Consolidation takes forever
I have an incremental backup with 30 increments, and I'm trying to consolidate it. I told TI to keep the last version.
The progress window said it would take 1 day 8 hours. I couldn't wait that long, especially since TI can't do a backup while a consolidation is running (even though it's consolidating a different backup); so I tried to cancel the operation. That didn't seem to do anything.
Eventually I pulled the plug and rebooted my machine.
I did what I needed to do, ran a backup (different backup set), and restarted the consolidation. I guess I got it angry, because the progress window says "Recovering...", and the time estimate is 2 day 45 minutes. It's been stuck there since 12 hours ago.
Does a consolidation usually take that long? I'm old, and life is short.
Jerry,
Consolidation is infamous for taking a long time (typically as long as the backup it tries to consolidate). If you can, don't use consolidation and simply retain versions of backups.
That said, time estimates that ATI shows for operations are infamous for being out of whack. So you really have to let the pgm go through.
Have I been foolish in accepting special upgrade offer? Just trying consolidation:-
1. Time indication for completion is next week!
2. Cannot 'Hide'
2. Cannot queue another task as I used to be able to do in 2009
3. No check box "Shut down computer on completion"
Shameless bump. Is there any chance of Acronis Support responding? Probably not :-(
I would just like to add my experience with Consolidation, it is an utter failure and has never worked for me. I once let it run for 2 days before it finally collapsed with an error having no documentation to explain it, another time it produced a corrupted file. Stay away from using consolidation, don't trust it, it simply doesn't work, like so many other aspects of TI 2012, it's a disfunctional disaster.
I have successfully consolidated 2 incremental backups by doing the following:-
1. Taking the precaution of copying the backup files
2. Start consolidation
3. ATIH then tells me it is going to take forever.
4. Cancel the job
5. ATIH does no such thing but the pop-up window disappears and consolidation is successfully completed in a perfectly acceptable timescale - about 1% of forecast - bizarre behaviour!!
I think Hythe is on to something. I finally canceled my consolidation operation after a couple of days, since the progress meter wasn't moving. When I looked in the log, expecting to see some kind of failure or cancellation message, I saw that the consolidation had actually completed a day or so ago.
Okay, now I'm convinced that consolidation is a tiger trap. I let a consolidation run for a couple of days and then I tried to cancel it. I'm now trapped in a state where the consolidation appears to have completed (based on looking at the tib files and doing a trial restore or two), but every time I launch TI it resumes or restarts consolidating. Meanwhile, I can't do a backup.
I'll try closing the GUI and seeing if the regularly-scheduled backup runs, but I'm really annoyed. I need that disk space back!
Jerry,
Stay away from consolidation, replace with a custom backup that does a new full from time to time, keep only X most recent version chains (X as large as it can be, making sure you always have enough space for a new full).
Does the cancel button work. I have too many instances as explained by frustrated users in this forum, when I tried to cancel a backup, it never does, and I cannot do anything else with ATI until I do a reboot. What a shame. Good program got worst over time.
I do have my setup doing a full every 30 days, with incrementals every day; but I don't want to willy-nilly blow older backups away. You never know...
What I want to do is to keep the full and the last incremental from each set.
I think my consolidation finally finished, with a combination of cancelling and rebooting. I haven't had a chance to go back and try restoring random files. I know better than to try to validate a backup, even one that's been consolidated. Life's too short.
Jerry,
When you consolidate backup you end up having the same result as deleting older backups: the consolidated version contains only the versions of files as of the last file being consolidated, which is equivalent to a new full of the same date.
Jerry,
You're stuck just keeping the full.. if they haven't fixed consolidation by now, they probably never will.
Rog
Jerry,
When you consolidate backup you end up having the same result as deleting older backups: the consolidated version contains only the versions of files as of the last file being consolidated, which is equivalent to a new full of the same date.
This is how I thought it worked:
- I make a full backup on May 1.
- I make incrementals every night thereafter for the entire month of May.
- The file "foo" existed on May 1, and was changed on May 20.
- I consolidate that backup chain, telling ATIH to keep the backup from May 1 and the backup from May 31.
My understanding was that I could restore the older version (as of May 1) from the May 1 tib, or I could restore either the newer version from the May 31 tib (or both, to different destinations, if I chose).
Am I wrong?
Jerry,
You're stuck just keeping the full.. if they haven't fixed consolidation by now, they probably never will.
Rog
Can I just delete the incrementals from outside ATIH without getting the program angry? The database would be out of synch.
I can see that all the comments on this subject is several years old, but the issue still seems to exist.
I have three segments that I am trying to consolidate. Each segment is les then 3Gb.
Anyway, the consolidation has been running for 72 hours, and when I check the progress it says that remaining time is 54 days 16 hours and 32 minutes.
Is this really the way this is supposed to work? I hope that the answer is no and that someone can tell me what is wrong.
But if consolidation is that slow, it is unusable and the option should be removed, since in practise this can not be used it is just slowing down my PC
I am running Acronis on a win 8.1 64 bit system with an Intel core I7-3770 CPU at 3,4 GHz and 16Gb RAM and the backup disk has more than 1Tb free space. So there can’t be a capacity problem any way you look at it.
So what the heck is this shit?
I can see that all the comments on this subject is several years old, but the issue still seems to exist.
I have three segments that I am trying to consolidate. Each segment is les then 3Gb.
Anyway, the consolidation has been running for 72 hours, and when I check the progress it says that remaining time is 54 days 16 hours and 32 minutes.
Is this really the way this is supposed to work? I hope that the answer is no and that someone can tell me what is wrong.
But if consolidation is that slow, it is unusable and the option should be removed, since in practise this can not be used it is just slowing down my PC
I am running Acronis on a win 8.1 64 bit system with an Intel core I7-3770 CPU at 3,4 GHz and 16Gb RAM and the backup disk has more than 1Tb free space. So there can’t be a capacity problem any way you look at it.
So what the heck is this shit?
Lars,
The consolidation continues to be reported as an issue.
A couple things you can try.
Look at this link and make sure the opton "Run only when idle" is unchecked.
How to view or set somewhat hidden advanced scheduled backup settings.
You can also look at the Windows task manager and review the processses and see what is consuming your current processing time. You can also change the Acronis processing to a more aggressige processs setting.
I would also encourage you to stop using your existing task and create a new task using automatic cleanup so the old backups can be autodeleted by the program rather than use any form of consolidation.
Here are some examples but not knowing which method of backups you are using, I have provided examples of all 3 types. Adjust the retain "store X" based on the number of chains you wish to keep.
These example allow the program to automatically delete the older chains when the "store X" quota of chains is reached so you have a revolving number of backups with a minimum of attention.
Lars,
Give it up.. Acronis doesn't fix problems, they just move them to the next version. They also delete disparaging forum posts so that they don't look as bad as they are. Move on.. you won't regret it.
Whet competitive products are there? This problems seems to have been there been like this for more than two years Acronis doesn't deserve my money, that's for sure.
Since my post of 2 years ago on this subject I am using EaseUS ToDo Backup Home. Seems to do what it says on the tin. I find it easier to configure as well Acronis has 'lost the plot' in my view.
I have been using AOMEI Backupper. It doesn't do some of the nice things that Acronis (trys) to do (like rolling to a full after a certain amount of incrementals), but it is free, fast (10x faster than Acronis) and has as nice of a rescue/clone disc as Acronis. A little harder to use, but IT actually works (and doesn't overwrite system files during installation).