Backups and support

Currently, you cannot remove the screen unless you login once, or you have to click past it each time.  We hope to see this changed in future releases - many have requested the option to ingore such messages, but is currently not possible.

Acronis 2016 does not have backwards compatibility with backups made with ATIH 2014 and earlier.  I'd suggest keeping those for posterity (if need be) and holding onto your offline bootable recovery media for 2011 in the event recovery is needed.  You should start new backup tasks with Acronis 2016, moving forward.  https://kb.acronis.com/content/1689

I am not sure about 2011 backups, but in 2015/2016, I can rename them manually - but you have to make sure to leave the B_1_V1_S1 part alone and you must rename all items in the version chain exactly the same.  I don't do this with backups that are in the Acronis Windows console though - only those that I have moved to another drive for posterity and are outside of the Windows Acronis database - you may want to copy a backup to another lcoation (not move it, but actually copy it for testing) and then see if you can still navigate it and/or recover it to another test device.  

Please take a lookt at the online user manual - as you'll want to familarize yourself with the new interface and options:  http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#13712.html

For the most part, offline backup and recovery functionality is still pretty much the same.  There are some good Youtube videos of the process though (both through the applicatoin and offline): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzT7HltVx8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFHHRvZF16s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7uCx3krGw

Thanks for your response.  Keeping the "full" and the version numbering after it now allows it to be recognised and allows me to name it something sensiblr.  However adding an existing backup, the new one I've just renamed" no longer shows any errors so I assumed it would appear in the list to so I could recover from it.  I cannot find it anywhere and the only backups it seems to know about is the original ones.   Can Acronis really have made it so difficult or have i missed somthing obvious.  

Thanks

Just to add to this, if you rename the backup location and then run TI and go to recover, it says version 1 deleted or moved.  Browse to the one you renamed earlier and it loads.   You have to assume it has loaded the correct one as nowhere does it indicate which one is loaded and the display shown is the name that it originnaly created.  The path shown isn't to the one you have loaded but the the directory where it used to store backups - that isn't there now.  I get the feeling that TI  has been designed to try and be intelligent for those who want it but if you want/need to move/rename/store originals then all the "human" sanity checks have gone.  

Hopefully someone will show me the error of my ways, but TI11 was intuative and "techie" but I'm at a loss with this one.

Yettie, I would recommend adopting the following approach if you are wanting to rename your backup image files.

1. Within the ATIH 2016 GUI, open the Backup Tasks page tab, then select the Backup Task that create the Full backup image(s) that you want to rename.  
2. Click on the (V) button on the right-side of the task name, then take the option to Delete
3. In the "Choose what you want to delete" panel that opens, select to only delete the settings, not the whole backup (which would delete the image files too!).
4. Now, in Windows Explorer rename the backup image file(s) as needed, keeping the .TIB file extension.
5. Return to the ATIH 2016 GUI and click on the (V) button at the bottom of the task name column, then take the option to "Add existing backup" then select the renamed image file from the previous step.
6. In the Backup Task panel you should now see the added backup with a task name that matches the renamed image file name - you can change the task name by clicking on the (V) and selecting the Rename option.

Doing the above should help to keep the Acronis Database files in sync with your renamed image file(s) without leaving any orphan entries for files that no longer exist. 

Hi Steve, Thanks for your response and the details.  I have followed to the letter and I'll try and explain in a bit more detail.

I have 2 full backups(i only do full images of system drive)  "WDC xxxxxxx_full_b1_s1_v1"   and "wdc XXXXXXX_FULL_B1_S1_V1-2".

I have followed your instructions and copied the first one to a new directory named "TEST"  and renamed it to "SystemOnly" . 

This appears to work.   So I have now taken my 2 complete backups and renamed them to "SystemOnly" and "System_Office".

I now go to add the "System_Office" to the list and i get Nothing.  Where the Info was at the top has now disappeared so I can't delete the old details and all i',m left with is the blue pane and the icons on the left and the backup pane on the right.  It still gives me th option to add another backup but nothing works.  

SHould I be able to have the 2 backups loaded or do I need to remove the details and reload the new one each time?  Anyway I restart TI and then delete details and add the "System_Office".  The old name "WDC........" is displayed but without the "_full-b1..." details wghen i hover over the file name in the panel.  I then rename this and then delete details and go to load the "SystemOnly" but this now reverts to the  "WDC xxxxxxx_full_b1_s1_v1" name.

I'm now totally confused.

From the original backup image names you gave,  "WDC xxxxxxx_full_b1_s1_v1"   and "wdc XXXXXXX_FULL_B1_S1_V1-2" - it looks to me as though they are both part of the same backup task, hence the only difference between them is the -2 appended to the end of the second image name.

Have you set any size limits on your backup images? - look in the Advanced options page tab for the Backup splitting section as shown in the screen shot below:

If the two backups are part of the same backup task as I suspect, that will explain why the task is not shown after you have added the backup image.

Please also see the ATIH 2016 User Guide page on naming conventions which explains the -2 suffix.

Yettie,

There are many fundamental changes between ATI 11 and ATI 2016. The biggest changes aside from hardware/OS support, UEFI, etc are (1) ATI 2016 now create backup tasks (not individual backup archives: archives are created when the task runs, according to the task settings), and (b) there is an internal database that tracks which backup archive is create where for which task.

Net net, don't mess around with the standard names that ATI give to the backup files on the destination disk, or you are going to get in trouble. Choose the backup task name first from the ATI UI as your create the task, then let ATI do its thing. I know some users would prefer different archive names schemes and rules, but renaming, moving or deleting archive files manually will moste likely put the internal database out of synch and mess up with your ability to use the archive files for restore.

HI Steve, Thanks again for your help.  I have started again from scratch and made 2 full backups- WDC WD10EZEX-21WN4A0_full_b1_s1_v1 and WDC WD10EZEX-21WN4A0_full_b2_s1_v1, both custom schemes and full backups.

Renamed the first file and loaded and renamed in TI.  Then added second and blank top bar again.  Restarted TI and backup I was trying to load before blank top bar was then listed.   No reference to first was there and if I deleted details again and reload first backup  then original TI filename was shown and not the new file name.  

So it seems to me that I can only load 1 backup at a time after renaming the file name (on disk) or the TI name and  if I delete details then the next time I load the backup the original backup name is shown and not the file name on disk. 

I can really beleive the disk filename is not displayd because if these were stored elsewhere I wouyld want to see the renamed filename in the top bar.  Thanks

Hi Pat L, thanks for your comments.  So basically the comments which would enable me to know which backup I had,  aren't viewable unless I boot fom CD/USB, and  renaming a file isn't recommended.  Normal file backups, which i don't use are not really an issue.  System backups are - if you tinker.  So they have basically "dumbed" everything down and made a superb bit of sofware pretty un-usable.  If that is really the case I seem to have wasted my money.

Yettie,

You can rename your backup files all day long without issue and the backups stilling being functional from within Acronis or outside of them. I do this regularly, but not for active backups that I want running in Acronis via Windows.  You have to understand that the backups are housed in a database, so if you make changes to the names in Windows File Explorer (outside of the database) Acronis is not aware of them and will cause issues because it won't match what was last saved in the database.  Each time you manually change the backups in Explorer, to update it in Acronis, you would have to remove the backup task and reimport the backup again.  Basically, to start with, use the backup name you want though and you won't have this issue.  Otherwise, you either have to remove the backup task and re-add it with the new name, or just deal with it using the bootable recovery media.

If these are just for file/folder recovery, you don't even need to have the backup task listed.  You can just double click the .tib files in Windows explorer and the contents of the backup will open in a Windows Explorer view and you can just copy and paste files from the backup to a new location of your choosing.  There are lots of ways to access the backups and the data with in them, but manually renaming files will break the association in Windows.  You will find this to be the case with any relational type of database as well.  I would not go into the backend or a SQL or Oracle database, rename files, and expect the database to still work either. 

Bobbo,Steve,Pat

Thanks for all your help.