Based on this discussion, an idea to improve Smartware by including some kind of current file list within the backup (updated either when the Smartware update is run, or user-defined periodically if continuous backup is used) to note which files are actually on the backed up drive at the time.
The idea being that if for restoration, the user can be asked whether they want to restore all files or just the ones on the list. Thus any older files which are in the backup set but weren’t on the source drive at the time (e.g. previously deleted files) could be skipped, thus allowing the actual data that was on the drive at the time to be more accurately reproduced (so it would in effect restore a snapshot of the drive at the time).
Either that or some sort of marking of files that are in the backup but not currently on the source drive, so that something equivalent could be done. This I guess may be more difficult to actually do, but would be an equally useful solution.
