it would be nice if rather than creating just small zip files if we could have it rather in splitted zip files, so that one could “unpack” these easily without the need for the software.
i know this is possible, heres a sample how you would do it with winzip:
or, if ones using 7zip, would do it like that:
about the checksums, that youre currently using in the filename… one could have these in a separate file in the backup, like sums.md5 and then md5 the files and check the .md5 file if theyre correct…
I’m afraid your idea won’t work. At its core Duplicati has a deduplication engine that breaks the source files into chunks and packages the unique chunks into zip volumes. It does this to support efficient storage of multiple file versions.
Files cannot be reconstituted without using Duplicati or some other software that has knowledge of how the files are chunked and can reassemble the pieces.
The assumption here is feature replaces current design with the whole backup in a zip file which is split, maybe for better upload/download chances. One note on that is I think you need all the files for an unzip. Please clarify if this is not what the proposal is.
I have sympathy for those who like standard file archive formats or even direct file copies. I’ve used both, however current generation backup software commonly uses formats that are optimized for backup use.
wow, thank you guys for the long and detailed answer.
i understand your point and you are right with how youre doing things.
why i brought this up:
most of the time when ive seen the need for restoring things, theres more than just the directories missing, maybe the building went down in a fire, the server exploded, the whole machine is not there anymore, the internet being down and the network not being reachable… for these cases it is good to not rely on anything but the most simple tools at hand. usually the stuff that comes on a recovery stick…
WinPE and duplicati as Disaster recovery solution and Database backup question discuss BMR issues, including reasons why you might do better with an image-based backup that can do things like partitions, however this may get into specialized software unless you simply want to backup the raw device blocks. There’s also a question of whether you get a backup window or if backups must be done on a live server.