Prevent Deleted Files in backup
Hi, I'm new to the software and wondering if there is a feature that allows me to prevent the backup from deleting files that were deleted in the source. For example, If my source folder has files A B and C on it and I create a backup, the backup will have files A B and C. But if I (or some program) delete files A and B (on accident most likely), I want the backup to maintain files A B and C in addition to continuing to add any new files that were added to the source. Is this possible in Acronis? Thanks
Hi and thanks for the response. I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing though. I understand that files cannot be directly deleted from the backup .tib files. What I mean is if I delete files A and B from the SOURCE folder, then run the backup again, the new .tib file will NOT contain files A and B. If I'm working with a differntial backup, I understand that the full backup .tib file will still contain files A and B, but lets say I have cleanup turned on to eventually replace that full backup with a new one every so often, then eventually files A and B will not appear anywhere in the .tib files.
I used to use a program called SyncBack Pro that allowed me to do exactly what I'm talking about. I essentially want my destination folder to exactly mirror the source folder, however, I never want to remove ANY files from the destination folder, even if they ARE removed from the source folder. Is something like that possible with Acronis?
Thanks again for any help!
Joe...I believe that Acronis True Image (ATI) will do exactly what you want it to do. ATI can perform full, differential, and incremental backups.
The first backup is always a full backup...then subsequent backups can be differential or incremental.
You can schedule backups in a series...for example a full backup followed by 5 differential backups, then a full backup followed by 5 differential backups. ATI can also be set up to delete the old backups based on differing criteria, such as number of backups or age of backups.
Per your question, if files A & B are contained in the first full backup, then deleted, they will remain in the full backup .tib file until it is deleted.
With regard to SyncBack Pro, I am not familiar with that software. ATI does have a sync capability, but I have not used ATI sync, so I don't know if it will do what you want it to do.
Perhaps some of the other MVPs can respond.
Hmm. That's an interesting question. One of my backup schemes is weekly backups - 1 full + 5 incremental - of my partitions. It sounds like if I do a full restore, any new or changed files will be as at the time of the last backup ... whether full or incremental. But any deleted file will be reinstated as it was in the last backup that contained it.
But if I were doing differential backups, deleted files (if deleted before the last differential backup was created) would be reinstated as it was at the last full backup because only the full and last differential backups are used. Is that correct?
This seems a bit strange.
In setup of the Backup task have a look at the Backup scheme tab. Note that in these options you can select "Create only incremental or differential versions after the full version". This will retain the original full version. If you then restore an inc/diff version of the full the changes as of the time and date of that inc/diff will be restored which in the above scenario would mean that files A and B would not be restored. If you selected just the full version for restore then files A and B would be in that restore.
If you choose the "Create a full version after every X incremental versions" then once that cycle completes and new full version is created then files A and B at that point cease to exist unless you also check the last option of "Do not delete the first version of the backup"
Patrick - don't overthink it too much. If you have a backup scheme, data will be restored based upon the date of the recovery based upon the data on the machine when it was taken in that point in time.
So, if you have a backup chain with 1 full + 6 incrementals, but you select teh full as recovery point, anything that was on the disk at that point in time will be recovered. However, ALL changes (additions or deletions) since then in incremental 1-6 will not be in the recovered image.
If you chooose to recover from incremetnal #3, all changes to the disk (deleteions and additions) will be restored as of that point in time, but not those that came after it in inc 4, 5 and/or 6.
A backup is just a snapshot of the data at the exact moment the backup was taken. If you need older files that were on the system from an earlier point in time, you need to grab them from an earlier backup instead.
Using notes in your backups may help you remember where certain data is/was at the time of backup, or cataloging major changes in a spreadsheet (google sheet or google doc can be helpful for this since it's stored in the cloud and wouldn't be impacted by any potential local data loss).