Duplicate Backups After Replacing External Drive

If only your original backup drive has failed, then there was no need to create a new backup task, only to reselect the new destination for the existing backup task and to run a validation of that task to clean up any references to files that were created on the failed drive.

Your options at this point are to either delete the new task or else the original task, assuming you only want one of these to run.

Steve,

Thank you for your quick response, and for the information you provided.

I am not comfortable deleting one or the other instance with out additional detailed information.  The goal, obviously, would be to have a single, bootable, backup external drive, with Full and Incremental backups should I ever need to "install" my computer on another machine.

Would it make sense to simply start all over.  I searched the documentation for such a process but didn't find it.

Of interest, I'm very glad I logged in this afternoon to see if I'd received any responses as I didn't receive a notification.

Regards,
rsw41

a/k/a
Steve

 "...and to run a validation of that task to clean up any references to files that were created on the failed drive."

That's the bit I would have missed.

Steve, if you want to make a completely clean start with the new storage drive, then you could simply delete all current tasks and then start over again.  The downside of doing this is simply that you have no backups during the time until a new backup has run.

Best practice suggests that you should aim for a 3-2-1 backup approach, i.e. make 3 backups using at least 2 different storage locations, and with 1 backup stored off-site or in a safe location protected from natural hazards of fire, theft, water etc.

Thank you, Steve.

I recall reading advice against deleting files from the computer so will use the Delete option from the drop down menu.

Of interest, "Clone Settings" did not behave as expected, appearing to duplicate a task.  I deleted that one immediately.

Your 3-2-1 approach makes sense.  The WD device is small, about the size of my phone, and easily grabbed if I'm around and there's a disaster.  But I should store another version in a safe location offsite, as well.  Probably in a family member's home rather than a bank so it would be available 24/7.

Many thanks,
Steve

KB 61844: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: How to delete old backups is the recommended method unless using the Delete option for the whole task & associated files.

Thanks, Steve.

Am I correct that the bootable function does not need to be repeated, despite using Delete to remove the 2nd task?

Can a backup drive be made bootable a 2nd time, and if yes, is the original deleted in the process?

Steve

Once you have created a 'Survival Kit' drive (2GB FAT32 partition with boot media) on your external drive, then it will stay there until the drive is fully reformatted or removed using a partition manager tool.

The option to create a Survival Kit is only offered when you are creating a new Disks & Partitions (or Entire PC) type backup task and are setting the Destination for the task to a suitable external USB drive that can be used for this purpose.
See KB 61639: Acronis True Image: how to create Acronis Survival Kit - for more information on the process.
Also KB 61738: Acronis True Image: Survival Kit disk partition for backups is limited to 2TB on BIOS-booted systems
And Acronis Article:  The Acronis Survival Kit

Thanks, Steve.

Steve,

The problem continues.

Based on the Activity page, it looked like all was as expected across the past 7 days.  Yesterday, however, the Full backup took twice as long as expected.  To report what's happened, I've added a couple of screenshots to the file sent earlier.  See attached.

How do I fix this?

Thanks,
Steve

Steve, this may be a case where the best suggestion would be to make a clean start by removing all existing backup jobs then creating a new one using a new, unique name that hasn't been used before.

If space on your storage drive is an issue, then before you remove the task, open the Clean up versions tool for the task and remove all files except for the most recent chain, then remove the task settings to leave those files as orphans on the drive.  This will give you a good backup set on the drive while the new task gets started with creating a new backup chain using its new name.

From a personal perspective, all of my own backup tasks have been running unattended with no need to make any changes for several years.  The key here is to set the automatic cleanup rules in accordance to the size of storage drive and number of versions to keep etc.

I normally keep to 'Store no more than 2 recent version chains' and keep the number of Incrementals per chain to the default 5 or 6 for the task.  If I find that I need to clear any space on the drive for any reason, then I use the Clean up versions tool to remove a complete older version chain without touching the task settings.