Deleting back up files in external drive

Darryl, you can delete files on your external USB drive by using Windows Explorer, but if the task that created the deleted files is still shown in the main ATI GUI, then you should run a Validation for the task in order to reconcile the internal Acronis Database with the new status of the files.
Validation will show an error message for each deleted / missing file where you should take the Ignore option if offered, or the Cancel option otherwise.

On the cloning question, sorry but too little information so far.

Please see forum topic: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this - which was written in response to many similar issues being reported in the forums.  The key message remains the same, always have a full backup of your source drive before embarking on cloning!

Thank you Steve.  I will spend some quality time with the articles you provided.  Was not aware to do all the cloning and backup from the Acronis bootable media.  Now, I'm curious why the shortcut to True Image for all the tools is located on the desktop.

My next clone and backup I will initiate from the bootable media. 

Darryl, Active Cloning provided by ATI 2018, 2019 and later, can be safe to use provided you take some precautions in doing so.  Always have a fallback plan with a good full backup image, plus with Active Cloning, ensure the target drive does not already have Windows on it (as can cause ATI to want to reboot to continue).  The Acronis Rescue Media is a further part of your fallback plan, so should be created and tested so that you are familiar with its capabilities in terms of how to boot from it and doing a dummy run of the features.

I'm a little confused as to what I need to do to reset the last .tib to #1

I have created and deleted 15 .tib files.

So if I delete the Full backup #15 .tib file how in the world do I get True Image 2018 to reset the next .tib file to #1.

It use to not be this confusing before..

There must be a setting somewhere that I can always just keep an #1 tib file after I delete older files from the external drive.

Timothy, welcome to these public User Forums.

First question, why do you want to just keep a #1 tib file? 

The way ATI works is that the first backup for a task will be name_full_b1_s1_v1.tib and if you create any incremental or differential backups for the same task & based on the full file, then these will be give s2, s3, s4 etc but keeping b1 before this.

When you create another new full backup for this task, the name will be name_full_b2_s1_v1.tib and any incremental or differential backups will follow the same rules for b2_s2, s3 etc.

The only time that the b1 name for the file is used is that first backup of a new task.

The only way to always have just b1 names would be to create a new backup task each time you use ATI which will soon become very onerous to manage, instead of being an automatic process you can 'set and leave'.

Hello Steve,

 I do not create any incremental or differential backups nor do I schedule any. 

I only create full image backups when I’m beta testing and when I’m finished I will delete the old backup and start with a fresh start once all is good on my end and restore if needed be. I’m running Win 8.1 on a laptop storing backups to my exsternal 500gb drive. Is there anyway where when I get ready to create a new backup and when I delete the older backup to keep it named .tib 1 and not get a prompt for .tib 2 3 4 file name ?

Timothy, I am not sure exactly what you are wanting to do (I may be being slow on the uptake!)..?

What you can do is use a small Post Command batch script to manage your backup file name.

The following will create a single full backup image using the Single Version Scheme backup type and then in the Post Command will rename the .tib file to be Backup1.tib and keep this as the only file on the target drive for this task.

The Stop_AAP_rename_tibs.bat file contents are as below:
(You will need to adjust the backup location and file names to your needs).

@echo off
sc stop "AcronisActiveProtectionService" > NUL 2>&1
del L:\Test\Backup1.tib > NUL 2>&1
ren L:\Test\WINPE_full_b*_s1_v1.tib Backup1.tib > NUL 2>&1
sc start "AcronisActiveProtectionService" > NUL 2>&1

The 2 sc (stop / start) lines simply turn off the on the Acronis Active Protection service which would stop the delete and rename actions otherwise.

I am storing my backup image in L:\Test so you need to change this to your drive location.
My Backup Task was WINPE, hence this is the file name being renamed to Backup1, so you should adjust these names to suit your requirements.

If you want to only ever have 1 backup .tib file on the target drive, then you could add a Pre Command script to do essentially the same as above, but just doing the delete of any existing .tib file before the task creates the new file.

Timothy, an alternative to Steve's approach is to use the Rescue Media to create the backup. In that case, you can name the backup whatever you want.

BrunoC wrote:

Timothy, an alternative to Steve's approach is to use the Rescue Media to create the backup. In that case, you can name the backup whatever you want.

That would be recommendation too for this use case. Offline backups work great, especially for full disk backups.

Thanks everyone for your input on my issues that I would like to do in the future. Thank you all very much and I believe my best solution in my situation is to run the Resue Media. 

Thanks everyone again for your support and help, I’m greatly appreciated from all your ideas. At least I know what I can do to what I was wanting to accomplish. 

Regards,

Tim 

Sounds like a plan!

Just a quick thought .. your drive isn't encrypted with bitlocker or something else though? That's the one area an offline backup won't work unless you unlock the encryption first.

No Bobbo,

 I’m using Bit Locker so I should be good to go. 

Thank you ? 

Regards,

Tim

Tim, did you mean to write that you are using BitLocker in the last post?  If so, then you will need to use the MVP ATI PE Builder tool to create the rescue media and include BitLocker support or else you will not be able to do anything with an encrypted drive.

I’m not using Bit Blocker. Sorry I left out the not by accident. 

Thanks

Regards,

Tim

Tim, no problem and a whole lot easier when BitLocker is not involved!

Hello Steve,

 I like the script too and it works great ? 

Thank you all very much for your time and support  

Regards,

Tim

Tim, you are very welcome.