Deleting Disk Image Backups

If the backup type is iinc or diff, you can only delete the newest as deleting the oldest would break the chain. Diff would still be restorable but would fail validation. If backup type is full, then oldest can be deleted. Any deletion, TI may complain.

Better to delete from inside the program using Acronis Backup Explorer as you describe above via the Recover option. If all backups not listed in the time line, then from the main TI screen, click on the Browse for backup option located at the top of the screen. Browse to the target folder holiding the backups. Highlight all of the files into and add the block of files to the the "Add to backup list".
This should cause all backups to be listed in the timeline. Right click on any file and you should have a delete option. If you right click on a full backup and choose delete, all files associated with that chain should be deleted as a single delete action. Be careful of what you delete.

Thank you for your answer, but I'm afraid your explanation doesn't make any sense to me as clicking on "Recover" in relation to a Disk/Partition backup doesn't present a timeline, like the one you get when you do this for a File backup; it presents a dialog box with a drop-down list of dates of backups that it knows about*, but in no context does a right-click produce anything. Quite simply, these instructions don't work for this kind of backup.

*Example attached

My discussion relates to the below examples. This illustrates the time slce and right clicking any of the files shown at the bottom will access the delete option. Maybe I mis-interpreted where you were but I believe you can follow these examples. If in your picture not all the backups appear that you expect froma specific task, then use the "browse for backups" option (as noted in earlier posting) and add more backups to the list. Note in the top left corner of the bottom capture, you have the option of looking at either file backups or disk/partition backups.

These pictures are from the 2012 version and the 2013 may differ slightly. Both pictures are extracts for my signature link #2 below.

Figure 21- Task Data (Explore & Recover)

Figure 22: Task Explore & Recover View    Plus File DetailsIt is this screen where individual backup files can be deleted from the existing task without deleting the task. Deletion of incremental backups will spoil the backup chain..

Thanks for taking the time, but - I don't know how to put this more clearly - that view just doesn't exist in TrueImage 2013! Your images clearly show the Timeline as part of the Recover dialog box, but it isn't there in my version!  

I'd really appreciate it if someone who uses the 2013 version coudl show me where the "Delete" option is for backup versions made using Disk/Partition backup.

Iain,

Could you post a screen shot of what you see? If using Windows 7/8 the snipping tool can be used, or if XP pressing Win_button + Print_Screen will allow you to paste into Windows Paint and save as a jpg/png.

Iain

Perhaps you are using a less than maximum size screen. Please maximize your screen and relook again. Here are new pictures with the same information but a slightly different view and these are with 2013-5551 using XP Pro.

If you need to add files to the Time slice view, use the instructions in post #1 via the Add to Backup list procedures.

Thank you both for your persistence! I am currently away travelling on business and shall not return home (and therefore shall not be connected to my main backup device) until 1 April. I shall set a reminder to myself to resume investigations then.

OK so now I'm back, and Acronis has just installed a new version. I then followed the instructions above and this time, the Timeline is available. So I asked to delete the oldest version of the Disk Backup, and when I came back, all my Disk Backups had been deleted. Every one.

Whatever else this interface may be, it certainly isn't intuitive.

I am now running a new Disk Backup that I trust will eventually finish, hopefully in less than a week. This time I've set it to do a Differential scheme, retaining the latest two full versions. Fingers crossed...

Iain,

When using the Timeline to delete your backup files (which is the preferred method), you deleted the "oldest" full backup version, and all of the following backups are incremental or differential backups based upon the oldest full backup, all of the backup files will be deleted (the "full" and any dependent "incremental" or "differential" backup files) as the associated dependent backup files would be useless without the base "full" backup file. This is by design, but is not "intuitive" as you have mentioned. Suggestions have been made to Acronis to prompt the user with a list of files that will be deleted when using this option to make this feature safer to use.

On the other hand, if your "additional" backup files were "full" backup files from the same or different tasks, then this could be an issue with the program not properly deleting only the requested backup file and any associated dependent backup files.

I certainly believed that I had at least four (from memory) separate backup series (i.e. one full, several incremental), and I believed I was selecting only the oldest of these series for deletion. Given the trouble I had in finding the precise combination of mouse clicks to get to the point where the Timeline of Disk Backups was displayed, it is entirely possible that I selected all of them by mistake - though I am not sure how easy that would be from the Timeline view. I am reluctant to experiment further, for obvious reasons, and indeed as I now have NO Disk Backups to play with, experimentation is not an option!

I believe that my original problem with inability to get to the "Timeline" view of the Disk Backup list may have been due to the fact that there are multiple situations in which the option to select is called "Recover" or "Recover files". In each case, this is an inappropriate word to use, as the selection merely enables you to list the files from which you may then select a file or whole volume to recover. It's pretty scary having to click on a verb that you feel may immediately start a process of overwriting existing files.

Anyway, my troubles are far from over as the latest Disk Backup that I set off an hour ago has now failed with a string of errors - I shall post another thread as this is an entirely different problem and we don't want posts about one problem to be headed up with a description of another - do we?

I agree with your statements about the names of the method to open the Timeline.

And yes, a new topic should be started for any new/other issues you are encountering.

James