Just want to make make occasional full OS images with discrete names?

TinCup, welcome to these User Forums.

When you create a new backup task in the ATI 2019 GUI, it will give you an initial default name, i.e. the disk name, My Partitions, etc, but you can easily change this to any name you prefer to use provided that you do so before you run the backup task.

The name of the backup image file will be your chosen name coupled with _full_b1_s1_v1.tib (for the first backup made by the task).  This will always be the case though the numbers for b,s & v can / do change as you make further backups for the task.

ATI will also choose a default Schedule for a new task, but it is very simple to change this to be not scheduled via the Options pages.

The default Backup Scheme is Incremental, but you can just as easily change this to be Full versions only via the Options pages.

Once you have created & configured your first task, then you can easily duplicate the settings to a second task by using the option to 'Clone settings' which will create a new task with the same settings, but with the task name prefixed by (1) - you would then just need to change the task name via the 'Rename' option, and make any adjustment to the Source or Destination settings needed.

Good, I'll give that a try - sounds like what I need to do only more complicated than with the earlier versions. But I think there should be a simple name-and-make image mode along side the current deeper ATI 'backup centric' setup.

Thanks for your help

Ooof. This is less straightforward than I was hoping for. I've been using ATI since the early 2000's and never felt unsure about what I was doing. I'll probably get the hand of it but I seem to be working at crosspurposes to what the program expects me to be doing. I think it's the middle pane that's throwing me off. I only see 2 of the 4 images I've made so far and and 'renaming' a previous image doesn't make intuitive sense for naming a new image?

I use ATI in lieu of System Restore, not to backup data, so the new look UI (at least since 2013) is not helping me visualize the task.

My goal is simply to have a series of easily identified full bootable C: images that can be rolled back to at any time using the recovery disc, like:

OS_fresh install_10-22-2018

OS_basic setup_11-22-2018

OS_main progs_12-22-2018 etc. etc.

Is there an earlier W10 friendly version that looks and feel more ike older releases?

I would suggest you use the recovery media to make your images. The UI is still like the old versions. I think you'll find it more to your liking.

Interesting. I need to do a few restoration test runs with the recovery CD any way to be sure I have 2019 down pat...

Over the years at critical momements ATI has been a true lifesaver, a real 'sleep well at night' product.

Thanks

EDIT: I think I'm OK - unorthodox approach but I just rename the tib's to my liking after the operation and navigate manually to my image save drive/folder as needed from restore media. I lose the designed integrated functionality of the ATI interface but it doesn't matter - I just need a life line of periodic OS images I can restore if ever needed. But there really should be a way of selecting this kind of dumb-as-dirt one-off operation like this. But this fights the trend of ever increasing integration...

Well... a few evenings of trying to get Acronis to do the same few simple tasks it had so ably performed for years on W95 through W7, sad to say it's no longer the same same product I liked and recommended. I never had to read up on anything or ask forum questions on how to do things with ATI before - it was all clear and intuitive. But I fear it's the end of the line now - it's idea of what I should be trying to accomplish is of no use for my needs. Yes, it runs like it used off boot CD but that's hardly a step forward. Until they include a use mode for simple image making, naming, restoring and extracting I'm interviewing for a replacment.

I have to tell you I just ran a backup job from Windows the way you want to do it. I set my own name, did not schedule it, made it a Custom backup, made it a Full OS disk and partition backup and told it not to exclude anything. The process took about 90 seconds to set it up before I hit the Backup Now button.

The UI is a lost cause. I'm resigned to creating a full custom unscheduled image - and renaming after creation. Regardless of what I try to "rename" an image in the left panel ATI just does what it wants. So I rename them manually afterwards and lose integration with the UI.

Why can't ATI simply display all tibs in a target folder in a Windows-like navigation panel like older versions could? Why is folder/file navigation so clumsy and erratic? Why make tib naming so indirect and unfriendly? Why can't it access/restore/extract renamed tibs??? The UI on recover media can - why not 2019 front end??? This ATI software version is a bad fit for my needs.

Sorry that you are finding the ATI GUI so difficult to master but I am sure that it can do everything that you want it to do if you are prepared to work with the tools provided to allow this?

When you create a new backup in the GUI, you can set the name for the task, and thus also the name for the backup files created at any time prior to clicking on the Backup now button.  There is a Rename option provided in the drop-down menu for each task in the GUI that you can use, so per your earlier post, you could name the backup as ' OS_fresh install_10-22-2018 ' if that is what you want to have.

Once you have run the backup task, then you can see all the files associated with that backup very easily by using another drop-down menu option to Open location which will open Explorer to show all the files for that task.

Example:  first images show the default task name ATI gives on my laptop, i.e. DELLSTUDIO, then the option to Rename this, then the new name for the task / files when created.

Next: the full drop-down menu list of options, including Open location to show the files for another of my backup tasks (of key partitions).

All of the above files are accessible from the ATI GUI on the Recovery page by using the drop-down list showing the recovery points by Date & Time.

The only point to note about the above image is that the date/time stamps may be slighter different to the date/time stamp for the actual .tib files, as one represents the time the task was performed and the other the time the file was created fully at the end of the process.

Thanks for sticking we me on this. But the rename feature does not always or constently produce a new tib with the new "rename" for me. It doesn't now. It reverts to a previous default/renamed file name that no longer even exists in the location folder (I deleted a bunch of early tibs when first trying to figure out how the new UI works) and adds addtional notations to it etc.

These complications and lack of clear graphic interface just seem unnecessary and gratuitous for what should be (and used to be) such a simple task: what do you want to image, where do you want the image, what do you want to call the image...

But I appreciate the help.

But the rename feature does not always or constently produce a new tib with the new "rename" for me. It doesn't now. It reverts to a previous default/renamed file name that no longer even exists in the location folder (I deleted a bunch of early tibs when first trying to figure out how the new UI works) and adds addtional notations to it etc.

I can only say that I have not experience the issues that you are speaking of here, but if you have been deleting .tib files outside of the ATI GUI using Explorer, then this can cause issues with the Acronis internal database which holds information about all backups created via the GUI, and can lead to corruption of the database.

I would suggest making a full clean install of ATI 2019, or at a minimum, deleting or renaming the Acronis Database folder (C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database) to force the database to be rebuilt and only populated with information any current backup tasks.

Notes: To delete or rename the Database folder you need to first stop all Acronis Services then end any running Acronis programs or else the folder will be locked.
To do a full clean install, first uninstall ATI via the Control Panel, then download the Acronis Cleanup tool (link in my signature) and run this as Administrator, followed by a restart of Windows before doing a reinstall of ATI.

Hello TinCup,

I've passed your feedback and use-case to the product management, thank you! 

I tried the folder rename solution but behavior was the same so I did a fresh install using the cleanup tool and most current AHI2019. It now "works", but as I feared it doesn't work in the way I was hoping. The 'rename' doesn't rename the actual tib file - it retains the name of whatever the initial backup was called and add the crypic letter sufix..

What I like to do is give each fresh OS image a name that I can identify just by peeking in the storage folder - like "OS_01-13-2019_CleanAV". I can't do that with this interface. I need to check the file creation datestamp and file size and guess from there.

If there was a way to install the Recovery software instead of the full AHI2019 suite - that would be great. In fact if rebooting off my recover USB to do these image tasks wasn't the mild PITA that it is I would do that. Just seems like a frustrating consession for something that should be possible right out of the box.

Thanks for the suggestions tho.

TinCup,

Why don't you add a comment to your backup for identification purposes?  Some of us here do just that.  See my screenshot below.  Note the red circle where the cursor is.  Hovering the cursor over the icon shown will produce a tool tip.  Click on the icon to produce the Comment field where you can add text.