NSB anomaly
I was examining the different versions of my outlook.pst file. Regardless of whether I chose 'Today' or 1 week ago the .pst file remains unchanged, in effect only giving me one restore choice, or am I missing something?
Thank you Steve. I have closed Outlook and checked again, same size .PST file displayed every time.
Sorry to ask a silly question, but I assume that you've checked the actual PST file (in the same folder as the one referenced in the NSB UI) and it does indeed have a newer date and differnt file size? So there's a disparity between what you see on your disk and what NSB shows in the restore interface?
Thank you Philip,
Yes, the file structure in the NSB restore page is the correct one. I have just rebooted and examined the NSB version and it is, apart from the exact size, the date is correct so it is identical to the active .pst file, but the same problem remains, whichever previous time I choose, the .pst file choice remains the same, there are no previous versions to choose.
Sometimes there is both an *.ost and *.pst file for the one mail account. If so, the size of the *.ost may have changed.
About Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)
There are two types of Outlook Data Files used by Outlook. An Outlook Data File (.pst) is used for most accounts. If you are using a Microsoft Exchange account, your items are usually delivered to and saved on the mail server. To allow you to work with your messages even when you can’t connect to the mail server, a second type of data file that is named an offline Outlook Data File (.ost) is kept on your computer.
The primary differences between the two types of Outlook data files are as follows:
Outlook Data Files (.pst) are used for POP3, IMAP, and web-based mail accounts. When you want to create archives or back up your Outlook folders and items on your computer, such as Exchange accounts, you must create and use additional .pst files.
Outlook Data Files (.ost) are used when you have an Exchange account and want to work offline or use or use the default Cached Exchange Mode. This type of data file is also used for accounts that you set up with the Outlook Connector for Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail). Outlook Data Files (.ost) are always copies of items that are saved on a mail server and don’t have to be backed up like Outlook Data Files (.pst).
see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Introduction-to-Outlook-Data-F…
Update: I think the explation of why I have both *pst and *.ost for some email accounts is that they were migrated from POP to Exchange Server.
Ian
Thank you Ian but I only have a .pst file, I do not have an Exchange account. In True Image 2014 I had a myriad choices of copies to restore, Yesterday, Two days ago, Three days ago etc, etc.
Peter, if you close Outlook down and wait about 10 minutes, does the PST file then get added to NSB - I suspect it will.
1) As Steve mentioned earlier, MS Office products, while they are open, are saved to memory, not the disk by default. As such, files in memory will not be backed up until they are committed to the disk. MS Office, will usually save at periods of time in the day, but may need to be set my the user to ensure they are committed to the disk.
2) HOWEVER, NSB consolidates to a single backup every 24 hours. So, if that consolidated backup is one that does not have a saved .pst in it at that time, it will not be in that 24 hour backup consolidation. This is the primary reason I feel that NSB is an inferior backup type. If you need to recover within that 24 hour time period, you can get those changes, but once consolidation occurs, you only have that one point in time for the day. This same consolidation behavior then occurs on a weekly basis, for any backups that are older than 30 days. As a result, at backup 37, you lose your oldest 7 days of backups for the last day of that week.
Personally, I do not and would not use NSB. Instead, I would consider using hourly incrementals for just your outlook folder (if you need it to back up that often), but I would also only keep 23 incrementals in the version chain (1 full + 23 hour incremetnals for a total of 24 incrementals or 1 day). You don't want incrementals to grow too long in time, or too many in depth as incrementals are all reliant upon each one that came before it. This incremental scheme will give you frequent backup of your PST's, but not be prone to the NSB consolidation process and should allow you to capture more PST saves to disk than NSB.
Also, do you need your PST's backed up that often? Are you using POP or iMAP? If using iMAP, all of your emails should still be on the server as well. If using POP, why, when iMAP is so much more data/recovery secure?
3) The difference in 2014 and 2017 is Windows VSS. In 2014, the default backup method was the proprietary Acronis Snapapi backup method. In 2015 and newer, Acronis is using MS VSS snapshots as the primary backup method. Snapapi is still available though. You might want to see if disabling VSS in your NSB backup brings back the same behavior as 2014 for your .pst backups. Please see Slava's post about disabling VSS for a particular Acronis backup job, which will then default back to the snapapi backup method from 2014. https://forum.acronis.com/forum/45832#comment-346558
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2017/#13720.html
How it works
Once you start Acronis Nonstop Backup, the program will perform an initial full backup of the data selected for protection. Acronis Nonstop Backup will then continually monitor the protected files (including open ones). Once a modification is detected, the changed data is backed up. The shortest interval between the incremental backup operations is five minutes. This allows you to recover your system to an exact point in time.
Acronis Nonstop Backup checks file changes on the disk, not in the memory. If, for instance, you are working in Word and do not use the "Save" operation for a long time, your current changes in the Word document will not be backed up.
You may think that at these backup rates the storage will fill in no time. Do not worry as Acronis True Image will back up only so called "deltas". This means that only differences between old and new versions will be backed up and not whole changed files. For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook or Windows Mail, your pst file may be very large. Furthermore, it changes with each received or sent E-mail message. Backing up the entire pst file after each change would be an unacceptable waste of your storage space, so Acronis True Image backs up only its changed parts in addition to the initially backed up file.
Retention rules
Acronis Nonstop Backup keeps all backups for the last 24 hours. The older backups will be consolidated in such a way that Nonstop Backup will keep daily backups for the last 30 days and weekly backups until all Nonstop Backup data destination space is used.
The consolidation will be performed every day between midnight and 01:00 AM. The first consolidation will take place after the Nonstop Backup has been working for at least 24 hours. For example, you have turned on the Nonstop Backup at 10:00 AM on July 12. In this case the first consolidation will be performed between 00:00 and 01:00 AM on July 14. Then the program will consolidate the data every day at the same time. If your computer is turned off between 00:00 and 01:00 AM, the consolidation will start when you turn the computer on. If you turn off Nonstop Backup for some time, the consolidation will start after you turn it on again.
Thank you Bobbo,
Of all the possibilities IMAP seems the best. I am accessing GMAIL through Outlook 2013. I looked at the settings and under account type is POP but is greyed out with no option to change to IMAP. Do I have to start a new account? if so are all settings the same apart from account type?
Peter, when needing to change from POP to IMAP you will need to add a new account - you can do this while keeping the POP account until you are satisfied that all is OK, then remove it and just keep the IMAP account. Most email clients won't allow you to change the server type for accounts once created.
Hi Peter,
As Steve mentioned, you would need to configure a new (2nd account) in Outlook and set it up with iMAP.
HOWEVER, since you're using GMail, POP may be OK as well - it will be up to you. You can configure POP with Gmail to keep a copy of the message so it doesn't get downloaded to the local machine and automatically deleted in the process.
EDITED*** - You can also set IMAP (not POP) so that when you delete message in Gmail, they automatically get archived. See the attached screenshot.
Personally, I still feel iMAP is a better solution as it syncs directly with the server and any changes you make on the server or local machine occur at the same time. As a result, if you don't have a backup though, and need to get that email, it would be gone. Using the archive option in Gmail with IMAP, gives you yet another safety net to fall back on though.
Ultimately, the issue is really about making sure your .PST is backed up when backups run. When outlook is closed and the backup runs, it will definitely get backed up. When it's open and committed to memory, only the last vesion of the .pst that was committed (a snapshot of it) is backed up. NSB is not ideal for outlook backups (in my opinion) for this reason since the consolidation process each day is more likely (than not) to NOT include your changed backup if Outlook is always open. Feel free to leave your existing NSB backup in place, but also use an additional backup task, just for backing up your mail folder using either incremental or differential backup schemes. Perhaps one every 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 hours - really up to you to determine how often. Then check those backups to see if they contain a more current snapshot of teh backup or not. I still suspect it won't update all the time due to the stored in memory limitation of Outlook.
One other suggestion, which I have not tried, would be to use pre and post commands in such a backup. Perhaps it would be possible to use a pre-command to automatically close outlook cleanly, run an incremental or differential backup and at the end of the backup, launch Outlook automatically again. If this occured a few time a day at set intervals, it probably would ensure your PST is backed up without too much inconvenience. I'll have to play with this a bit to see if it's possible, but only if you'd even be interested in trying such a task.
My apologies Bobbo but I have been incapacitated for a week with back problems. I have read through all the replies kindly suggested by everyone but I have decided to use the KISS principle. To that end I have purchased 'SafePST Backup' does almost everything I wish. Backs up closed OR open .pst files, I can choose the regularity, from 5 mins to one month so I can now dispense with NSB which doesn't work correctly anyway. My sincere thanks to all who tried to help, I somtimes think we pensioners are not worth helping, better to concentrate on the youngsters.
Thanks again to all.
Peter
Glad you found a solution - having a good backup - regardless of the type of data, is the most important item! Please submit feedback through the app about your issues with NSB and open PST files though - if there are tools that can address them when they are open, Acronis should be able to replicate the functionality in some manner as well.