# Non-incremential backup and data archiving

**URL:** https://forum.duplicati.com/t/non-incremential-backup-and-data-archiving/14999
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 20, 2022, 9:05am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/non-incremential-backup-and-data-archiving/14999 "2022-09-20T09:05:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

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### Author: ![gpatel-fr](https://forum.duplicati.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@gpatel-fr](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/gpatel-fr)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2022, 11:13am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/non-incremential-backup-and-data-archiving/14999/4 "2022-09-21T11:13:59Z")

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Duplicati is a backup tool and does not do file replication, you should not ever fiddle directly with the backuped data, if you do that, you will most probably break your backup. It’s also a continuous backup tool, removing old data according to the retention policy.

> [@New retention policy deletes old backups in a smart way](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/new-retention-policy-deletes-old-backups-in-a-smart-way/2195):
>
> Hello everyone! Smart backup retention is a feature that has been discussed lately on the forum and on github. It can delete old backups in an intelligent way. Assume you run your backup every day, then you have 365 backups during a year which can occupy a lot of storage space. Backup retention will delete old backups in a way that you keep less backups the older they get. For instance, you can have 7 backups for the last days, 4 backups for the last month, 12 backups for the last year. And all…

The idea of ‘a complete backup from time to time, and incremental between that’ (known as grand father / father / son policy) is not appropriate for a tool like Duplicati, it’s not your grandfather’s backup.

The advantage of Duplicati design is to allow for deduplication, saving quite some backup disk space.  
The disadvantage of it is that you can’t manage the backup data yourself.

If a tool does not fit your use case, don’t use it, do not try to use it like another tool for another use case. If you buy an utility vehicle, and try to drive it like a sport car, you may end up missing a curve somewhere. And the reverse case, if you try to drive a sport car on rough territory, you may break it.

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