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New Incremental backup producing several initial full backups

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I am using ATI 2016 to make a backup of drive C: from my laptop (Windows 10) to an external drive which is an old SATA 3.5 drive from an old computer.  The drive is housed in a caddy and connected by USB.

I have chosen Incremental with a full backup every 5.  When I run the backup 3 initial full backups are produced.  I have deleted the backup and started again but the same thing happens.  

A similar backup of my desktop to the same drive produced a single full backup.

I don't mind three initial full backups but I'm not sure if they would restore.

 

 

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Derek, could you post screenshots of Windows File Explorer so we can verify the backup names and sizes to make sure they are actually all full backups and not just file breaks in the .tib for the initial full backup?  Sometimes, when Acronis is set to create default backup sizes, it needs to break the .tib up for whatever reason and may not always be one file.  Just for personal preference, I always set mine to be no larger than 4GB so I can put them on a FAT32 drive if I ever needed to (my home router SMB share requires the disk to be FAT32).  I've foudn backup speeds to be better at times using the smaller files as well and my own personal belief is that you are subject to less corruption if your file sizes are more manageable in size.   Try to imagine what the next biggest single file on your entire computer is, outside of Acronis...

If it is indeed creating full backups over and over (and/or appending -1, -2 -3 to the end of the exact same file name), this could indicate bad sectors on either the source OS disk and/or destination backup disk.

In the meantime, you may want to run an elevated command prompt (right click and run as administrator) and kick off the following command to check each disk for bad sectors and attempt to repair them.  

ckdsk C: /F /R

replace C: with the actual drive letter (C: is usually your main OS drive - when you run this, chances are it will tell you that you need to reboot to complete because the disk is locked).  Then do the same for the other drive as well, replacing C: with its drive letter.

This could take some time depending on how large the disks are and how fast they are.  If 

I'd also recommend running the following from an elevated command prompt to see if Windows detects any OS corruption and try to repair it on the fly

sfc /scannow

After all that's done, if the issue is still there, try deleting the task in Acronis and creating a new one from scratch with a new unique name.  I would also recommend placing your backups in their own separte folders (at least different ones per computer system) if you aren't doing that already.

If there are still issues, then you may want to try one of these two recommendations on the problem PC and see if that fixes the issue for you.  

1 Fix/Repair Corrupted Database in ATIH

2 Clean Removal and Re-install Instructions for ATIH

Thanks for your reply and for your interest in my problem.

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner.  I expected a notification of a new post which I didn't get.  I've attached the screen dump which shows two different backups with the same problem.  The destination disc is formatted as NTFS.

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Derek,

ATI has the ability to "Split" backup files (TIB files).  This is normally done when backing up to DVDs or FTP site.  Picture below shows that file splitting setting is on the "Advanced" tab of Backup options.

The numbering sequence on your backup files is normal.  What's unusual is the different file sizes.  If you total up the sizes of the 3 files, they should be about 80% to 90% of the amount of data on the respective disk being backed up.  If the sum is way off, then the backup is probably invalid.  If they are close, then you can double click on any of the 3 files.  ATI should then "mount" the image.  You will then be able to navigate through the backups using Windows explorer.  They will mount as new drive letters.  If they mount and look like the source drives, then you can "validate" the backups.  If they validate, then they should be good to go.

Regards,

FtrPilot

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Thanks.

I'll go through the things that you suggested.

The first set can be clicked on and mounted.  The second set report corrupted!  (In fact an 'archive open error')

File splitting is set to Automatic.

Is there any way to prove that the first set actually works without a restore?

 

Derek Clements wrote:
Is there any way to prove that the first set actually works without a restore?

Derek,

Yes, you can "Validate" the backup...to do that, click on the down carat next to the Backup File Name...see picture below.  ATI will analyze entire backup (all 3 files) and report any issues.

You should validate both archives...the error you got could be a Windows issue.

FtrPilot

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Thanks.

Yes, I'd already done the validation.  The set past the test - I just didn't know if that guaranteed a successful restore or whether it just told me that it was a viable backup.

 

 

Derek,

I recommend that you acquire a spare 2 1/2" disk which can be used to practice a restore.  You can then install that disk into your laptop and boot from it...that would be the ultimate validation.  It could also be used in the event of a disk crash to get you back up and running in minimum time.  Probably the best way to do that is to buy a new SSD and then use the current 2 1/2" disk as the spare.  The increased performance from an SSD is shocking.

Regards,

FtrPilot

Derek,

Most probably, the additional pieces to the backup file was due to some type interuption.  This could be loss of signal due to a loose usb connector or due to the usb connector going to sleep or disk errors which the chkdisk may find  I would make sure you have a tight usb connetion on both ends of the connection; and change the root hub device settings so connection never sleeps.  You also need to look at the Control Panel/Power configuration on how it is configured for the usb settings.

GH42. USB prevent sleeping.
GH42A. Set WD My Passport Sleep Timer to Never Sleep.
GH43. USB Set caching/quick removal on usb disks.

I've tried a few more backups, including the one contained in the attachment.  I set the split vackup requirement to be higher than the backp size.

It still produced two files.  Although I can validate them, mounting causes an error.

Confirm that the target disk File System =NTFS which will accept large single files sizes.
However, if the target disk file system=Fat32, single file size limits is 4 GB.

If target disk file system is FAT32, it can be converted to NTFS without losing data.

Google for more info about how using the "Convert" command.

Thanks for reply!

It's definitely NTFS.  Even if it had been split under FAT32 that still wouldn't explain why it won't mount.

When you say "mount" are you right "clicking" the .tib and selecting "mount"?  Even though the option is still there, the functionality was removed in 2015 and 2016.  You should now only need to double click the .tib file and it will open in Windows File Explorer.  If that is not happinging for this .tib or others, you may have a bad ATIH install and should consider a full uninstall and reinstall using the clean method described here:

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/113656#comment-334624

duplicate--ignore