Non-stop backup fills target disk, but can't clean-up to free up space

 Hi Richard,

I guess you change data on your hard drive quite frequently(correct me if I'm wrong). In this case having about 100Gb of backup space for making backups of 64Gb is not enough, cause  we keep several versions of the files, etc.

Hi Roman, Thanks for the quick response.
I'm surprised if that's the case. About 36GB is a partition dedicated to the OS and programs. Although there are certainly a lot of files that change frequently here they're generally small files like log files and temp working files. The other 30GB is data (docs, archives, downloaded programs) which does not change frequently at all. Large stuff like media files is on another partition altogether. NSB has been running happilly for months.
Also when these two partitions are backed up normally they compress down into under 40GB, meaning they're currently using about 3x that space for NSB.
How would you suggest I get out of this situation & get NSB running again? NSB clean-up doesn't seem to work even if I set it to clean up everything

I am having this same problem wiht Windows 7 Untimate 64 bit. When I got to clean up my drive with the nonstop backups on it it says the files are cleaned up but the drive is still full and it dosn't delete the files.
If I go into the the actual drive there is a Time Explorer folder with files in it, which I think are the backup files i tried to delete.
Does anyone know how to fix this?
Is it a Windows 7 64 bit problem or is everyone having this problem?
Thanks

FWIW I just gave up, stoppped nonstop backup, deleted all the nonstop backup files, and restarted it. It's now nearly full again, so I guess I'll soon have to repeat the process.

This seems to be another major flaw of nonstop backup.
My drive is full as well and I would like to delete some old stuff. I do as advised (see fist post), but not a single byte is freed up. After clicking OK nothing at all seems to happen, whether I set the slider to year, month, week.

Acronis, what is the solution here? I am running the latest build on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Michael

Hello Acronis,

are you reading this?
Is there any solution?

Michael

Me too! I just tried several times to delete the old stuff, using the Clean function. Each time it asked me if I wanted to proceed and I said yes, but it did not delete anything! I have had nonstop running for a few months now, and I asked it to delete up to the last month - should be tons of space left, but the total amount used up didn't change at all.

BUG!

Please acronis, this is a legitimate issue. I too have Win 7 64-bit.

Thanks

I have the same problem using ATI2011. I have "solved" it before by reformatting the destination disk and starting afresh which seems heavy-handed and not what the ATI help documents say should happen.

It would be refreshing if a spokesman from Acronis were to help.
Please . . . .

Hello all,

I want to thank you all for taking the time to post about this issue. I will do my best to assist you and explain the situation.

Currently we do not have any known problems in our system regarding Nonstop backup clean-up, however, I forwarded your feedback to our Testing lab and as soon as I hear from them I will provide you with an update.

As a workaround, please delete the Time Explorer Storage (The Time Explorer Storage folder is automatically created in the root of the partition that you select as the place for the Acronis Nonstop Backup storage) and try re-creating the Nonstop backup task. I am sorry for any inconvenience.

Looking forward to your replies and if you have any other questions, please let me know.

Thank you.

Hi all,
same problem here .. purchased ATI 2011 last week and had Nonstop Backup running since then ...
As everybody else wrote here I'm also not able to use the clean up function of NSB ... cannot believe that this was not discovered by Acronis during testing.
I'm running Win7 x86, so this cannot be an x64 issue.
Thanks.

Hello Acronis .... any progress in solving this major issue ????
Thanks,
Peter

My problems continue: inability to remove early nonstop versions thus fiiling up the drive, programme becoming unresponsive, I follow the advice to delete Time Explorer Storage, then the computer is tied up for 5 hours or so backing up again. The unresponsiveness of the Acronis staff is rather unsatisfactory. I am getting to the point of uninstalling the programme, accepting that my money has gone down the drain, and searching for a simple competent alternative. I do not mind paying but do require a quality product in return for my hard-earned money, coupled with a sense of obligation to the customer.

I still hope Acronis will come to the rescue but I am not holding my breath.

A happy New Year to forum members.

Dimitrius

Hi, having the same issue on W7 64, True Image 2011, current build (6957). The Secure Zone is reported as nearly full so nonstop backup has stopped and I get prompted to allocate a different location to backup to or clean up older stuff to make room. I attempt to do the latter using the 'clean up' option under 'operations' for the nonstop backup task. When I do so I can select a timeframe for the cleanup using the slider, and do so, click on OK, and then get a warning that I am about to permanently delete the selected files, click OK to accept, and then... nothing happens. Tried restarting, rebooting, repeating, etc., but still no joy. I am currently not being backed up.

My secure zone is around 700GB in size, the size a full backup is around 160GB, the rest of the space taken by the default incremental backups made by the nonstop backup process. There is now (after a few months) only 0.17GB of free space on the secure zone, and no amount of selecting and using the cleanup operation is changing that. I could manually delete the entire contents of the secure zone from explorer or something, but feel that is drastic, kinda undermines the premise of retaining a full backup on there that is kept updated by the NSB process, and is certainly not how it is intended to be used.

There does seem to be a lot of people with this issue, and most (but not all) appear to be using Windows 7 64. I'd appreciate any advice/support on the issue, as it is causing quite a serious gap in mine and others backup procedures.

Regards
Steve

Hi Steve, an earlier post by the Moderator says a suitable workaround is to delete Time Explorer Storage. This did work for my system W7, 64, THI 2011 6957, your computer will run slowly as Acronis starts a new back up, which in my case was 5 hours because I do photography with lots of big raw files. But as we have all said this is not what Acronis states should happen for the NSB service. In the end I have uninstalled Acronis and just use Windows 7 Backup and Restore. I can always download Acronis again if and when forum colleagues start singing its praises thus signalling that Acronis has at last fulfilled its obligations to its paying customers.

Regards, Dimitrius

Steve, remember there is no auto-cleaning mechanism in the non-stop backup that makes sure you won't exceed your backup space.
If you want to achieve that goal, you have to use a regular file backup with auto-cleanup or automatic consolidation. YOu could do this in addition to your non-stop backup (this is what I do).

I recommend using the "Managers" link in the Acronis moderator post above to give Acronis your opinion on their product quality.
It's ridiculous that there is this major flaw in the NSB software and Acronis is not taking care of fixing it.
Meanwhile I'm looking for alternative SW products ....

Regards,
Peter

I am having the exact same issues as Steve. I also have Windows 7 64-bit, and ATIHome 2011 build 6597, and the non-stop backup cleanup does nothing. I even let it run overnight, and nothing was deleted. It was still "spinning" in the morning. The title bar of the dialog said "non-responsive".
This is a real issue! Is anyone working on it?
Thanks.

It's been a year and a day since I first posted about this issue. In that time various Acronis staff have shown interest, but there's been no communication of any commitment to fix it. So I wouldn't hold your breath.... Acronis staff - please prove me wrong.

Hello all,

Thank you for posting. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience but I will do my best to get this sorted out for you.

Our Testing lab was unable to reproduce this issue in their environment that is why it is difficult to say what exactly causes this problem.

However, I have been in contact with our Expert team we are eager to get this issue sorted out.

I would really appreciate if you can get back to me with an AcronisInfo report and send me a private message with a reference to this thread and an approximate timeframe when it is convenient for you for us to connect to your computer and perform a remote session.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

Hello all,

We are still working on this issue and if you do not mind, I would like to ask if anyone who is experiencing this problem on 32-bit machine can provide me with the AcronisInfo report.

Please let me know if the report is too large for a forum attachment and I will provide you with a unique upload link.

Thank you.

Hi Anton,
Good news! I just updated to the latest ATIHome image, and the Clean-up problem appears to be fixed for me. I do have one question: after the successful clean up, I still have a bunch of cdp*.data files, some of which have modification dates that fall within the time frame that I specified for clean up. Is that normal?
Thanks.

Hi Ken,

Thank you for the follow-up.

Are these files located in your system folders or in the time explorer storage?

Looking forward to your reply and if you have additional questions, please let me know.

Thank you.

Hi Anton, thanks for your help.
They are in the folder that is just below the "Time Explorer Storage" folder. That folder appears to have a hexadecimal name, and contains another folder with a hex name that contains the "Backup" files.
The majority of cdp* files have Date Modified in January, with the remainder in February. When I did the "cleanup", I asked it to effectively delete all the January backups, which appears to have happened successfully by looking in the wizard, and in the folder that has the "Backup" files.
Since most of the cdp* files are dated January 22, I'm wondering if that was the date of the original backup I did, and that all those files hold pieces of the total backup that didn't happen to have changes after January 22 (??)

Thanks

Our Testing lab was unable to reproduce this issue in their environment that is why it is difficult to say what exactly causes this problem.

Now why doesn't that surprise me - I assume the lab is staffed by the same guys who answer support emails with the standard response of: 'Your free support period has expired - would you like to pay even more for us to to fail to fix a problem we caused in the first place through sloppy coding and inadequate testing procedures.'

I have exactly this issue with NSB on a 1Tb external drive backing up around 500Mb of OS data and program files across 4 hard disks. Drive goes red after a week and the delete old versions doesn't work. I am running the latest Acronis build. ATI 2011 is a piece of junk - why can't someone build an Apple Time Machine that works on Windows? I am, also running the 64 bit version of Win 7.

So come on Acronis - 18 months after this was FIRST RAISED. Is there a fix or is there not. If there is a fix - what is it and if not why not - how about you offer to refund all the disgruntled users you ripped off by selling something that was neither fit for purpose nor of merchantable quality. Oh yes sorry I forget - consumer law doesn't seem apply to software does it.

What a bunch of jokers.

I just updated ATIH 2012 and I still have this problem. I used the non-stop backup up clean up function, it said the files were deleted, but the disk was still FULL. When is the fix coming?!? I am also on Win 7 Ultimate 64bit. Most frustrating. I stopped and deleted the non-stop backup completely before I saw this thread and next time I'll just try deleting the Tim Explorer Storage folder.

I purchased Acronis TIH 2010 Plus Pack because of my positive experience with Disk Director Suite, and especially for the Non Stop Backup feature. I do very time-consuming and arduous work with website building and programming.

My question is how do you expect me to purchase updated versions if this major feature does not work? Clearing out the Time folder did not bother me that much, but I could not even restore from any image. I also found out to heed the warning that "your system may become unusable...." I tried it anyway since I had a full system image as well.

I have already mastered the clean install syndrome by copying the critical folders on another drive. So after installing Windows 7, there is SP1, the 50 updates, drag and drop the data, install perhaps 20 programs, set those up, and personalization, at the end of the 8 hours I have a perfectly running system.

Avoiding this is why we have Acronis? Correct?

ITPhoenix,

NSB is not very flexible. You can easily reproduce the benefits by setting up a disk and partition backup and choosing your own retention rules. On that matter, you can choose auto-consolidation (like NSB does. The only difference is that NSB waits for the night to run the consolidation), or you can simply clean up old backup version.
If the default scheduler option is not frequent enough, you can use Windows task scheduler to schedule your backups.

Thank you for that. But I simply need the very frequent "auto-save". I am continually buried in thought and may forget to backup.

The question still remains whether NSB has ever been debugged. Purusing the Forum indicates it has not even in 2012. I do not wish to purchase 2012 without a guarantee, not that I should have to in the first place.

I will try a reinstall of TIH. Perhaps the registry cleaner broke it, or a phantom error had creeped in. I found Eusing Free works good with 7 and XP except with Norton Internet Security. Those entries I leave unchecked so NIS does not break. Perhaps I need to find the entries for TIH as well. They are not simply spelled out as I recall.

ITPhoenix,

Just to clarify, you can use the ATI scheduler to schedule the backup that would replace non-stop backup. Non-stop backup takes stock of changes every 5mn, if there are changes, it create a slice of backup (equivalent to an incremental). Then, automatically, every night, it consolidates the slices so that kept versions are more distant, time-wise, as they get older.
While you cannot reproduce that sophistication with a scheduled backup, you can create a disk and partition backup that approximates it the following way:
- custom backup scheme,
- incremental,
- do a new full backup every 60 incrementals (assuming you want to backup every 10mn for 10 hours a day)
- turn auto-cleaning on,
- store no more than X most recent backup chains. Choose X so that you always have enough space for a full backup on your backup disk.
- schedule the validation towards the end of the day, each day.
This way you will have a new full backup every day

Then, use this post to create a task with Windows task scheduler to run this task every 10mn: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/16086#comment-49269

There are many benefits with this approach:
- you can validate the backup to make sure your chains can be used for restore (not available with NSB)
- you can backup to other media (although a local internal or external disk is always better)
- you can access files in the backup easily (double click on the TIB files, among other methods)
- you can make sure that hidden partitions are properly backed up,
- if a backup chain is corrupted for any reason, you will other chains to rely on, whereas is NSB files are corrupted, you lose everything,
- you can fine tune your retention rules, whereas NSB does everything automatically,
- you can make sure you don't run out of backup space, automatically.

Thank you very much. I can appreciate the effort you put into this answer.

Is "the new full backup everyday" available before validation? Are you suggesting to forego the validation to save resources while the machine is in use?

It depends on the time you will set the validation at (before or after the backup). Don't worry too much of synchronizing validation and full backups. My standard is to have a chain (even incomplete) validated at least once.

Deleting your Nonstop Backup and starting again isn't a satisfactory solution, because you lose your backups in the process.

I have Acronis True Image 2013 (Build 5551) and Windows 7.

Are you saying it does not even work with 2013?

What I have done was get into the habit of storing critical data (like what I just worked on) to my backup drive. In fact, I do not even keep anything on the system drive since it is SSD.

From there, the backup drive is regularly synched to another machine's backup drive with SyncToy on Windows, or Unison on Linux.

What is essential for I guess everyone, is at least a full image backup works. So far, TIH works for that. Certain versions of Windows 7 and 8 have the full backup image feature (full only) which is very convenient.

I must agree, however, that the false advertizing of Non-Stop is most disappointing. This kind of incident is one of the reasons I am migrating to Linux. Eventually, I expect to be Windows-free. For newbies, Debian (whatever is stable at the time) is the best bet.

However, some programs simply are not available for Linux. And there are problems with some hardware, since little effort goes into the drivers in some cases, whereas with Windows, if they say it works, it does. So to be covered, I have dual boot on every machine.

Yes, this problem still exists in ATI 2013. The Full Image Backup works, but the advantage of Nonstop Backup is supposed to be that you can take much more frequent backups.

You can create any frequency you want using the Windows task scheduler to run a regular incremental backup. I know we would prefer the product to work as intended but they are many advantages to use this work around. See post #29.

Task scheduler sounds like a good alternative.
Thanks.

I got the same issue.
My Nonstop Backup has 259 Files, 1 Folders on an external hard drive.
The backup files takes up 78.3 GB (84,077,596,672 bytes)
The space allocated on the disk is 254 GB (273,718,123,977 bytes)
NSB appears to be reserving over 3x the space that it should need.

I am having this issue as well

Acronis True Image 2014
Non Stop Backup, which the entire reason I purchased the Software.
as everything I needed was included the WD edition.

Windows 7 Home 64-Bit
My OS Drive is 1.3TB but only used 244GB
My Backup drive is 298GB
- Used space 226GB / Free space 71.7GB

Cannot run Clean Up.
Says not enough space.

At the moment,
Nonstop is stopped, and Acronis icon in taskbar says True Image: 0% complete,
and has been like that for quite a while now.

I "solved" the problem by obtaining the Professional version of Windows 7, which has the ability to make a system image, in addition to restore points.

Unfortunately, it does not have incremental. The closest thing to that is a restore point, but they cannot be stored anywhere except System Volume Information folder (I believe). And there may be problems with different restore scenarios with different hardware.

I am surprised to hear this is happening on the 2014 version. Perhaps the problem lies with the fact that it is a 1TB drive. I have read some systems have trouble with certain 1TB drives. Check for a BIOS update or patch, which should be included in one of the Windows Updates. Is your system updated?

Well even though it says 0% complete the drive space is changing.
Only after a few minutes it now windows is reporting:
252GB used / 45.8GB Free.

So something is happening, but Non stop is stopped,
and Acronis Icon says 0% complete.

I have attached the image showing this.

Yes my system is always up to date, BIOS is current.
It is a RAID0 x 3 500GB drives with Write back cache turned on.
performs better then SSD in some read scenarios.

I would think since i'm only backing up the files, I would need the same space, + more.
I have performed clean ups, it seemed to be working great untill today

I re-formatted the drive, I guess I need larger drive.
I'm upset because this is the 1 and only reason from for upgrading.
and it does not even work correctly.

I spend the money, and now using the WD Edition tools again.
wasted money

**EDIT forgot to mention I got a dialog, choose a new destination or all data will be lost, then it does nothing.

Is it hardware RAID, or software RAID? Software RAID could be the problem.

I would do a reinstall of Acronis while waiting for a rep to answer this question. Perhaps scan the backup drive for errors, too.

I was disappointed with Nonstop in the older version since it was never repaired. However, I would not be quick to condemn the 2014. With RAID 0, frequent backups are essential to sanity and common sense, so a solution must be found.

Although my cousin never actually attempted a restore, he is using Nonstop and apparently doesn't have any problems with its functioning, at least. Are many others having problems with Nonstop on 2014?

Speaking of formatting, I always use the slow format option. It will mark off bad sectors so they are never used. I do not see this option on 7 install, so I format on another machine, or at the command line, then install without formatting.

Not sure what you mean by software or hardware raid:
The RAID is setup in BIOS before windows is installed, The drivers are required to install windows, or restore image.
I use onboard intel ICH10R SATA Ports

Formatting:
In windows I can Select or Deselect Quick Format.
So a full format is done if Quick Format is not selected.

Maybe I just a larger drive,
I am going to try enabling compression to get anther 20GB of space out of it.

It really seems that cleanup is not working...
I mean if I cleanup, should the space used not be (less then), or (equal to) the Drive I am backing up?

If RAID is in BIOS, then it's hardware; a chip on the motherboard controls the drives. There is such a thing as software RAID, but it is not good.

I was speaking of formatting the drives before a clean install. Formatting within Windows does give you the option to untick "quick format", but of course you cannot format the system you are currently in.

I think you have more than enough room unless your 0 array is loaded heavy. Hard to believe with 2x500GB. If your image is huge, then I would expect you to run out of room on the 1T backup drive. Maybe there is a setting in Acronis that will limit the amount of backup snapshots.

Did you reinstall Acronis yet? Can't hurt.

Another thing I forgot was to clean the folder where the Nonstop images are held. A backup should be done immediately if you don't have any. I always have a full, independent system image in addition to the Nonstop, in case that fails.

I see what you mean about formatting.

Actually, my OS drive 1.3TB, 3 500GB, but my usage is only 245GB.
I use a separate drive on the same controller it is 300GB single drive for the Non Stop Backup.
So maybe my drive is too small.
but I saw no mention of what size drive is necessary.

I do have another RAID0 Array of 2 500GB drives (1TB) I use for storage,
It's on a JMicron JMB363 Controller
It's 645GB of Free space, I guess I can create folder, and back it up there.
It's just that I back that drive up periodically on another drive and it takes forever,
and keep it in a Fireproof safe, as it contains Uncompressed Video, Apps, images, software, etc..

Another thing is, all the backup files are invisible,
it's a dedicated drive to Acronis non stop
I may need to use hide protected OS files selection.
but I hate seeing all the .DB files in my folders

I have not tried re-installing Acronis.
I will try it tomorrow though.

Thanks for talking with me by the way..

Also, I did try the Cleaning, it did not seem to work.

There is little point in using RAID 0 for storage. Most people use it for the operating system where it's needed most. Unless you are reading/writing or transferring large files all day, then it's better to leave them on a drive that's just spinning most of the time. Besides, imagine the time it would take for a disk cleanup with the size of those drives.

I would use two 60GB SSDs (or 3 Raptors) on 0 for the OS and all the programs because Windows is a resource hog, then all the files on another drive,(s) including the backup images. It is safer to have a storage drive that just spins--the read/write heads only working occasionally. The OS can always be reinstalled. You cannot "reinstall" a corrupted video or pictures--they are gone forever unless backed up, and backups are not 100% guaranteed.

Important "cannot lose" files I have backed up in at least two places. Good thing, because one time I wiped the wrong partition!

I render video to the storage, so I want to be faster.
I keep everything backed up. My RAID 0 is 5 years old, and healthy.
But that's my whole reason for using this Acronis Nonstop Backup.

Here's the weird thing,
I created a new Nonstop backup in the Storage Array.
it was using 227GB which is to be expected.
So I was about to shut down, and decided to clean up my nonstop first.

So every time I run cleanup, the file grows.
it is now 273.21GB, 5 versions existed, it come down to 2, now as I type this it has grown back to 4 versions.
If I clean again, the usage will grow.

I think there is a bug maybe in this Non Stop Backup.

This is why my drive became full in the first place. I believe.

FYI: I still cannot see any files in the drives, that pertain to Acronis.
I have allowed in folder options, to NOT hide operating System files.

Now I am concerned with being able to delete the backups if I need to.

It has grown to 325GB, and has 7 versions,
I have not created, or edited any files.

I think the Acronis files have to be deleted manually, then a restart of Acronis, if I recall. I do not believe you have to show OS files, just "hidden" maybe.

If you have 2014, there should be some tech support. Open a ticket if you can. They can do a remote control to fix. Otherwise, somewhere in this thread or another related thread, there is the method to clean the folder.

There is a bug in the 2011 Nonstop. Don't know about 2014.

The backup folder for disk images should reside on a non-RAID drive, imo.