Acronis True Image 2023
I have a backup defined that backs up twice per day. I would like to split this into two separate backups. The first backup is at noon 6 days a week. The second backup is at 9:00 pm. I would like to use the remaining time on the 7th day to do a full backup that is normally offline in case of a ransomware attack. How do I do that? The backups need to be part of the same backup scheme and version chain.
Thank you for your quick response. So, the result would be two separate backup chains, correct? That would result in two Full backups instead of one. Each full backup is 500+ GB and would eat up my 5TB Passport pretty quickly.
Charles, all backup chains must have an initial Full backup - that has always been the case.
The size of your separate backup chains will depend on your source data selections.
When you wrote about splitting your backup I made an assumption that you might also be splitting the source data between two (or more) separate backups rather than just duplicating the same source data between additional backup tasks.
As an example of what I was thinking here:
For my own computer, I create separate backups of the main Windows OS & applications as one backup, and my data (documents, images, videos, music etc) as a separate backup, where each backup task can have its own schedule frequency depending on the degree of change involved for that source data.
I also have separate backups where the same data sources are backed up to different destinations, i.e. I use a mix of a separate internal drive, external USB drives, and network NAS destinations.
I think I am similar to your strategy. I make a system full backup once per week that is about 45GB.
I then have a files backup twice per day, and create a new chain every two weeks. The Full backup is about 550GB and includes files saved to the cloud. Each subsequent incremental backup is about 1-2 GB. After 27 incremental backups, I start a new chain. Both backups are saved to a single 5TB drive that is continuously attached to my computer.
I have a separate 5TB drive that I save the Full file backup to every two weeks and only connect to the computer during a 12-hour full backup. I'll keep as many versions as the drive will hold. The 2nd drive is to maximize protection against a ransomware attack, but I could lose up to two weeks of data.
The intent is to have access to past modified files if I need to restore an earlier version with the first drive.
The problem is that if I split the chain for the first drive into two pieces, I will only be able to maintain 1 1/2 months of data on that drive instead of 3 months, because the 550GB full backup is duplicated for each chain.
I'm interested in any suggested solution/approaches. THANKS
I then have a files backup twice per day, and create a new chain every two weeks. The Full backup is about 550GB and includes files saved to the cloud. Each subsequent incremental backup is about 1-2 GB. After 27 incremental backups, I start a new chain. Both backups are saved to a single 5TB drive that is continuously attached to my computer.
Can you split the 550GB source data, i.e. divide by different folder selections (A - M in one backup, N - Z in another, assuming similar sizes) or divide by file types, i.e. music or videos or pictures in separate backups according to the size of data involved and degree of change happening? The idea being to have multiple smaller Full backups rather than the one very large 550GB one. The overall size would be the same but the backup time would be reduced and you could potentially have different schedules if some of the data is not changing very often, i.e. doesn't need to be backed up twice a day?
I think that would help. I can identify the most important directories and have only those directories saved in the 2nd daily backup. That would greatly decrease the size of one of the backups.
Thanks for your help!!
To customize your backup schedule in Acronis True Image 2023, edit your existing plan. Set two separate schedules for noon and 9:00 pm on six days. Create an additional task for a full backup on the 7th day. Verify that both backups remain part of the same version chain. Save changes and perform manual tests for confirmation.