Yes, that should work, but if you want to be sure, you can verify that Disk IDs rather than drive letters are being used in your definition file by selecting the "XML View" tab underneath the definition files list and looking through the contents.  If that looks good, from this point on, Reflect will send backups to whichever of those disks is connected at the time the job runs, even if the disk is assigned some other drive letter in the future.  If both disks are available, I believe whichever disk was assigned E when you set up the definition file will be used since that was specified as your primary target.  Other than that, technically you just created a Full backup; Synthetic Fulls are only ever created by Reflect automatically when needed to remain in compliance with your Incrementals retention policy, unless for some reason you use the standalone Consolidate.exe to perform that process manually.  But otherwise, it sounds like you understand the relevant concepts and should be completely good to go.

Phrab, Thanks for this as it's confirmed Most of what I thought was the correct way.
I think I'm with you up to here UNTIL the Red above in your Post (you may have to Clk the Quote Arrow to see it).

[ Then I went back to the backup definition tab]  What does "Made a Change - OK, made the Change Back - OK ... mean. Dbl Clking it doesn't appear to offer anything about the Destination Drive Discovery selection, so I'm lost as to What you did and How.

HOW does My Setup Screen Below compare with your screen?
WHAT were your Retention Rule #s - OR - is the 1 /30 Default THE ONLY WAY? (1) Synthetic Full if Possible and 30 INCR is Default.
Purge BEFORE Image is Correct?
Save as XML left Checked?
Any clarification is appreciated.
I did notice the Following on manual Pg 368 ...........
Changing the option affects new backup definitions. To apply to an existing backup definition, the
definition XML file needs to be opened and re-saved by clicking 'Finish'.
I did this and presume until the June 5 Syn Full Start schedule I can Manually make Incrementals to an Existing FULL.
Still wondering, too, IF all who understand v7 aren't really just visiting from another galaxy ... TBD









Macrium V8.1.7378 - WIN 10 Pro 22H2 - 256 G SSD + 1 TB HDD - ESET EIS Prem - Mbam Prem - SuperAS Pro - Diskeeper Pro '15

- You don't have to make a change specifically to your destination configuration in order to trigger the definition file update after changing to Disk ID-based targeting.  You just need to change some preference somewhere in your definition file, then click OK.  Then you can open it right back up and undo that change if you want.  Again, you can check the XML View of your definition file after this to verify that you have Disk IDs rather than drive letters shown there.  Another test would be manually changing the drive letter of your target and seeing if Reflect still uses it.  The Reflect activity window you show will ALWAYS show the drive letters currently assigned to the target(s) simply for readability, so you may see them change depending on what letter they're assigned.

- You do NOT have to use the default 30 Incrementals to use this strategy.  I use 7 based on my disk rotation that involves a different disk for every weekday. That decision should be calculated based purely on how far back you want to be able to restore backups from and how often you perform them, and what your rotation strategy is like if you're using one.  And you obviously need to make sure your destination has enough storage to support that.  But for example if you want to keep 1 month of backups and you're performing daily backups to a rotation of 2 disks that you're swapping weekly, each disk will only need 14 backups on it, so you'd set your Incrementals to 13 (the root Full that's created the first time isn't counted in the Incremental retention period).  Note however that for Synthetic Fulls, I believe Reflect still requires you to specify the retention period in number of backups (the default), not number of days/weeks.

- Yes, you can manually make Incrementals if you want, and Reflect will still start making synthetic fulls whenever necessary in order to remain in compliance with your Incrementals retention period.  The only requirement is that your backup set can ONLY consist of an initial Full followed by Incrementals.  If there's a manually created Differential in the chain, synthetic fulls will never be created. Instead, Reflect will use Incremental Merge, which is beyond the scope of this post unless you're curious.

- The purge option can be whichever you want.  Typically that's more important for people who are capturing multiple real Fulls and don't have storage to temporarily store an extra Full while it's being created before deleting an old one, so they need to delete the oldest one first, before running the new backup.  That of course creates a risk in that scenario, especially if you only have enough storage for a SINGLE Full, because then there's a period where you have no previous backup and your current backup hasn't completed yet.  But in an Incrementals Forever strategy, this option shouldn't matter very much. If you're running so close to your target's capacity that this option makes the difference between running out of storage and not, you need more capacity or a shorter retention period, especially since this strategy can't use the "low disk space purge" option below, so you simply need to make sure that you have enough capacity to support your retention period.  I personally choose to run the purge AFTER the backup simply because it means I always have at least the amount of history I expect to rather than prematurely purging an old backup before knowing that the new one was successful. It also means the backup (more important operation) happens FIRST, whereas if you run the purge first, consolidation occurs first.

We're not from another planet.  It's just that Reflect is a powerful and flexible piece of software, so it takes a bit of familiarization to utilize fully. But Macrium has great documentation, and fortunately they've resisted the temptation to do SO much that they end up with a bloated, complicated, and completely unintuitive solution like many enterprise backup solutions I've seen!

I DO See IDs in the XML Tab so it appears all is well. ......Backup Def File Tab: ..... Hi-Lighting the Full Syn Schedule XML line that Starts June 5 ..... 
I'll run a Manual INCR late this afternoon and see what happens but the Monday June 5 Schedule Start will be the real Test.
I can never repay you for the help, and Thanks to Phrab for letting me join the discussion.;
The Retention # is very helpful and having made Only 3 Restores with Macrium I've Always Used the Most Recent data; Chasing a date you know you didn't have the current Virus you're fighting would be my best guess for specifying More INCR's. I'll start with 7, I think, and adjust as I learn or needs change.
This stuff isn't always intuitive to me but I'm willing to try and have learned a lot just in this Thread; I'll dig into the Manual more as I haven't found the specifics there yet that you have offered.
Pg 368 just mentions Unique Volume Identifier but no details there.
Thanks again! All the Best!


Macrium V8.1.7378 - WIN 10 Pro 22H2 - 256 G SSD + 1 TB HDD - ESET EIS Prem - Mbam Prem - SuperAS Pro - Diskeeper Pro '15

I thought I followed your advice, but I'm wondering if I made a mistake.  I have 2 external drives & opted to create a full backup, followed by 7 incrementals on Drive E.  After 7 incrementals, Reflect creates a synthetic backup.  Then I do the same with Drive D.  I am using Disk ID to select the drive, with E being the primary.

However, I think I'm missing something.  I started on 5/31 & I understand that 5/31 to 6/2 backups are gone.  But if I wanted to, could I really go back to 6/3 on my backup?  The attachment shows that my synthetic full is modified today, as is today's incremental backup.  Drive E contains a synthetic backup dated 6/8 & incrementals from 6/9 through 6/15.

If I wanted to restore to 6/3, could I?  If so, would I have to have both Drive D & E available or just Drive E?
Thank you in advance,
Phil 

Phil
Windows 10 Pro
Windows XP- SP-3

Thank you again for all the information!!  Typing from a phone can suck.


Phil
Windows 10 Pro
Windows XP- SP-3