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Using Hard drive for back up that has Windows back up data but no Acronis files

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I have been backing up my C: drive via Windows 7 backup and restore and would like to use the same hard drive to now use Acronis TI 2016.  

There is no "format or remove" option in Acronis so do I need to format the hard drive before backing up?

Is there anything else I need to know?  

 

TD

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Thomas, welcome to these user forums.

There is no need to format your backup drive in order to use Acronis to backup to the same drive though I would recommend creating new folders to hold that backup data.

If you no longer need the Windows 7 backup data, then you could remove this from the drive via Windows Explorer.

Thanks Steve.

 

I do not have enough room to do a backup with the current data and when I ask Acronis to do an incremental back up scheme it sends me an error stating there is no tib or something similar file on the drive.

 

TD

Thomas, I would recommend downloading the Log File Viewer app from the link in my signature below and using this to get the service log messages that are written when you try to do a backup.

You will need sufficient free space on your backup drive to complete a full backup before any subsequent incremental or differential backups can be created.  The full backup will be similar in size to your Windows system image with the possibility of compression of up to 20%.

I checked properties on my C: drive (which is what I want to back up) and it shows 173GB used and looked on my H: drive where the current Windows 7 back up is located and see there is 279 GB free.

 

One of the suggestions in https://kb.acronis.com/content/49478 is to ignore the lack of tib file and continue the back up.  

 

Assuming the initial file will be a complete back up of the C: drive the data should be =/< 173GB.

 

Thoughts?

Thomas, if the message you are seeing is that the first version of the file cannot be found, then you have two choices of how to proceed.

  1. Attempt to validate the backup task and then take the Ignore option for any missing files.  or 
  2. Create a completely new full backup using a different / unique name to a new folder.

Hi Thomas,

If Acronis is telling you there isn't enough space, there really isn't.  We need more information to find out why though.  Some reasons you might not have enough room:

1) If you've selected your backup SOURCE as "entire pc", kill that task and go back and pick "DISKS and PARTIONS".  Then make sure you only select the specific disk that you're intending.  When "Entire PC" is selected as the source, it may be trying to back other disks you don't intend to, but that's exactly what entire pc does - backs up the entire pc.

2) Disk corruption (bad sectors) on the original drive.  If Acronis is encountering bad sectors on the source drive, it may automatically revert to a sector-by-sector backup which would attempt to backup all content.  Running chkdsk /f /r on the OS drive may help if this is the case

3) Your system protection is reserving additional space not shown in your current C: drive utilization that will put you over the amount of available space on your backup drive

4) If you are doing a full disk image, that includes hidden paritions too - such as OEM recovery and Windows recovery partitions - OEM recovery paritions can be as much as 20GB in some cases

Could you post some screen shots of:

A) Your backup task settings showing the source and destination

B) computer management - disk management

C) Windows file explorer showing the root of your hard drives with free and used space

D) Right click "computer" >>> properties >>> system protection >>> click on C: drive >>> click on configure (screenshot of max usage)

 

 

The hard drive (H:) obviously does not have an Acronis file on it since I have never used Acronis to do a back up for C: to H:.

 

How does one create a new "folder" for the Acronis backup.  I thought it would have created any folders it needs automatically.

 

Seems Acronis has a number of "features" that are not spelled out anywhere.

 

TD

I never said that there were any ACronis backups on the drive - only that there is not enough space if that's what it's telling you.  You already mentioned that you have other windows backups on there.  I was just explaining why it could be reporting not enoguh space... like if you've tried to create an "entire Pc" backup instead of a "disk backup", you may configuring it backup multiple drives that would not fit on the remaining space.  

No, it does not create folders for backups.  It creates the backups whereever you tell it to do so.  If you tell it to write backups to the root of yoru drive, that's where they'll go.  I'd recommend you create one main folder for all of your backups and then put a new folder for each individual backup job to keep things neat and clean - how you organize it is up to you.

If you have not used the product, please read the user manual.  These videos are a very good place to learn how to use it as well. 

117004: Great Acronis "How-To" videos and other Acronis Resources

these 2 will probably be of the most use for you

03 - Britec - How to Backup and Restore Your Windows - YouTube

04 - Britec - How To Restore Windows 10 from a System Image - YouTube