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1st Initial Backup (default incremental) Full Backup Scheme Behavior

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Hello all,

I have installed Acronis 2016.  When I kickoff my first backup by default it does a "Full" and then the following week (7 days later) by default it does an "Incremental" which I am ok with.  But I was wondering if I decide to go with say a diffrential backup scheme can I delete the incremental backup (chain(s)) and "keep" the full and then run diffrentials against that intial "Full"?  Or do then have to re-run the "Full" to support my diffrential "chain" choice

 

Tim

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Hi Tim,  You're more than welcome to keep the existing backups for posterity - you can even delete the task in Acronis, but keep the backup files so they don't show up in the list anymore.  I often do this when I want to move the files off to an archive hard drive.  Alternatively, you can just stop the incremental so that you can still access in in the Acronis window.

However, when you create a new differential task, you will not be able to use the existing full backup (technically, it is possible if you import it back and start again, but it's likely to cause problems so I'm not going to recommend it).

Setup a new backup task (use a new unique name - just in case).  Configure it for differentials and the number of differentials you'd like to keep before the next full backup runs.  I'd also suggest configuring version chain cleanup tasks too - the easiest way is to select the number of chains you want to keep (1, 2, 3, 4, etc - 4 is technically a months worth if your version chain is approximately a weeks worth).

Long story short, whenever you want to make changes to a backup task, it's best to start with a brand new one and keep your old backps for posterity and start clean again - this will avoid database corruption/confusion that can cause issues down the road.