ATIH 2011 (2012 too?) messing up imaging backup plans ... ?
I'm pretty annoyed by the behaviour of my ATIH and I have no clue why this happens.
Situation: I only create full disk backups (mirrors) and I give each plan a name in function of its destination. Destinations are: internal HD folder, external usb HD and NAS.
facts:
- (as mentioned in another thread) Some plans do not follow the rule of "keeping x backups" or "do not keep backup older than ...". They seem to keep more copies, no idea why. It is NOT a permissions problem but it is a pain!
- Most of the time all the backup copies show up un the "recover" window".
- Mostly the redundant backup files can be removed from the plan. .. BUT ... in a number of undefined cases this seems to completely mess up the internal database for the plan in question.
- This has nasty consequences! ATIH duplicates the backup plans under generic internal names (.tib file name + number) with the same plan parameters!
(atthis moment I have 4 or 5 additional backup plans some containing only one .tib file!! .. the original "LocalFul" plan only has the last file. New backups go to the generic plan that has the most files in it??? no logic!)
For the fun of messing up I renamed one of the plans to the same name as the original plan ("LocalFul") and I am not even getting a "duplicate plan name" error!!
This is very annoying as I am (manually) transfering my present computer structures under XP to a new PC under Windows 7 and I make images on a regular basis. Funny enough: restoring a mirror backup to the SSD of the new machine works absolutemy flawlessly!!
Previously I used to delete all the backup plans and the associated .tib files and restarted from scratch, but as I do not trust an SSD so that is why I follow a safe scenario. I cannot afford to wipe everything clean as I need a number of images in case things go sour!!!
I have created an additionan backup plan pointing to a new location, just to be on the safe side. (Until this one goes berzirk too?)
so my Q's
- Can I import?/merge?/combine? the scatered .tib files back into and under the original backup plan? I've not found any method or procedure to do so! Is there a scenario to clean up that mess?
- Does ATIH not like user generated names for the backup plans? Is this the reason for the strange behaviour?
thanks for your/any input!!
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Thanks for your answer!
You pretty much sum up all of my "pains" in using ATIH! :-( .. and indeed, I'm not amused!
As said, my standard protocol is to only create full images and only one full backup of the "My Documents" folder.
Standard, I'm also using the "do not keep more than x versions" where x is 3 or 4. There is always a dedicated folder on a huge partition, ergo there is room for at least 10 more backups.
Unfortunately, editing a backup plan is very likely a way of breaking it right away.
I'm in the process of setting up a new & seriously fast PC, I moved out the whole \User structure to a different HD so I need to make reliable backups after every step. I must have been very lucky that the specific backup plan seemed to work for quite some time. Now it is broken because I removed some intermediate backups that I considered obsolete. Needed to delete the whole plan and tried to recreate it. that's ok but my old backups are orphans now. I need to write down what was & when it happened, as if I remember that! ATIH should take care of that!
Same kind of PITA with the full software build up of the new PC. Same procedure, same shattered ruins ... I'm still not amused ...
But there is more, there is a catch 22! If the backup retention is not working properly then the only logical way seems to use the internal ATIH mechanism to delete the obsolete backup files, at least that is what one may think when not wanting to break the internal "data base". Now that nicely mucks up the internal structure of that plan. Ergo, it makes the .tib files in that plan "unaccessible" because it does not find them anymore or they are no longer recognised as being part of the plan and there seems to be no way to re-import them. Deleting that plan and recreating it with another target folder seems to be a solution or eventually deleting all the .tib files in the folder seems to allow for a reuse of that folder. Just imagine what kind of a mess this is if one needs to keep the .tib files because they are the most recent backups? I never had any need to clone or import/export a task but, heck, merging old .tib backup files into a new or existing plan, that would be an asset! I fail to see why this might be an impossible feature even at the programming level.
If I need to perform the backup book keeping myself, then plse point out to me what the advantage of using ATIH is versus using an old (Dos!) Norton Ghost imaging program and writing down the location and the date of the images myself??? ... right! ... :-(
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