Internal backup - copy vs incremental

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud Mirror
1

I setup MCM as jbod with 1 share on each drive.  I ran an internal backup from share1 to share2 using the copy option.  Took about 13 hours to do 1.5TB.

I then deleted 1 file from share1 and reran the job.  The deleted file was not removed from share2.

I added a file to share1 and reran the job.  The new file was added to share2.

I want share2 (drive2) to be a duplicate of share1 (drive1).  I didn’t choose incremental because I don’t want to be dependent on WD software to restore my data.  The manual doesn’t explain the difference between copy and incremental but I thought it was:

copy: the backup would be an exact copy of drive1

incremental: a complete copy is made then each subsequent job creates just the changes.

A restore from incremental could involve numerous restores as it has to recreate all of the changes from the initial starting point.

Do I have this wrong?  How can I get a backup that will recognize a file was deleted?

2

Hello NunyaBiznas, note that the backup is not the same as sync, if you select the option to backup your files it will not delete files from the destination drive. If you want to keep an exact copy I recommend you to use the My Cloud Mirror in a RAID 1 configuration. 

3

I am hesitant to use raid1 because:

  1. I’m concerned about the overhead of updating drive2 evrytime a change is made to drive1. I’ll be using the MCM almost exclusively as a home media storage device so changes won’t be that frequent. Maybe I’m worried for nothing.
  2. I will probably exceed 4TB and want the option of leaving everything in place and switching drive2 to a primary drive.

How is incremental backup different than copy backup?
Does incremental create an initial copy of all files then each subsequent run only include new files in a separate folder(s)?
Does incremental ignore deletes like copy?

4

Hi again.

I would got with the RAID 1 configuration since it would always keep a synced copy without you having to do any other actions. An incremental backup works continuously adding changes to the to the destination drive, while Copy will only create the backup once and will continue only at scheduled points. All types of backup ignore deleted files.