The first time you run a full incremental backup, Storage Manager backs up all the files and directories on the file systems you specify. This process can take a long time if there are a large number of files, or one or more very large files. Subsequent full incremental backups will only back up new and changed files. This allows the backup server to maintain current versions of your workstation files, without having to waste time or space by backing up files that already exist in server storage. Depending on your storage management policies, the server may keep more than one version of your files in storage. The most recently backed up files are active backup versions. Older copies of your backed up files are inactive versions. However, if you delete a file from your workstation, the next full incremental backup will cause the active backup version of the file to become inactive. If you need to restore a file you have deleted, and if a full incremental backup has been run since you deleted the file, then you will need to restore an inactive version of the file (assuming that a version still exists on the server). The number of inactive versions maintained by the server and how long they are retained is governed by the management policies defined by your server administrator. The purpose of the active versions is to represent what files existed on your file system at the time of the backup.
HTH