Acronis True Image 2020 - Rotering af off site USB disks

Is it possible to create a setup where the user can rotate the two disks 2 + 3 each week without having to reconfigure in Acronis True Image.

Trying to create one backup task for the two rotating backups is asking for trouble. What you need is two separate backup tasks. (You can create the first then clone that task - but if my memroy serves correctly, there are currently limitations with cloning which apparently impacts on the ability to give taks a unique name. However it is not all that hard to create a separate task.) This does not require any reconfiguration. The key thing is to make sure that ATI cannot be confused between the two backups. The first thing is to assign the 3 USB drive to different drive letters in Disk Management.

If you are running the backups manually, you can specify that the backup task runs whenever the drive is connected to the PC. As an additional precaution you can include a pre-command that checks to make sure the USB disk is attached before running the backup task - you do so by running a command that tests for the existence of a specified file on the target drive - this avoids error messages when the drive is not attached when ATI ttempts to run a scheduled backup. I have not done this myself, but it has been done successfully by many users. I am not sure of the syntax for the command but I am sure another user will be able to help with setting up the task.

Ian

Ditto to Ian, to rotate drives with ATI requires separate backup tasks for each different backup drive.  You cannot rotate multiple drives using a single task.

There have been many topics posted in the forums on this subject all given the same answer.

First, a thank you to Ian and Steve for input on my topic.

I'm glad it's not me who just can't figure it out, but dealing with such (in my eyes) elementary backup procedure is a challenge. It is good practice to take at least one backup version out of the office.

Am surprised that such an ordinary program does not address such an elementary practice.

Of course, there are several ways to solve this challenge, but if it is to be performed so that it is easy to perform for a non-IT knowledgeable office staff, then as an expert user comes overtime.

There has been an option under Disk Backup Options / Advanced / Backup Reserves Copy, but this option has unfortunately been removed in ATI 2020. I have used this feature so far, but it is no longer available. It was just possible to make an extra copy without creating a database connection to the copy. But it's past now.

I have to try to take advantage of the possibilities, but I do not see how I can automate the procedures so that the daily user can avoid having to open and manage processes in ATI. I think that makes it unnecessarily cumbersome, as it is now such a routine process.

Is it possible to create a shortcut for a specific backup job that can be placed on the desktop?

Please read forum topic: Backup fails when one of two external hard drives is not connected. - which may offer a fairly simple method of doing what you want.

IMHO, having 2 backup tasks, 1 of each hard drive is the easiest way to go.  If you are rotating drives for a single backup, and using a differential or incremental scheme, you would need both backup drives onsite to recover because you would be missing the other files in the chain (if dispersed between different disks).

By having one job per drive, you can still accomplish what you are looking to do, and each drive will always have all the files on it, needed to recover.  Week 1, goes to drive 1, week 2 goes to drive 2, week 3 to drive 1, week 4 to drive 2, etc.  While the one disk is offsite, it just won't be getting backups during that time, but that's to be expected with any offsite drive.  And when you bring it back, it will pick up where it last left off. 

You would essentially be doing the same with one task to 2 drives, but then, if you needed to recover, you would always have to have both drives onsite at that time, and that throws out the offsite security because something bad could happen while both disks were on site at the same time for a recovery.  

I can tell you how businesses do it.  They buy something some like a Highly Reliable Systems NetSwap Devices
- It uses a RAID-1 Mirror with registered spares in a Ethernet connected NAS that can be attached to through a Windows share or iSCSI.
- One drive remains and they tape the handle down so it doesn't get swapped by accident.  It wouldn't be the end of the world, but they might have to restart or repair the continuos incremental backup chain.
- When you pull out one drive and insert another you will see red lights flashing indicating it is rebuilding the array, so don't pull out the drive until that stops, which might be 8 hours on a large drive.
- Once synched, continuous incremental happen every 15 minutes throughout the day and typically take only a couple minutes.  End of the day only takes 6 minutes.
- Consolidation happens at night when 15 minute backups are combined into daily backups, daily backups into weeklys, weeklys into monthlys, etc.  However, the granularity you control.  E.G. you can still keep every 15 minutes for a week if you wanted to etc. 
- Another common way is to have a second box off-site in the local area where it replicates the small 15 minute backups throughout the day, often at someone's home, where this consolidation also occurs.  Even if it replicates malware, the malware has not direct access and you can pick any point ahead of the infection in 15 minute increments.  You can also scan a backup that may have the virus but not yet encrypted files, and remove the virus before restoring or mounting the server backup as a virtual machine in a workstation.
- Backups can be encrypted with the backup software or buying their key.  We use the backup software because it enables you to use the backup software to get information off the drives if the NAS goes bad because they are formatted NTFS. 
- If a server goes bad, you move the drive to a workstation and mount the backup as a virtual machine to where it will be indistinguishable from the regular server and you lose no more than 15 minutes of work.

For ransomware protection:
- The backup agent has to log into the box to connect and write to it.
- You have drives that are not active so even if the backups are hit, you do not have a problem because you have copies that are not connected.  (Just make sure you remove the master drive which is encrypted, and then insert the backup drive in its place so you don't replicate the compromised drive to a new one, and restore from it.)
- If you replicate off site that is in the local area, you can do that too.
- Some backup software programs have dedicated processes that run on bootup that prevent their backup files from being compromised by ransomware.

Generally, businesses have at least two different technologies involved, and often 3 because things go will for a long time and people get lax and don't stay on top of backup systems.  Then something bad happens. 

"The cloud" is nothing more than storing files on another computer at a remote location across the Internet.  If people share those files, it also means that anyone who shares those files that gets infected with ramsomware corrupts the files for all.  If you use such a service, make sure you get one with a backup that YOU can rewind to a previous point in time.  However, no matter what they tell you, they cannot reliably restore your computer and operating system back the way it was.  Reinstalling and configuring everything entails a huge effort for many businesses.  Thus, they are only useful for certain key files you want to backup or share.  Moreover, your files are available to about any good actor wearing a suit and tie.  It does not require a warrant.  You and your business can be being setup without your knowledge.  For this reason, many business people won't allow it unless it is encrypted and they are the only ones with the key.  Those storage places are more expensive, which should tell you they are getting paid by more than advertisers.

So in addition to what others have mentioned, that gives you the lay of the land, and you can pick out of that what you wish.