I can't recover the version I want
I have ATIH 2012, and had previous 2011 version. My last full backup is from April, and I have 4 incremental backups, with the latest one a week old. When I go to recover, I get recovered to a version that is from early October last year, even though I select the full version from either April, or incremental from last week. This happens when trying it from the recovery disk, or from Windows. Strange thing is, it says it recovered from a partition that is empty.???
Why can't I recover the version I want? I validated it, and it is OK. This is starting to be a pain, as I have tried every way I can think of, and I still get the same results.
Be sure the recovery CD is not an old version trying to restore a backup created with a newer version. Try using a 2012 bootable Recovery CD.
Well that pisses me off. If I mount the various images and view them, they are from October last year. Why did True Home not update the backups, but it did update the date on the backups? I keep all of my data on a separate drive, that is backed up in a different image. I guess that image's integrity can't be trusted. The only thing I lost was my favorite weblinks, since last October, and a whole lot of time.
Now I have to reload EVERYTHING. What a PITA.
Have the dates on the backup files themselves been updated or just the task? Any strange entries in the logs? Never had a problem like yours, very unusual.
Dohhboy,
If your backup was an partition image backup, you should be able to restore that partition back to the same condition it was at time of backup snapshop.
The full partition backup will be a backup of your System partition (C) as of backup date.
The 1st inc will contain only the changes that followed the full to date of 1st inc backup.
The 2nd inc will contain only the changes from the 1st inc to the 2nd inc backup.
The 3rd inc will contain only the changes from the 2nd inc to the 3rd inc backup.
The 4th inc will contain only the changes from the 3rd inc to the 4th inc backup.
If you choose to restore the 4th inc, the restore that will occur is that the
Full will be restored; next will be the changes from the 1st inc; the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th.
So upon completion of the restore, your partition should look the same as it did on the day of the 4th inc backup.
As we are discussion, this is a disk and partition backup of your system partition. A files only backup is different and that is not being discussed here.
My point in illustration the above is to make sure we are all discussing the same thing. Using a recent 2012 bootable media recovery CD should be able to perform a successful recovery--assuming that the backups are not corrupt.
If you open the program from within Windows and RIGHT click on the task name and choose the "Explore and Recover" option, the resulting Window should show which backups are associated with the specific task. Repeat the same process on other tasks to see which backups are associated with other tasks.
Hovering your mouse pointer overtop each slice in the bottom row should provide info about date and type of backup.
If I backup the partition in TH 2012, shouldn't my computer's partition, be that exact same way, when it is restored, no matter how long down the road it is restored? Mounting the backups(full and incremental), indicate by date, and what I had installed on my computer, that they are no newer than October last year.
My beef is my full backup from April, is actually a backup from October. Any programs I installed between the two dates, are no where to be found(when restored, or viewing in backup mounting). When I made these backups, TH 2012 went through the motions(10 minutes or so), and gave a message that the operation was complete, and made a .tib file with that days date. Call me crazy, but I assumed that that was an actual backup.
I am not too concerned about how the incremental backups work at this point. I would be happy if I could restore the full backup from April.
Dohhboy,
You are encountering a strange situation. Just like Grover, I want to make sure this is not an operator error.
Instead of mounting the TIB file, could you boot on the recovery CD?
First, let's do a full backup of your system as it is, to make sure you can come back to it.
Then in the home section, choose recover disk and partition, navigate to the backup you want to restore. Make sure you select the backup in April. Remember that the recovery CD will show you drive letters different from those that Windows show you. Then proceed with the restore.
I did it that way, and I got the same results. It recovered to the April Backup, but the backup is actually from October. I loaded Battlefield 3 on my computer when it came out in early December I believe, and it isn't in the recovered (April) backup. I built a new PC in October, and this was the first backup I made after loading Windows 7. The majority of the folders dates are mid October. At least I have a fresh install of Windows now.
I used TH 2011 to move from a HD to a SSD last year, and it worked flawlessly. I am a little disappointed this time around.
I basically have given up on recovering that backup. Didn't really lose anything, but have to re-download Battlefield 3, 16GB. (ugg)
So I ask some advice on saving new backup schemes. Is it best to do the single version, and not do any incremental versions?
Dohhboy,
You have to make sure that you are using a disk and partition backup that includes all partitions on your system disk. Check windows disk management (right click on the computer icon, choose manage, storage, disk management).
I cannot come up with a reason why your backups didn't include the latest content, but it is not about the backup scheme. I suspect that for some reason the content was simply not covered by the backup (eg, for a disk and partition backup, a partition was not included, or, for a file backup, a folder was not included).
If you don't mind the time and space, doing full backups is an excellent way to go.
I personally use only incremental backups, with a new full from time to time, with the rule of thumb that my last full is never too old for me to go back to.
If you have only small incremental changes, a differential backup is a good alternative as it makes the chain of backup less fragile (although ATI is not good with deleting intermediary differentials which are, in theory, expendable).
Grover has similar recommendations here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
After reading that, I think it WAS user error. I had windows installed on my hard drive, mmm, around October. I then recovered it to a new SSD drive, but left the old drive in computer.(It was hidden, but still active, acording to Disk Director 11) So what it was doing was backing up the drive, but THAT drives info wasn't changed since October. TH2012 WAS backing up the drive it was setup to, but I assumed it would follow Windows to the new SSD.
Is my conclusion correct?
My understanding is that the tasks follow the drive signature. If you didn't recover the drive signature, your backup task would still point to the original disk. Had you removed the old drive from your system, your backup task more than likely would have failed with an error message stating that it couldn't find the source. If you did restore the drive signature, then it's possible that Acronis would become confused, and pick which ever drive it wanted, apparently in your case, the old drive. It is always good practice to setup new tasks once the new drive is in place.
Dohhboy,
Your conclusion is most likely correct. I don't really know how ATI tracks disks: maybe the task follows the drive signature or simply the disk/port number (could be at the hardware level or logical level in the OS. I'd bet on the logical level since ATI can be guided/confused by drive letters), but it doesn't really matter.
In general, with ATI, whenever there is a disk event (drive letter change, partition change, disk change, disk recovery) or an Acronis event (update version or build, change/edit backup task, in particular backup scheme, destination or retention rules), it is better to set a new task with a new name in an empty directory). This will avoid much risk of confusion at restore time.
Lesson learned. I know what to do next time.