Acronis Active Protection Interfereing with my backup approach
I use the backup approach outlined in this forum post that creates a fresh backup each week and then incremental backups every night. This approach involves generations of backup folders (for 5 generations, set0, set1, set2, set3, set4) moving / aging the backup folders (delete set4, rename set3 -> set4, rename set2 -> set3, rename set1 -> set2, rename set0 -> set1, create folder set0).
True Image backups to folder set0 and tries to do an incremental backup ... can't file the backup file ... so does a full backup.
Anyway ... last night my generational batch file failed. The batch file was swatted aside because it was modifying the backup files (moving them to a new directory). I believe this is caused by the new feature ... 'Acronis Active Protection'.
I did some googling and there are solutions, but disabling the active protection manually isn't really a solution for me. My backups occur at 1am in the morning and I am not getting up to hold its hand.
So ... options as I see them (please offer others) ...
1) disable active protection manually on the night my generation aging runs (not ideal)
2) white list command.com so that the batch file runs (not ideal)
3) disable / enable via a scheduled job (can I do this?) and run my generation batch file in this window
4) set up a disabled window (can I do this?) and run my generation batch file in this window
I imaging that #3 isn't ideal because if you could disable this via a job ... then the hackers would just add that job to the start of their attack.
Item #4 is better because the user has to set up that window.


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In reply to Is the command prompt… by truwrikodrorow…

"Is the command prompt running as administrator when it runs the batch file?
This is necessary to avoid conflict with Active Protection"
Good question ... I will look at it and run some tests when I get home.
Thanks for the reply.
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Running the shortcut as admin didn't work.
Turning off the protection let my batch file complete.
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The problem is the Active Protection Self Defense mechanism that is actionable whenever a True Image file (including backup files) are manipulated by an external process including Windows processes.
I would suggest writing a new batch script file that includes first turning off Active Protection, then run the task, then turn Active Protection back on.
More work but I believe it is the only way to get this to work short of disabling AP period.
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"I would suggest writing a new batch script file that includes first turning off Active Protection, then run the task, then turn Active Protection back on."
That is very close to my #3 option above. Do you have the magic code to turn off / on Active Protection?
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Unfortunately no, I am not a script writer by a long shot!
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You need the following in your batch file:
@echo off
sc stop "AcronisActiveProtectionService" > NUL 2>&1
rem do your copy actions...
sc start "AcronisActiveProtectionService" > NUL 2>&1
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Steve ... fan-bloody-tastic!
I will add that to my batch file and wait until the next generation cycle to provide feedback (1am on Wednesday).
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In reply to You need the following in… by truwrikodrorow…

I tested it and it didn't work. But it did work when I ran it as admin.
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Admin privileges are needed for this type of command to work.
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Hmm ... and I can't raise the batch file to admin level. The 'shortcut' option didn't seem to work either. I'll have to think about my options.
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Take a look at webpage: How to Create a Batch File that will Automatically Run as Administrator
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Hmmm ... interesting option re convert batch file to exe. I might just look into that.
The other options I googled were all a bit too long and involved. I believe I have vb6 on my PC ... I guess I could write a short program to just shell out to the batch file.
Edit: Batch file to exe didn't work. It presented a UAC which won't work in an unsupervised situation. Further, Acronis thru up this little road block (see attached)
It seems that my generational backup will require a manual restart ... or turning off this 'protection' permanently.
Attachment | Size |
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458960-151498.JPG | 30.28 KB |
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I was all set to run the generation step manually ... but last night it went off without a hitch. I had buried the above STOP / START code in my gen batch file and no one complained. I have now added some 'write to log file' sections in the gen batch file so I will have more feedback next week.
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Update: I recently purchased Acronis True Image 2020 and my 2018 solution of stopping active protection (AP), moving the files I need moved and turning AP back on didn't work.
However, 2020 adds the ability to white list programs so that they have access to the backup files. I had to white list the command prompt to get this done. Not something that I am happy about.
Instead, I wrote a very focused VB.net application that runs each night (Windows Scheduler) and checks if it needs to perform a generational update. The batch file use to run for about 5 minutes when it was going a generational update. My new program takes 15 seconds. I have whitelisted my VB.net application - I am much happier doing that.
BTW ... the Acronis scheduler that I stopped using in 2018 (unreliable) is working well so far.
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