Why Does Backup List Suddenly Includes WindowsImageBackups
What in the world is going on with ATI2016 and this informational note: "This backup was added manually or via autosearch. To create new versions, click 'Reconfigure', and then reselect the source."
What exactly does this informational note mean? I would certainly appreciate some help in understanding what's going on and how to back out of this sudden nightmare.
Background
I am using Win 7 Ultimate. Weekly I perform three ATI2016 backups.....two go to different folders on external Drive G, and one goes to an internal Drive N. Up until now, these have been the only backups listed on the ATI main screen, all three under the title of 'This computer'.
Today after I returned home and checked to see if all three backups had been succcessfully performed (they had), I then noticed four other backups listed under the title of 'Others'. Three of these went to external Drive F, which is where I perform my Windows Image backups, and the fourth went of all places to C:\Program Files.
Each of these four 'Others' had the above informational note.
Why do you think ATI is suddenly mucking around with my Windows Images?
Thanks in advance........
Not sure either as I have not seen Acronis automatically add a Windows backup either. However, ATIH can utilize Win 7 backup images in .vhd format and can restore from them or even convert them to .tib so they are backwards compatible for Acronis. Unfortunately, that compatibility ends with Win 7 backup images though as the newer .vhdx format is not supported in Acronis. Not sure why the documenation doesn't mention .vhd files in 2015 and 2016, but it still works as it did in previous versions as listed in earlier KB articles like this one:
https://kb.acronis.com/content/3648
It is true about VHD file handling by the application and there is no support for VHDX which is probably why there is no mention of this in the documentation. Still the app should not be automatically adding such files to the backup list. I am suspecting that this is coming from the removal of the System Volume Information in the backujp exclusions list during task creation possibly. Durago, can you confirm if you do that or not?
Thanks for your responses.
As noted in my original posting, this is happening on my older computer where I am running Windows 7 Ultimate.
I have attached a screen photo showing what I encountered.
@ Enchantech - Although I don't understand what this means, on the three Acronis backups listed under 'This computer', yes 'System Volume Information' was listed as an exclusion. This is not something I purposely did. Should I remove it from the exclusion list? On the four backups listed uder 'Others', there is no Options button to click, thus no exclusion list to observe.
I would really like to understand why these four Others backups suddenly appeared in my backup list. And should I leave them there or delete them from both the list? Are they merely pointing out where WindowsImageBackups have been saved; and if so, for what purpose are they doing this?
The System Volume Information exclusion when listed in the Exclusions List for a configured backup task in the True Image application will exclude Windows Restore Points which iin effect means Windows Backups. So my thought was that if you had removed System Volume Information from the exclusions list this may be at root of why the application is doing this although I have never witnessed that myself and I regulary deselect System Volume Information from the exclusion list.
For whatever reason True Image is listing the Windows Backups in the other section of the backup list It is only indicating that these have been found and can be added into the application for handling if desired. Therefore, I would not be concerned about their appearance. If you wish to remove them from the GUI I think you might have to add them to the backup list first, not really sure here having never seen this before. If you open or expand the Other location view do you see a caraf to the right of each file entry that looks like a V in a circle? If yes and you click on that what options are lsited? If Delete is one of the listed options then I suspect it would work to delete the entries.
I am not sure what options if any you will get when you select Delete, normally you would be given 2 choices Remove Settings only or Whole Backup. If you see this I would recommend that you select remove settings only. That shoud remove the entries from the GUI of the application while retaining the backup images on disk for future use if needed.
Enchantech asked: "If you open or expand the Other location view do you see a caraf to the right of each file entry that looks like a V in a circle? If yes and you click on that what options are lsited? If Delete is one of the listed options then I suspect it would work to delete the entries."
My answer is Yes. When I click on the V in the circle, I have four options - Rename, Open Location, Move, and Delete. And you are correct - if I click on Delete, I have the two choices of Remove Settings or Whole Backup. So I may later decide to Remove Settings.
Thanks for your response......
Durango, VHD backups appeared in Acronis True Image interface because of "automatic search for backups" feature. This search is executed once after each installation and update of Acronis True Image software. In technical termns it means that once you install or update the software, process "db_scan.exe" is launched, it reads through all the local disks that are attached at that moment and adds all found .tib and .vhd files to the list of backups on the left side of Acronis True Image window. You must have updated Acronis True Image to the latest build and that triggered the search and inclusion of .vhd files.
.tib files are added because they are program`s own files ("tib" stands for True Image Backup).
.vhd files are added because Windows disk image format VHD is a support type of backups for restoration. You can use Acronis True Image to recover from Windows .vhd backups, if you wish. Acronis uses .vhd in read-only mode, it makes not changes to them (unless you choose Delete - Whole backup). If you do not want to use Acronis to recover from Windows backups, or just want to remove Windows .vhd backups from Acronis interface, choose Delete - Settings only. Make sure that you choose correct option. If you will click on "Whole backup", there will be no confirmation dialog and .vhd file itself will be removed right away.
If you decide to keep Windows .vhd backups in the list, you could later restore from them, both on files/folders and disks/partitions levels. Note that Acronis will not monitor the folder with .vhd for changes. After you create new Windows .vhd backups, they will not be added to the list of Acronis. If any .vhd file is deleted outside of Acronis application (for example, as part of Windows Backups cleanup rules or manually by you), this change will not be reflected in Acronis interface, the "backup" will remain in the list and will be pointing to non-existent file, you would need to use Delete - Settings only to remove it from the list of backups in Acronis interface.
Acronis does not use C:\Program Files as storage for backups. There must be a file with .tib or .vhd extension there which caused addition of that forth backup to the list. Please see what is the actual file name of that forth backup and how it may have appeared under C:\Program Files folder. In any case you can remove it from the list by choosing Delete - Settings only.
Regards,
Slava
Slava, thank you for the detailed explanation, including the caution to remove it from the list by choosing 'Delete - Settings only'. I will probably need to do this, since the .vhd files are updated weekly using Windows System Image.
BTW, I really like ATI2016. I purchased two licenses and I am using it on both my new (Win 10) and my old (Win 7) computers.
Regards............