Continually Backup Failures - File Doesn't Exist, etc.

How are you alternating these backups?  They need to each have a unique name, and a unqiue backup location. A common misconception is that you can swap drives out and it will keep running on the other one (it will not).  I wonder if you're in that boat now - perhaps not intentionally though.

Windows will always assign the next available letter if the one that was last assigned is already in use.  So if you have 2 external drives and plug one in, it might become D:  If you disconnect it and plug in #2, it might then also become D.  But then, if you plug them both in at the same time, only one of them can be D: so the other one gets bumpped by Windows to E: (or whatever the next avaible letter is).  As a result, this could break your backup scheme as that disk will then remain with the new drive letter (whether or not they are both plugged in at the same time or not) and because it is not the same letter that the backup was configured with, Acronis can't find it as a good source or destination anymore.

Supposedly Acronis now handles this in 2017, even if the drive letters change (but must still be using the same actual drives), but I have not tested to validate this.  That doesn't help in your case as this behavior was not fixed in 2016/2015 so I supsect (without really knowing) this might be happening to you.  If it is, to avoid this, manually set the driver letter of each externalk drive to something down the alphabet - make one M and the other P - just to be sure (use the letters of your choice of course, but you get the picture).  They should then, always retain those letters unless you give another drive one of them manually, or have a boatload of drives plugged in at the same time, forcing them to grab one of your assigned letters and then happen to plug in your backup drives after that.  

Then, aFter changing the driver letters, go back into each of your 2, separate, unqiuely named backup jobs and re-select the source and destination again and make sure to save the change (run the backup or click the drop down and tell it to  run later to save the change - if you don't do this, the changes will not be saved and so they won't apply). 

If you could post screenshots of your backup scheme settings and schedule, along with some disk information (total size/available free space) it might help to see if we can find a better backup plan for you or at least give some recommendations based on the number of backups you're generating, how often you currently run your backups, the amount of data on your source drive, how big your backup drives are and how much free space is currently available on themn. 

Benjamin, I would also recommend downloading a copy of the Log File Viewer app (link below in my signature) and using this to check what messages are being recorded in the task log files when you see these errors?

Post some copies of the logs if you want a second opinion on what they are saying.

Bobbo,

I am not hot swapping any drives and each backup is individually named. They alternate each day, so one will backup to an external HDD on Monday and then another will backup to an internal HDD on Tuesday and so on. The NAS backups intermittenly to a RAID 1, regardless of the other two backups since it's a Network backup. I don't think it has anything to do with the drives being disconnected even though the error may indicate that is the issue, oddly enough. Thank you for the thoughts though.

Steve,

I wasn't sure which to upload, so I zipped up the whole Logs folder and have attached it here. I also have attached a pic of my drives and all relevant Acronis settings.

Thank you guys so much for helping. Since I recreated them yesterday, so far so good; but I am assuming within a few days there will be an error.

Let me know if you need any other information.

I appreciate the help!

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Benjamin, thank you for the log files etc.

The logs show that the most likely cause of your problems is because you have been manually deleting files from your target backup drives outside of allowing ATIH to do this via automatic cleanup, and part of this may be due to the size of your backup files and how you are managing this.

I have looked at the logs for the period from Jan 10th to 13th where the problem looks to have started and see the following:  (Note the date / times are from the log file name, not the task run time).

Entire PC Backup 2 J    10/1 00:43    OK    Entire PC Backup 2 J_diff_b4_s3_v1.tib
Entire PC Backup 2 H    10/1 16:17    OK    Entire PC Backup 2 H_full_b6_s1_v1.tib
Entire PC Backup 2 H    10/1 23:30    Fail Entire PC Backup 2 H_full_b8_s1_v2.tib Disk is full
Entire PC Backup 2 J    11/1 23:30    Fail Entire PC Backup 2 J_full_b5_s1_v1.tib Quotas violated / drive running out of space.
Entire PC Backup 2 H    12/1 18:20    OK    Entire PC Backup 2 H_inc_b7_s2_v1.tib
Entire PC Backup 2 J    12/1 18:25    OK    Entire PC Backup 2 J_full_b5_s1_v1.tib failed on cleanup actions - file does not exist for files to be deleted!
Entire PC Backup 2 J    13/1 18:41    OK     Entire PC Backup 2 J_inc_b5_s2_v1.tib failed on cleanup
Entire PC Backup 2 J    13/1 18:53    OK  Entire PC Backup 2 J_inc_b5_s3_v1.tib failed on cleanup

I have highlighted some of the issues shown in the logs, for example the logs show H Full B6 then B8 fails, then we get a B7 being created?  B8 failed because your H: disk was full.

For the J: disk, this too was running out of space and it looks like you manually cleaned up old backups to resolve this condition, but you have not cleaned up the information held in the Acronis Database files for these tasks.

If you do manually delete any backup files then you should do a Validation for the task that created those deleted files so that the database is reconciled to the new status of what files are still present.  Alternatively, clone the backup task and start with a task with a new name, removing the old task to remove the database entries.

In the Backup Scheme options I would recommend either decreasing the 'Keep size of the backup' to a smaller value, or using the alternative option to 'Store no more than X recent version chains' , but understand that ATIH does not perform any cleanup (deleting old backups) until the next new full backup image has been successfully created, so you need space to hold X + 1 full backups plus all incremental or differential backups in those chains.

Steve,

That makes a lot of sense. The only reason I was manually deleting these files, though, was ONLY after the backup failed. So I would delete them and then recreate the backup by cloning or from scratch. In other words, I only manually touched them when the backup would no longer backup due to "missing file", but that makes me think about what you said. Maybe that file is "missing" because space isn't there to store it? If the disk is filling up, then that explains it. I think I'll take your advice and do some math to figure out my cleanup and backup schedules. I'll rework the space and implement the 'Keep size of Backup' instead of Version Chain because, for some reason, that eludes my understanding. Maybe you can help; should the version chain cleanup be less than the version chain creation after a full backup? So, should I have 5 version chains, but have cleanup for 3 or for 6?

At least now I know storage is the issue. I may alternative the drives too instead backing up the same ones twice.

Thank you so much for your detailed response and your expertise.

Sincerely,

Ben

Ben, ATIH works on Backup Version Chains regardless of which cleanup scheme you decide to use.

A backup version chain is fairly simple provided you understand the principle involved - it will always be 1 x Full backup plus all the associated Incremental or Different backups that have the same backup identifier.  So from your log files:

Entire PC Backup 2 J_full_b5_s1_v1.tib = the Full backup for version chain B5 (_b5_s1_)
Entire PC Backup 2 J_inc_b5_s2_v1.tib = the 1st incremental for version chain B5 (_b5_s2_)
Entire PC Backup 2 J_inc_b5_s3_v1.tib = the 2nd incremental for version chain B5 (_b5_s3)

You complete B5 version chain will have as many incrementals as you have configured.

The next version chain will be for B6 and will look the same in terms of the identifiers appended to the task name.

My preference for automatic cleanup is to use 'Store no more than X recent version chains' because this is easier to manage for the size of backup files, so using your example above again, you would have the whole B5 and B6 version chains and then cleanup would remove the B5 chain after the new Entire PC Backup 2 J_full_b7_s1_v1.tib has been created, so you need enough free space to hold the whole B5 + B6 chains, plus the B7 full backup file.

Hope this makes automatic cleanup and version chains are little easier to understand.

Steve,

Now I completely understand. I'm going to start working out my backups with a pen and paper and some thought involved now that I comprehend it. If only Acronis had hired you to explain and write their Product Documentation! Then, instead of some vague explanation, everyone would understand the schemes assisted by your logic.

Again, thank you for going out of your way and being so helpful. I greatly appreciate your expertise and the time you spent assisting me.

I hope you have a great year.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Another question, Steve.

Is it worth upgrading to Acronis 2017 from the True Image Home 2015 I have? I was debating getting the Year Service for 29.99 and recieving the 250GB of cloud space. I probably don't need that cloud, since I have a massive Onedrive and a lot of NAS, but do you sincerely think the mere application improvements are worth it from 2015 to 2017?

Ben, glad to have been able to help in your understanding - it all makes sense once you grasp the principles involved.  Would guess that Acronis couldn't afford me or wouldn't want the size of documentation if it explained everything in detail!  Much prefer to stick to being retired and just doing what I want or not as the case may be!

In terms of upgrading, the key benefits of going to 2017 is the 2 years of free support (via email or chat), plus the enhanced support for the newer hardware devices that are included.  There other new functions in 2017 such as Mobile device backup, better support of NAS devices, etc.

Be aware also of the difference between license types.  Subscription license only gives full functionality while the subscription is maintained, only restore is possible (of previously created backups) once subscription is ended.  Perpetual license gives full functionality for as long as the product will work on the version of Windows it is installed on.

Steve,

So then would the one-time purchase be the best in my case? If I intend just to use it, the application, and not buy the subscription, I'd be able to use it in perpetuity but be stuck at 2017 until I buy the next version when I so prefer, correct?

Ben, correct in terms of the perpetual license, especially if you don't want or need Cloud storage.

The main other advantage of the subscription model is free upgrades to new versions during the subscription period but then you are paying annually or biannually to receive this depending on the subscription model (1 or 2 years).

Makes perfect sense.

I think I"ll go with the one time upgrade next month. I don't think the cloud storage is necessary for me.

Thanks, Steve. You've been more than helpful. Wish I could upvote you.

Consider this thread Answered and Wrapped up.

Ben, glad to have been able to help.  All the best for 2017.