Differential Back-Up - Am I doing this right?
Just got Acronis 2020, to update from Acronis Home 2011. But before I install and configure, I want to ask about that config.
I've done a full-image backup every 6 months for years. I then do a differential backup (just what's changed since that image) every week, on a schedule.
These backups fill up the space on my external drive. So when it gets close to full, I delete the various intervening differentials up to the latest two.
Because all I need to do a recovery is the original full image, and the latest differential.
Right?
Well, Windows Updates hosed my system earlier this year, as it is wont to do, which is why I run a Restore Point ahead of every Update file, and run them in one at a time, with full reboot after each one.
I mark which ones cause the network connectivity to no longer work (the usual fail) and then use Restore to go back.
Ah, but then Restore bailed out on me, so I had a wonderful machine with no network connectivity, not to the internet, not to the other devices at home, like the NAS that had my backups.
Various threads and downloads from Acronis later, I got connected to my backups. And the Restore from there failed every time. Always a claim about missing files.
(I am writing this away from the desk, so don't have my pages and pages of notes on this, but if anyone (besides Acronis, they have all this already) wants more detail, I can provide it.)
I went around and around with Acronis, who never seemed to quite believe the problem was occurring, then found an excellent group of people on-line who tried to get the Windows Restore to work (some files had somehow gotten corrupted between one Restore Point and the next, and there's a utility for uncorrupting them that worked on a couple but not on all.
Finally, Microsoft support got on my PC, did an operating system repair and restore UNDER my existing registry, so that every application was still installed and working. Literally took 12 hours, on and off, from remote. Points for Microsoft, something I thought I'd never say.
Every application was working, including Acronis 2011. Which I immediately used to make a full image backup. Because doing those before I've taken laptops on trips has saved my butt twice, from virii and worms that crawled onto my supposedly-protected machine (Hawaii and London). Restore from that image. Bingo.
So, all that said, I return to my question.
Supposedly, to be safe, I ONLY need a full image of my PC, and the LATEST differential backup file.
I don't need all the intervening differentials, like I would need to run in all the incremental backups, in order, if I was using _that_ method of backup.
Is this correct?


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Kelley, thanks for all the background information - sounds like you have had a tough time with your computer and getting it recovered etc!
You don't mention what version of Windows you have here, but I would tend to assume it might be Windows 10 is you got Microsoft involved to help repair the OS etc?
If it is Windows 10, then I have to say that I am amazed that ATI 2011 is still working for you! I know that ATI 2014 would work with Windows 10 even though the official Acronis position was that only ATI 2015 and later were supported to do so!
Are you making your full backups from within Windows or are you booting from the Acronis Rescue Media to do this? The latter should still work even with ATI 2011 as it doesn't really care what the OS is, but may struggle with new hardware such as USB 3 or NVMe etc.
Returning to your key question here:
In older versions of ATI, there was no obvious dependency between differential files when it came to being able to select just one differential file plus the full backup it was based on. This was especially true when using the rescue media as it didn't need or refer to the Acronis database that is used in the Windows application.
All of this has changed in ATI 2020 and there are dependencies with all types of backup files now being created, including Full only, Incremental and Differential backups, which for the majority of users is seen as a backwards step (or other words more abusive!).
This means that you will get errors for missing differential files if you attempt to recover a backup without all the files present! The only real answer is to keep the number of differential files to a minimum, and keep all the files.
Please note: that there is no direct recommended upgrade path from ATI 2011 to 2020. It is highly recommended that the older version be fully uninstalled before attempting to install 2020.
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Steve, thanks for the details. And (duh on my part,) it's Win 7 Pro64SP1. For that platform (Tpad W520) I've been warned Win10 really screws the pooch.
That said, Acronis, by way of another PC, sent me the Rescue media to boot from, and it still threw the errors and failed to recover.
Thanks for confirming that I DID have it configured as it should be, and did have the correct expectations.
And thanks for the warning about the new version. Why have differentials if you need to keep every one? Why not just do the incrementals, since the files are smaller? I suppose it'll take longer to run them all in, but when the crash is THAT severe, time really doesn't matter, it's the success at the end that does.
I'll rtfm this weekend.
Like Scotty says, "But Captain, I AM relaxin'."
Maybe I'll just make the 'full image' a monthly scheduled backup.
Again, I'm writing away from my desk. If any of the details on this are of interest, let me know and I'll post them here when I get home.
Thanks
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Oh, and I was doing these differentials on an automated schedule within Acronis 2011, since you asked.
As for the changes in file management, engineers at a company I used to work at would have referred to that as a deprovement...as opposed to an improvement. "Just some half-fast engineering."
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Kelley, I am sure that you already are aware that Win 7 goes out of all support by Microsoft next month (Jan 2020), which in turn will lead to other issues in the longer term, i.e. many other application authors will start dropping support for their apps running on Win 7 etc.
You may not be aware that you can still get a free upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 despite MS not telling anyone this! This assumes that your Thinkpad W520 can run Win 10, which I would think it should if it is running Win 7 Pro 64-bit now. It is recommended to have 4GB RAM for running Win 10 64-bit.
One further comment ref ATI 2020, this time for Incremental backups, these are now (for Disks & Partitions backups) stored in a single .tibx file instead of creating separate Full followed by Incremental files.
See the following KB documents published by Acronis with regards to .tibx files.
KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file
KB 63227: Acronis True Image: Do not delete .TIB or .TIBX files outside of Acronis True Image
KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020: new tibx backup format FAQ
KB 63425: Acronis True Image 2020: Limitations of tibx backups
KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format
KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020: tibx backups in local destinations
KB 63613: Acronis True Image: local backups are not available for recovery if "metadata" file appears in the backup destination - if you see metadata file(s).
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Steve Smith wrote:In older versions of ATI, there was no obvious dependency between differential files when it came to being able to select just one differential file plus the full backup it was based on. This was especially true when using the rescue media as it didn't need or refer to the Acronis database that is used in the Windows application.
All of this has changed in ATI 2020 and there are dependencies with all types of backup files now being created, including Full only, Incremental and Differential backups, which for the majority of users is seen as a backwards step (or other words more abusive!).
Kelley Willis wrote:Why have differentials if you need to keep every one? Why not just do the incrementals, since the files are smaller?
Kelly, your question, and many similar, are being asked about restrictions imposed by the .tibx architecture. Your deleting old differential backups to conserve space made perfect sense in the old regime. (So did deleting chains of incremental backups, keeping only the full.)
You can use the Cleanup function in ATI to remove backups and reclaim their space. As far as I know, there is no way to automate this.
Judging from comments posted on this forum, Acronis is losing customers because of this implementation. The sooner Acronis becomes aware of this, the better it will be for both Acronis and its customers.
I would recommend you submit feedback to let Acronis know problems caused by their implementation of this new scheme. I doubt they will back away from the new scheme, but maybe they will provide more tools to address the problems.
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