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How to delete old backups?

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Apologies but I am a complete beginner on this subject.

I bought Acronis True Image 2016 a few weeks ago and set it up to clone my system once a week. That was easy enough but I now have no idea what's what on the external hard drive, which I suspect will be filling up fast. It's really not intuitive at all and I can't find any information in FAQs. Can anyone please tell me what I can or can't delete at this stage? 

I can't seem to be able to post screenshots here so I attach a screenshot of the directory.

 

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Decipherit, welcome to these user forums.

Your screen shot of the directory shows that you have created an initial full backup (_full_b1_s1_v1) and then have created three incremental backup files (_inc_b1_s2/3/4_v1) - all of which form part of a backup version chain and I would suspect that the default scheme is set to create 5 incremental backups before starting a new version chain with the next full backup (_full_b2_s1_v1).

In terms of deleting any of these backup files, then I would not recommend doing so as each incremental file depends on the previous file being present so if you deleted the s2 file for example, then the s3 and s4 files would be rendered of no use because their version chain has been destroyed.

I have insufficient information to know the size of data involved here - how disk drives do you have that are included in this 'entire PC' backup, how many partitions for each drive, what sizes are these drives and partitions, what size is your backup drive where the .TIB files are being stored?  What version of Windows OS is active on this system?

The recommended method of managing backup version files is to use the automatic cleanup rules that can be configured for your backup task, where you can select how long to keep completed version chains or how many such completed version chains are kept?
Note: a completed version chain = 1 x full backup plus all associated incremental (or differential) backups that use the same _bN_ number, i.e. _b1_ in the file name, and where the next version has been started, i.e. you have a _full_b2_ file present.  The age of the version chain is only started when this new full backup has been created.

Thank you Steve for your reply. 

I confess I only partially understand it but am I right in thinking that when it gets to _full_b2_s1_v1 I can delete what has gone before? Surely it doesn't keep adding versions into perpetuity with each reliant on a previous one?

To answer your questions. I have one external hard drive on which I back up all my data (My Documents) and where these Acronis backups have also been placed. The HD has 1 TB, about 2/3s of it has been used and the Acronis backups currently use up about 100 GB. I'm not aware of having any partitions. I use Windows 10. 

Where in the software can the automatic cleanup be configured? I have to say that this software was not written for dummies and with that in mind, I wonder how useful it would be if I ever needed to restore my system from this backup.

Yes, when you get to the _full_b2_s1_v1 backup the previous backup version chain can then be deleted, however, this should ideally be done by using the automatic cleanup rules as this also updates the Acronis database information to reflect the deleted files, otherwise you may start getting error messages for 'cannot find version 1'.

If you choose to delete the version chain via Explorer, then please run a Validation against your backup task (click on the (V) icon to the right of the task name then choose Validate from the menu shown), as this will also help reconcile the database with the actual files present - it will throw up an error message for each deleted file that you should take the option to Ignore.

With Windows 10 you will have a hidden System Reserved partition and probably a Recovery partition in addition to your OS C: drive partition - these can be seen by clicking on the option for Full partition list when choosing the Source data for a backup task, or seen in Windows Disk Management.  The System Reserved partition is where the Windows Boot Configuration Data store is held which tells Windows how to boot the system.

As to recovering your system, I would recommend having a look at post: 117004: Great Acronis "How-To" videos and other Acronis Resources which has a number of video tutorials that are worth spending a little time watching.

Thank you Steve. 

I've now read a number of articles and watched a few videos and I confess I am only a little clearer. I've decided to start from scratch again. I found this article http://www.filecritic.com/acronis-true-image-2016-review/ the most helpful for step-by-step instructions but am baffled why I only have the "Entire PC" option. Any ideas?

Please see the attached document showing the process for creating a new backup task with ATIH 2016

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