Moving Acronis Nonstop backup to larger drive
So, I got a new motherbboard/CPU/RAM on my main machine, and had to reinstall the OS.
I figured I would use Acronis Nonstop Backup so I could go back in time if some software gets messed up (drivers, apps, Windows updates).
I ran into multiple difficulties :
1) it won't backup to a local Storage Spaces array
2) it won't backup to a local Striped volume (dynamic disk)
3) it will backup to an external USB 3.0 Seagate Archive 8TB drive
4) it will backup to my NAS
5) it will backup to a fast 120GB SSD in a SATA hotswap bay in the front of my case
I very much wanted to use 1 or 2, but they didn't work as destination for the backup. I don't understand why.
Option 3 is not great, because the drive is very slow, and noisy. I don't want to have it running permanently.
Option 4 requires the NAS to be on at the same time as my desktop, which I don't want. It it fast, but has 8 drives, so power consumption and noise are an issue as well.
So, I started with option 5. I am 1/3 of the way done with my software installs. The 120GB SSD is 1/3rd full so far.
I expect the nonstop backup will exceed the size of this 120GB SSD.
It seems I will be forced to acquire another larger SSD for the backup, which is very annoying.
My boot drive is 1TB NVMe, and it will have about 275GB full by the time I'm done, probably too much for the True Image compression to fit on the 120GB SSD. And over time, it would surely exceed it anyway.
Assuming I acquire a larger SSD for backup, how can I move the existing nonstop backup to the larger SSD ?
I do have another hotswap bay, so I can have both SSDs hooked up at once.
The problem is, I don't see the "Move" option when I right-click the nonstop backup.
Is there a workaround for this ? Can I clone the small SSD to the larger SSD, and continue to use it with the same existing nonstop backup, without losing the current backup history ? I really don't want to lose it.


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IanL-S wrote:It is a while since I used non-stop backup. I can understand why you are not seeing a Move option, as you cannot move file that is currently open (being written to by non-stop backup). You could try pausing non-stop backup and see if there is then a move option.
I think the best way to deal with the problem is to clone the SSD to a larger SSD using the recovery media. (Cloning from within Windows is not something I would try, as non-stop backup will still be active.) once the clone is completed, remove the old drive from the PC and attach the new one to the same SATA port (to reduce the risk of Windows giving a different drive letter to the disk).
Thanks. I tried to suspend the nonstop backup, but unfortunately, that didn't make the "Move" option appear.
At the moment, the 120GB size hasn't been exceeded yet. I still have a couple more SSDs of the same size. I'll try to find out if cloning from Boot media works.
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Thanks for the update - I suspect suspension would not help.
Ian
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Nonstop backup ran run into the following error :
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/nonstop-b…
There was still 30GB of space on the 120GB SSD.
True Image now only shows the 2 most recent backups, when trying to restore, even though there were snapshots taken roughly every 5 minutes yesterday.
In other words, the nonstop backup has become corrupt, and useless.. Sigh. Perhaps I should have backed up the backup ?
This was the first time I used nonstop backup, and I'm not impressed.
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Here is a suggestion. Stop non-stop backup and copy the files using Explorer (or you favorite file manager) to copy the files to another location. The delete the backup from within ATI 2019.
Next using Explorer and navigate to the location of the backup, double click and it should open in Explorer. If you are lucky the older backups may still be there.
Ian
PS I can understand your opinion. The fact that it is fixed in ATI 2020 + does not help much. If you want to try again you could search the internet for a perpetual license for either ATI 2020 (or 2021 - but I would go with 2020).
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Thanks. I think I will just give up on the nonstop backup, and rely on nightly backups instead. Acronis stopped selling perpetual licenses, unfortunately. There are many other bugs/limitations in the product that I want fixed. But I don't want to pay a yearly fee for a cloud service I can't use, and don't need.
FYI, Newegg still sells perpetual licenses boxes of ATI 2021, if someone is looking for on, but I won't be purchasing.
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Julien Pierre wrote:Thanks. I think I will just give up on the nonstop backup, and rely on nightly backups instead. Acronis stopped selling perpetual licenses, unfortunately. There are many other bugs/limitations in the product that I want fixed. But I don't want to pay a yearly fee for a cloud service I can't use, and don't need
Dear Julien, sorry to know you don't like the new licensing policy! I've passed your feedback to the product management for review.
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