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Acronis Secure Zone - How to Update an Old ASZ

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I'm running Win7 Pro and Acronis True Image 2016.  Before upgrading to Win10, I want to use ASZ as a disk image of the OS for fallback.  (My data is on a separate drive I backup routinely.  I don't backup C:)

In 2011, I saved C:\ to the ASZ I created on the same drive as C:.  Last week, I tested that 2011 backup by running Recovery using F11 at bootup.  Worked great.  (Beats a fresh install!)  I updated old applications and updated settings.  Now my C:\ content is larger than in 2011.  I've used the Acronis Tools to increase the size of ASZ from 50GB to 75GB.  From what I can tell, I believe the 2011 backup is still there.  Two questions:

1.  If I do a "partion" backup of C:\ to ASZ, will it replace the old 2011 or must I delete ASZ first and then create a new ASZ and then backup?

2.  It's been 5 years since I did this with an earlier version of Acronis.  So, what "backup scheme" is recommended for the ASZ backup e.g., single version; incremental; full; etc. ? 

Thanks!

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David, there are a lot of differences between ATIH 2011 (assuming that was the version you used back in 2011) and ATIH 2016, plus there are also key differences in the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (F11 prompt on boot).

Given your statement that you are running ATIH 2016 and have used this to increase the size of the ASZ to 75GB, the ASZ itself should be fine.

When you installed ATIH 2016 did you remove and reactivate the ASRM (F11) software too, so that this also matches the version of ATIH 2016 that you are running?  If you haven't already done so, then I would recommend that you do that as whilst your old version ASRM can restore a backup image that it made back in 2011, there is no guarantee that it could do so for a new backup made by ATIH 2016.

There is no need to delete the ASZ, so providing you have updated the ASRM too, then go ahead and create a new backup of your freshly restored / updated Windows 7 to the ASZ.  It may overwrite the old 2011 backup - that really depends on how much space the new backup takes and how much free space you have in the ASZ, whether it can hold the two backup archives or not.

A backup to a separate external USB hard drive would also be recommended as any failure of your drive C: will take out both your OS and the ASZ (all eggs in the same basket).