Incremental backups and differential backups are traditional backup strategies found in backup software but are sometimes also available in storage devices. It doesn’t matter which software performs it, though there are differences in the interpretation of the terms “incremental” and “differential”. The “correct” meaning of incremental and differential backup has to do with deduplication.   […]

The best backup strategy in the world is the one tailored to your needs. This isn’t something that can be delegated as it requires the “data owner” to answer the following questions: 12 Questions You Need Answered First How much data you have?1TB? 100 GB? 10 GB. This makes a huge difference How often you […]

When you have the choice between VHD and VHDX for Hyper-V virtual disks, you may want to consider the following advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of each virtual disk format:   VHD Features VHDs work on Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2.  Hyper-V on Windows 8 also supports it as well as Virtual […]

If you wonder whether to use IDE or SCSI controllers for your Hyper-V virtual machines, the short answer is: IDE is fine. There is no need to go for SCSI, it won’t be any faster. Note that you need to have a IDE connected virtual disk in order to boot. If you want better performance, […]

Migrating a VM from a Windows 8 PC to a Windows Server only takes a couple of clicks! If you are using Hyper-V on Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 you can move the virtual machine to a Windows Server host, and vice versa, using BackupChain. Simply install BackupChain on Windows 8, back up the VM […]

There is really no need to purchase an expensive NAS box at all when you have an old PC sitting there and have no use for it. Alternatively you could easily buy a PC kit from an online retailer and build your own PC. Now, if you have an old PC, you can use it […]

This error may occur on physical hosts or on VM hosts. In the case of a VM host, the host logs a misleading entry “0x800423f3”. Host live backups of virtual machines may fail with a transient Hyper-V VSS Writer error, which typically logs this kind of message in the Event Viewer:   A VSS writer […]

The fastest way to install a Hyper-V cluster utilizing cluster shared volumes and failover clustering is presented in this article. Overview You need a domain controller. If you don’t have one yet, set one up now and make sure you don’t use it for Hyper-V as well (you could but shouldn’t) Your CPUs used for all […]

Are you getting confused (like everyone else) about checkpoints, snapshots, VSS snapshots, Hyper-V snapshots, and SAN snapshots? It is confusing thanks to Microsoft and a couple of others…. Let’s get to work:   Hyper-V Snapshots are Now Called Checkpoints Hyper-V snapshots were called snapshots in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Then Microsoft […]

The professional method to backup VMware Workstation and other VMware products is to use BackupChain. BackupChain backs up virtual machines using the VMDK format and other virtual disk formats. VM backup is performed live, without interruptions, and you can restore VMs to the same host or other servers in just a few simple steps. Automated […]