In
this thread , Microsoft Program Manager from the Storage Division Christine states that the Windows Backup utility included in Windows 7 RTM works incrementally, making all backups after the first take significantly less time. I would like to state that it is impossible for this to be the case.
I have a Windows 7 Ultimate RTM x64 system and have been using the Windows Backup utility with a 1 TB external drive for about three weeks now. My PC has two 500 GB hard drives. On the first drive, my C: partition is about 160 GB, 50 GB of which is used. The second hard drive contains redirected user data and public folders, and is using about 300 GB.
Now, while I do have a lot of data on the second hard drive, a huge majority of that is video files and movies that I've had for years. These files do not change. The only files that change are various Excel and Word files stored in mine and my fiancees profile folders. I would say a maximum of 10 MB is created or changes from week-to-week since I've started Windows Backup. Yet as of 8:14am, the backup job has been running just shy of 6.25 hours and is at 32%. I saw in the progress indicator that it was backing up a video file I've had on my computer for two years. This prompted me to check many of the files in the Public folders, where a large percentage of my data is stored. *ALL* of the files still had the "File is ready for archiving" box checked. Shouldn't this box be unchecked? I suppose it's possible that the Windows Backup program is designed to do incremental backups, backing up only new or modified files each time after the first. But how can it do that if the archive flag isn't cleared when the files are backed up?
I suspect that my USB 2.0-only external hard drive could be a bottleneck here, and I understand how the first backup could take a very long time. But not the rest. Not if they are incremental.
