How many back files to Save
Being a new user to Acronis True Image Home 2010, Build 4942, I completed a full computer backup to an external drive. I have set up an automatic incremental backup weekly. This has been working fine for 8 weeks. My full back was called My Backup and was ~50GB. Each week a file is saved that is incrementally number My Backup1, My Backup2, etc. The file size ranges from ~2.5 GB to 4.5 GB.
I have two questions. 1) If I chose to reformat my computer and reinstall the backup, which file would I choose to get the most current data from backup and 2) should I keep all of the incremental backup or can I delete the older ones and keep 1 or 2 of the latest dated versions
Thanks
MLWEST

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You are exactly right. I have True Image Home Version 10, Build 4942. Is this the latest update for this version?
Thanks for the road map that you have made for me. Should I do a full back up every other month and start over? I am pretty sure my disk will get full sooner than later.
THanks
MLWEST
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You have the last build of version 10.
I tend to make 1 full per week with daily increments, but this really depends on how often your system changes, that is how many programs you tend to install and uninstall, how much you download (and want to keep) and if you are receiver of many emails that you don't want to lose.
I also use consolidation, so each week my 6 increments get rolled up to a full and then a new full is made. You make no mention of the size of the drive you are imaging to.
You could get by with making no new fulls, but the biggest gotchya with incrementals is the more you have the greater the likelihood of one of them becoming corrupted which means you might be severely restricted with the amount of images you have available for restore.
If your system doesn't change much, then a monthly full, with 2 or more incrementals would be fine. If you are short on drive space you could look at making differentials instead, this only requires one differential and one full to recover a system. You could if you prefer make just full's on a weekly basis, keep them for 1 months, delete the earliest one make another so you always have one month. Each persons requirements are going to be different.
Bear in mind also that everytime you run a defragger this will result in a new image that will be almost the same size as an original full, so only defrag just before making a full if you can.
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Thank you for your options analysis. The external drive that I have is a ~320 GB. The full backup takes up about 50 GB and each weekly incremental takes up 2.5-4.5 GB. It would seem my tasks, amount of weekly changes and full backup is minimal compared to most. Based upon your options, it would appear to make much sense in just doing a full back up week or bi-weekly and then deleting the one or two every month. My question is should I make another complete back up manually, deleted the past backups and incrementals and then set up the scheduled weekly/bi weekly backup ?
Thanks
MLWEST
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