I'm checking to see which files to send us. I will also talk to the
development team about this issue because it is a pain to keep backing up
your music files each time, even though you don't change them.

Personally, I use Synctoy to back up (to removable disk) videos and music
files that I store on my desktop computer. This has been working well for
me. You can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/default.aspx.



"NickT" <NickT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C1641118-FBDA-4999-82E1-89B5E70E5FC7@microsoft.com...
> Jill, Thanks for your concern and offer to look into my case as I do think
> it
> strange. If you can tell me what catalogs, files you need to look at and
> how
> i should get them to you I'll do as you ask. You suspiscions as to what
> might
> be the reason may well prove to be right but if they are then I really
> think
> some thought needs to be given to how one should make backups of photos,
> music and video files in future release as it is these that for me and
> probably others that occupy the most disk space and might need to be
> treated
> differently. Maybe more options as to when backups of these should occur
> (e.g. Ignore changed ID3 tags or antivirus mods.....).
>
> Thanks
> "Jill Zoeller [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> A couple answers for the thread:
>>
>> Backup *does* use VSS, but not in the way Complete PC Backup does. That
>> is,
>> with File Backup, the changes aren't stored as shadow copies.
>>
>> Like some have speculated, those files are being backed up because some
>> program or process is changing them. It can be antivirus putting
>> something
>> in alternate streams, Media Player updating metadata (ID3 tags) or
>> something
>> like this. Even right-clicking in Explorer and going to properties may
>> lead
>> to adding alternate stream. Changing permissions on the parent directory
>> and
>> compressing the folder can also lead to the same effect. Moving the files
>> into a different directory will also force Backup to pick them again.
>>
>> Backup does not look in any headers, nor does Backup understand file
>> formats. To determine if a file is changed, Backup looks at creation
>> date,
>> modification date, and last written to date (this one is not visible via
>> the
>> cmd, only programmatically).
>>
>> From what I'm told, the archive bit is not used by serious backup apps
>> and
>> didn't work well in its day.
>>
>> If you are willing to share your backup catalogs with us, we can take a
>> look
>> and tell you what's happening.
>>
>> --
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>
>> Want to learn more about Windows file and storage technologies? Visit our
>> team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/default.aspx.
>>
>>
>> "NickT" <NickT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4498B7C0-FD37-4EFE-93C9-C301347E43DB@microsoft.com...
>> >I agree. I would really like MS to tell us this. Can't quite fathom out
>> >how
>> > they can say this is normal behaivior. An Incremental is an Incremental
>> > and
>> > only files that have been added/changed should go into the backup set.
>> > In
>> > response to AJR comment I don't see an option for differential backup
>> > in
>> > Vista Backup utility?
>> >
>> > I did my last backup yesterday. Just to give you an idea of size of
>> > backup
>> > files I'm talknig about. Original full backup was 90GB in size . This
>> > last
>> > incremental since last week was 63GB!!
>> >
>> > I'm now suspecting that Windows Media Library, MCE and/or Photo Gallery
>> > make
>> > updates to the file headers when indexing and sorting photos and
>> > videos.
>> > Let's see what MS say.
>> >
>> > "Stuart [MVP]" wrote:
>> >
>> >> Unfortunately, according to MS, this is normal behavior. This type of
>> >> backup,
>> >> unlike the Complete PC Backup doesn't use VSS technology and doesn't
>> >> seem
>> >> to
>> >> use the Archive bit as evidence of file modification. Perhaps MS will
>> >> step in
>> >> here and provide a more detailed explanation?
>> >>
>> >> Stuart.
>> >> --------
>> >>
>> >> "NickT" wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > Am using Vista Backup utility to backup my files to USB based
>> >> > external
>> >> > disk.
>> >> > Have one backup set with initial full backup done 2 weeks ago. Have
>> >> > now
>> >> > done
>> >> > 2 subsequent incremental backups that have been saved in same backup
>> >> > set. The
>> >> > size of the incremental backups are extremely large yet the number
>> >> > of
>> >> > files I
>> >> > have changed and added between backups has been few. I see files
>> >> > being
>> >> > backed
>> >> > up again that have not changed in any way since initial full backup.
>> >> > What can
>> >> > be going on? What field in file header does the backup program look
>> >> > at
>> >> > in
>> >> > order to decide if file needs to be backed up. If it's 'date
>> >> > archived'
>> >> > then I
>> >> > can see that this field is not populated.
>>
>>