Acronis 2018 Not Creating Full Backup

Andrew, welcome to these User Forums.

There have been no reports of behaviour such as you have described so suspect that there is a basic misunderstanding at work here.

Ideally, you should be running the ATI 2018 application from your Windows desktop, then creating a backup task where you select the Source data to be included, then select the Destination where to store the backup to, plus set any further options for the task.such as when to schedule it to run, which backup scheme to use, automatic cleanup options, notifications, any exclusions etc.

The best place to start is looking at the ATI 2018 User Guide: Backing up disks and partitions and follow the basic steps outlined there.

See also the following KB documents on this subject:

KB 60142: Acronis True Image 2018: how to back up entire computer

KB 60144: Acronis True Image 2018: how to back up files or disks

You mentioned about considering changing hardware, therefore see

KB 59876: Acronis True Image 2018: how to restore to dissimilar hardware

Steve, I appreciate your response. I am pretty sure I am doing this properly. I have the software booted up, and see entire PC on the left, and have pointed it to my G external drive on the right. Both fields are populated clearly. When I click on backup now, as I said, it does something for a few seconds and then tells me the task has completed with nothing being done.

I have followed the instructions to a T and left the default options in place as far as backup scheduling, etc... it is just not backing up the system.

I have included a screen shot this time so that you can see I am doing this correctly?

Thanks again

Andrew, what do you see when you click on the Activity button per your screen shot?  This should give you an indication of how much data has been backed up and the type of backup being performed?  See example below:

Both activity and recovery are grayed out. Nothing is being backed up. I confirmed this through file explorer and checking my external drive as well. It's telling me the backup is complete, I get a green check mark, and then nothing happens?

Andrew, I would suggest trying a Repair install of ATI 2018 in case this issue is because of a problem introduced by the current installation.

To do a Repair, first download the latest full installer build from your Acronis account then run this using an Administrator account over the top of your existing software.

When I select Entire PC, the source box shows how much data is to be backed up. Andrew, your screen shot shows nothing below the Entire PC icon. I find that odd, but it would indicate that nothing has been selected to back up. Do you have multiple drives? What if you just create a backup job for the drive(s)?

Bruno, if I delete the original job and let it default back to the original setup, it tells me it need to back up 326gb under entire PC. On the right I then point to a fully functional external drive. It is only after the first attempt that the # on the left indicating size disappears, as you saw. I do see it on the original backup attempt though. I guess I'll try to repair or reinstall per Steve's suggestion and will report back. Appreciate your thoughts.

Ok, well I reinstalled a previous version of the software that I had, and it seems to be a lot more functional than what I was more recently trying to use. I was able to create a backup without a hitch. I see a .tib file now on my external drive.

The only other question I have is whether compression from 306GB of data on origin drive down to a 230GB .TIB file on the external drive, is standard compression and whether it captured everything, as I ran it when I went to sleep? I believe the process completed fine and I should be in good shape now with the forum's help...

Thanks again, Andrew

Andrew, there is more involved than just compression if your original size was 306GB down to 230GB.  This is probably including your Exclusions settings, i.e. excluding system files such as the pagefile, swapfile and hibernation files etc.  Compression can achieve upto 20% savings but it depends on the file types involved as some are already highly compressed (images, music, videos...).

Hi @ Andrew Saland ,

While I don't back up to External Hard Drive, I do back up to internal Hard Drive's partitions, because I have multiple Hard Drives and partitions.

To Start a Backup to an External Hard Drive, the procedure I would follow, would be this:

1. Launch Acronis True Image 2018.
2. Click Add Backup.
3. Give the Backup a meaningful name, like: Bedrm64-1209BU-Build 16299.98.
4. Select the Backup Source.
5. Select the Destination. When I select an External Hard Drive helping a friend, when he backs to an external hard drive, I never select, Your External Hard Drive, but I select Browse and Browse to the External Hard Drive and ADD a Folder to the External Hard Drive and give the folder a meaningful name.
6. Then I click on that New Folder Name.And click Ok.
7. But, not done, yet. I click on Options.
8. Opening Screen is Schedule. I dot Do not schedule.
9. Then I click Backup Scheme. I always do a Full Backup Scheme.
10. I save the Backup setting scheme as Full Backup Scheme.
11. I do sometimes click on Exclusions, where I add Windows.old, only if it exsts, because you don't need Windows.old, if we are using Acronis.
12. Now, I click on Advanced.
13. Click Backup splitting. I select the highest DVD Capacity, in case we need to burn to a DVD. For me, it is 4.7 GB.
14. Click Validation. I click Validate backup when it is created.
15. Under Computer shutdown, I select both options.
16. Under Performance, for Compression Level, I select Max. Then for Operational Priority, I select High.
17. I check Save as default and I click Ok.
18. Then I click Add a comment at the bottom on the left side and paste in a Comment to description the Backup.
19. When everything has been cleaned, I then click Back up now.
20. I turn off the Monitor Screen and walk away and do something else around the house.

The reason I do all this, all the time, I never trust the settings with Windows, because I have seen changes in the settings after getting a new Build, change. Always a good idea to check the settings of a New Backup before it is created.

Thank you for the detailed steps and I will be sure to follow on my next backup to make sure everything is smooth in case of emergency restore...