last full or incremental -using archive bit (reset archive bit) and I am appending to media.

I just looked to try a restore but it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack to find a file that has changed.  I'm going to have to intentionally change one so I can track it.

The date I am looking at is the modfied date.  The .bkf file shows a date of 11/22/10 which is when the full backup was done.  Incremental backups were done 11/29 and 12/6 but those dates only show up on the .cfg file.  The job log shows about 10 gb being processed on each incremental.

I haven't paid attention to the .bkf file size to see if it has changed.  I'll check that, too.

[mpman]

Is it possible that there hasn't been any change to the files that are backed up (they are archive files for us).  Could that have any impact?  It seems odd to me that both of the incrementals show about 10 gb of backup--it seems like a lot considering the nature of these files and it seems odd that both incrementals were nearly the same size.

[mpman]

BTW, thanks for your help everyone.