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Retiring workstation running Acronis which includes NAS drives - do I have to recreate the backups?

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Hello;

hoping there is an easier way...  I have an old pc I'm about to retire.  It runs Acronis 2016 (but I'm upgrading to 2019 before I do anything.) 

This backup includes mapped drives on the pc for two NAS drives on a small home network.  (data from pc is backed up to NAS1 along with other data, and then all of NAS1 is backed up to NAS2 using Acronis, leaving me 2 local copies of everything.)

I have a new desktop that I will be installing Acronis 2019 on, which will run Acronis moving forward. (I have already moved everything I need from the pc I'm retiring over to NAS1, and it is currently backed up.)

The backups are pretty big and time-consuming to create.  I'm hoping somehow I can transfer the "instructions" for the existing backup from the old pc to the new pc, and let it continue with the actual existing backups on the NAS drives intact. (as opposed to deleting the backups and starting over.)

Is this even possible?

I hate thinking that I'd have to delete my backups while new backups are being created, but I'd have to as my NAS drives wouldn't have enough room otherwise.

Any ideas?

Thank you for your time!!!

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Hello Julie,

You should be able to continue on with the existing backups. 

01) In 2019, there is an option to export / import settings.  On the old machine, if you upgrade to 2019 first, export those settings.  On the new system, then import them. This will bring over your default settings, but not the backup jobs.

02) Then, use the "add existing" backup option and navigate to the existing backup files (the most recent one).  You may still need to either authenticate to the NAS or map the NAS share in Windows as a drive letter (whatever you're currently doing now).  Once authenticated, navigate to the files you want to continue with and add them.  Then, proceed to name them and re-pick the source and destination in those jobs, set the schedule and cleanup and you should be on your way again. 

Long story short, your old backups are fine.  There is no need to delete old backups while new ones are being created.  You can create brand new ones to start fresh, but the old backups are still fine to keep for posterity, or until you're comfortable with the state of the new backups if you want to start from scratch.

I thought about that too but I do not remember the 2016 version having the "Save settings to file" option.

Enchantech wrote:

I thought about that too but I do not remember the 2016 version having the "Save settings to file" option.

Enchantech,

Correct - but she mentioned she is planning to upgrade to 2019 first. 

Hello;

hoping there is an easier way...  I have an old pc I'm about to retire.  It runs Acronis 2016 (but I'm upgrading to 2019 before I do anything.

Ultimately, the export and import is really just for the system defaults (like if you have saved an incremental scheme as default, or other various settings that can apply throughout the settings universally). 

Not that big of a deal really in most cases, but nice so you don't have to recreate things like the SMTP settings if you setup notifications or a retention and cleanup scheme that is commonly applied.

 

The main thing, sounds like being able to "add existing backup" so she doesn't have to completely start from scratch again.