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Full Backup Version Deletion

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 I have been trying to do what would seem to be the simplest of tasks for some time now, and that is to back up my entire PC using the 'Full' backup scheme.  The backup size is around 150Gb.  I have set auto cleanup to retain no more than 2 backups. The backup disk has around 350Gb free space (500Gb total)  The first backup runs OK, second one too, but the third one fails (disk full).  OK I can understand that, if it means the 'cleanup' operation runs after a successful backup (i.e. there needs to be room on the disk for three copies, until the cleanup runs).  What I don't understand is why it is necessary to use Acronis Boot media to delete one of the sets (which is the most obvious why to free up space and continue the backup). The two files are complete backups, not differential or incremental, and they can be deleted independently through the file system, so why not through TIH?

Sorry for the long-winded post, I, like many others, am astounded that issues like this cannot be answered by Acronis without payment for it! 

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DrMopp, you are correct with regards to the way Acronis auto cleanup works with regards to not deleting old versions until the next full backup has been successfully created, thus if you define to keep no more than 2 version chains, then you need sufficient free space to hold these plus a further full backup image.

There are a number of methods that you can use to manually cleanup unwanted backup version chains.

  1. As you indicated, you can boot from the Rescue Media and delete these outside of Windows.  However, if you do so, then you still need to perform a Validation of the backup task that created them in order to reconcile the Acronis Database files with the actual backup files present.
  2. You can do the same from within Windows by deleting the complete backup version chain, i.e. full plus any incremental or differential backups that comprise that specific version chain.  Again you should do a Validation after doing this to reconcile the Database information.
  3. Acronis provide the option to Clone task settings which you can use to create an identical copy of the backup task which will have the same name but prefixed by (1)...   Using this option enables you to duplicate your task then delete the original task settings - do this deletion before you run the cloned task.  Once the original task settings have been deleted you should be able to delete any backup versions for that deleted task using Windows Explorer without any issues.  The new cloned task can still point to the same storage folder that you used for the original task.

 Thanks for the confirmation, and for your comprehensive advice re deletion of backups.  I guess buying a bigger backup disk is the simplest option, but I will try out your suggestions first.