Very well explained and exactly the information I was seeking. Thanks!

From a year ago:

That's what I do with my work system. I perform weekly image backups and daily file-level backups of my User folder - each with different retention.

Are you still performing weekly image and daily file-level backups? I was thinking that the ability to now restore file-level backups to their respective folders kind of eliminated the need for image backup in your scenario (which is similar to my scenario).

I've also read through different recommendations here regarding legacy vs new backup format and I am in the process of rethinking my data (not system) backup strategy. I have about 2 TB of data (documents, music, photos and videos). At this point and going forward I have very little additions or changes - probably 2-3% max in a year. I want to back up to a local NAS and Backblaze. I want to rely on the NAS to recover accidentally deleted files, previous versions etc. I am thinking legacy file-based backups are appropriate for that. I view Backblaze B2 as my disaster recovery where I would have them ship me a drive if I lost my PC and NAS. For those backups I assume the new backup format file-based makes the most sense. Also, I am hoping to keep my total storage under 5 TB to comply with CBB licensing. Am I on the right track?

I appreciate your recommendations.

Now that legacy FLR provides the option to restore the entire set of files to their original location is there any reason other than possible speed of restoration to also perform image backups as you described? Also, is the FLR now able to create folders that may have been deleted?

How best to manage that without a working PC? I am am trying to recover my only PC. Can we do support over phone?

Yes, same pc. I have to go out for rest of day but will get back to this tonight.

OK, I assumed it was like Windows recovery which puts image on USB stick. My backups are on synology nas. I enter my storage credentials and it properly displays with green check and "Restore only" indicator. However, it then throws a dialog saying "Cannot find any prefix in this backup storage". What do I do now?

@David Gugick I've used the new format to complete a Files and an Image backup to my NAS. I'm impressed with the performance and especially the new ability to automatically test the system image restore in a VM.

I appreciate the offer of guidance for retention. I will get back to you later this week with some specifics.

@David Gugick my goal is to be sure I understand the nuances so I don't get into a situation where retention works differently than I had assumed. My background is engineering... I ask a lot of questions ;-).

@David Gugick, I am trying to understand the implications of legacy vs GFS retention in the new files backup format. I believe legacy retention can be set to keep every version that is backed up over the retention period, whereas GFS would normally purge some of the intermediate file versions. Is this generalization correct, assuming they are both set to one year maximum retention?

@David Gugick

Block level backup does not exist in the new format because we perform client side deduplication automatically and that effectively replaces the block level backup option. — David Gugick

David, am I correct that this section of the documentation should include the statement that block level backups apply only to legacy format? Or better, place this whole section under the legacy format section.

@David Gugick first, thanks for taking time out of your Saturday to respond. Your explanations have helped me better understand the nuances/characteristics of CBB backup types. I do think there are some opportunities for your tech writers to provide provide that same kind of information for each backup type in their documentation.

If I use the new files backup type and in the future need to do a full data restore from Backblaze, would I be able to do that locally from the hard drive they provide (which contains my entire bucket)? What would I need to do to point the restore at that drive?

@David Gugick I found the article that I was remembering when I made the comments about "Forever Incremental" and the need for periodic full backups. This article is undated so hopefully this has changed in version 7. Please advise.

It implies that you want incremental backups to be done at regular intervals after the initial full backup was performed. It is very helpful that you don’t need to worry about full backups afterward.

However, with each subsequent backup, the chain of incremental backups becomes larger. As a result, it takes more time and computing capacity for backup software to analyze the full backup and all increments so as to determine the difference between the data on your server/workstation and the data in your backup repository.

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This backup type reduces recovery reliability. It also becomes harder and takes longer to recover the whole data set, as it takes time to analyze and recover each backup in the chain.

That is why periodical full backups are highly recommended, in order to start a new sequence of incremental backups. The frequency of full backups depends on your business needs. You may want to conduct it weekly, monthly, or once every couple of months. There is an advanced backup technique to simulate full backups, called a synthetic full backup.

@David Gugick I am starting to understand why I am so confused. First, in the msp360 Windows 10 Backup-Restore Full Guide I find this:

"Full Backup Options help keep backup sizes low and ensure you can restore data quickly. If you can only run incremental block-level backups for data that changes often, you can get a Windows 10 cloud backup archive that significantly exceeds your actual data size (each incremental copy stores all data changed from the last full backup). To avoid such situations you need to schedule full backups or look to creating a full data copy if the total size of your previous block-level backups is larger than that certain amount of your data. The second option can help if you are unsure of a desired full backup schedule."

My version 6 file level backups DID use the block level option. Now, when I drill down in the version 7 Legacy File Backup wizard I find it has removed the block level backup from advanced options. What would happen if I transition an existing version 6 file backup plan that uses block level option to version 7? Does that break my existing backups? Are there other changes I haven't discovered yet. Are these documented anywhere?

Again, thanks for your help in my quest to figure this out.

@David Gugick Thanks for the explanation. Let me restate what you are saying in a different way to be sure we are understanding each other. Let's say I have been doing a "forever incremental" backup using the legacy file level backup every day for one year, with a new source file every day. Separately at the one year mark I do a legacy full file level backup of the same files. So assume each backup repository has exactly the same files in it. If I do a full restore from either I think you are saying the time to restore would be the same. Correct?

One other question... with the legacy hybrid backups my cloud backup is a file level backup to Backblaze. My intention is if I ever need to do a full restore from Backblaze I would have them send me my backup on hard disk. How would I use CBB to restore from the BB hard disk?

@David Gugick, my concern with Forever Incremental is how reliable (and timely) will a full restore be if the backup chain has hundreds of incremental backups. The retention policy would take care of changes to files, but what if there is at least one new file every day for a year, and I run daily incremental backups? Is my concern valid?

Thanks @David Gugick. I am referring to File/Folder backups. I think I will go with your recommendation. I have been doing Forever Incremental but I would like to instead go with Forward Incremental which would create periodic full backups and start a new backup chain, after which an older backup chain would be purged. I am having a hard time figuring out how to accomplish that using the CBB Hybrid Backup wizard retention settings. Specifically, how do I force periodic full backups, and then control when an entire backup chain (a full and its subsequent incrementals) is purged?

The silence is deafening ;-).

I would appreciate any input I can get on the value proposition of the new backup format vs the legacy format. Obviously, deduplication is one. The new format also provides separation between backup plans - but I'm not sure what that means to me.

FWIW, I just ran a deduplication analysis on my 1.2TB local storage and determined deduplication could shave approximately 150GB on a full backup. I assume I would see a similar percentage on future incrementals. Here are my dedupe percentages by data type:

Documents and general data: 6.87%
Photos/images: 3.83%
Music: 0.67%
Videos and NLE projects: 16.77%

I just created another ticket because I never received a ticket #. Let's see if I get one this time. The delay has been ok as it has given me some time to research and think through my backup strategy. I've asked support to comment on my current thinking which is to:
1. Perform CBB for Windows backup of my PC's data volumes to my NAS
2. Perform CBB for Windows synthetic full backup of my PC's data volumes to my new B2 (S3) Bucket
3. Perform Synology backup of my NAS to a local USB drive.

My thinking is this will let me avoid the sync issues that seem inevitable in the hybrid model, while also giving me two alternative backups that are each also backed up independently (by BB and Synology).

@David Gugick I submitted a ticket Saturday but haven't heard back yet. In the meantime I have decided I am ok with creating a new B2 bucket and going that route. I would appreciate if you can "bless" the approach I plan to use which is to clone each of the two hybrid backups I was running and change each to the new target B2 bucket. I assume that will create a new repository for each of the cloned plans. Once running smoothly I will delete the previous two plans which I expect will also delete their repositories. Sound about right?

As mentioned earlier, I am on 6.33. I expect to go to 7 later this year. Is there anything in what I plan to do that I should rethink in preparation to going to 7?

Finally, this experience of losing my NAS has been a bit disconcerting regarding the inability to sync a hybrid backup if the local backup becomes out of sync with the cloud. Even if I had a backup of my NAS from one week before it failed, wouldn't I still be unable to sync the local backup to the B2 backup? It seems more fragile than I would have anticipated. Hopefully, you can help me understand if this isn't the case.

@David Gugick Does the consistency check flag or somehow warn of unfinished files in a Hybrid backup scenario? I'm using CBB for Windows Hybrid backup to 1) encrypt my data, 2) back it up to my NAS, and 3) back that up to Backblaze S3. Is it possible I have undetected unfinished files on BB?