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Copying backups to a second USB drive

Thread solved

First here are two images:

Top is before a new differential.

Bottom is after a differential.

As you can see, Acronis changed the date of the full to match the date of the last differential.

On the 29th all was copied to a second USB.

On the 30th I made another differential.

Now if I copy only the last differential to a second USB (MyBackup-0004.tibx)

and not copy the full again to the second USB (Full is already there) with a date of 9/29/2023,

would I be able to still restore from the second USB?

Or will I need to recopy the full again every time I do a differential?

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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 2020-2021: new tibx backup format FAQ

KB 63425: Acronis True Image: Limitations of tibx backups

KB 63516: Acronis True Image 2020: Incremental backups do not create separate files when using new backup format

KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format

KB 61844: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: How to delete old backups

KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020 and 2021: tibx backups in local destinations

The key factor about the new .tibx format files is that they are linked by metadata which is updated each time the same backup task is run, so it is entirely possible that your copied files on USB would not be recognised as being valid because they do not fully match the other files in the differential version chain.

If you are just dealing with Files & Folders, then using this backup scheme type would continue using the older .tib format files without the above restrictions.

If you are wanting to copy Disks & Partitions backup images using .tibx files, then the recommended option would be to create a duplicate backup task using the USB drive as its destination and thus avoid having to copy files and get tangled up with metadata issues.

An alternative that you could try would be to use a File / Folder synchronisation tool that allows for comparison of file content when copying files but this is likely to take as long as using a second backup task!

@Steve Smith

I guess Acronis programmers decided to make it hard and place this data in the full.

Whereas Reflect (as you know) can create an incremental or differential and that latest file/s is all that needs to be copied over.

It just makes you wonder why they (Acronis) used  a HARD technique instead of the KISS technique.

At least I as you do, use Reflect also.

I guess I will just do a Full only sometimes with Acronis.

I could (and just my opinion) hope Acronis would send some programmers over to Macrium to learn how to write user friendly backup software. Again just a hope.

Edit:

Your answer sums it up well.

The way Acronis handles the files is a mess.

Just curious, why do you stay with Acronis?

Just curious, why do you stay with Acronis?

I stay in part because like many users I have perpetual licenses for True Image going back to version 9.0; in part because I get access to the latest version via the MVP programme, but mainly because I enjoy being able to help other users in these forums, which in turn benefits me in keeping my brain active along with being able to continue to learn new information!