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Can I turn off new single-file backup in ATI 2020 or do I have to revert to an older version to escape it?

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My PC and NAS:

1TB SSD system disk: SYSTEM C:
3 x 3TB internal backup hard drives: BACKUP1 E:, BACKUP2 F:, BACKUP3 G:

D-Link NAS containing 2 x 1.5TB hard drives, Y: and Z:

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Before ATI 2020 I ran a weekly full backup and daily incremental backups that stored the image files created on the first backup drive, E:. After each backup completes, a batch file runs that copies this new image file to both the other backup drives, F: and G:, and to both disks in the NAS, Y: and Z:. In other words, I had five copies of each image file spread over two different devices.

The weekly full backup created a big file (130GB or so), and the daily incremental backups created much smaller files (< 5GB, usually). The weekly sync job took several hours to copy the big file to the other two internal backup drives and to the drives in the MUCH slower NAS, but the weekly incremental image files copied quickly as they were so much smaller. I was happy with this state of affairs.

With ATI 2020 only a single image file is created which is continually updated as each backup runs, both full and incremental. All my sync jobs now take multiple hours to copy the single image file, ever-expanding in size, to the other drives, and this happens every day. I am not happy with this state of affairs.

I've used ATI for many years and have been very happy with it, but having jobs running overnight and into the next day is making me miserable. I can't see any mention of a capability to turn off single-file image creation and revert to multiple files, so I'm probably going to have to look for another vendor for my backup needs.

Suggestions?

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There is no official method of creating Disks backups in ATI 2020 that use separate incremental files as they did with previous versions of ATI as the new .tibx format works differently because of the use of metadata.

Disk backups created by ATI 2019 or earlier will still work as you are used to in ATI 2020 when they are ported forward.

See forum topic: How to create a Disk backup as .tib (not .tibx) which will create a new backup task using the older .tib format in the Windows ATI 2020 GUI.

With regards to your backup approach of synchronising your .tib files to the other drives and NAS, I have found it is quicker, easier and faster to have separate backup tasks that write directly to additional backup destinations rather than using a sync approach, especially when going to a NAS.  I also tested using Rsync with my own Synology NAS but found it took just as long, if not longer than just having another backup task, especially when working with .tibx tasks.

One final comment: having 3 internal backup drives sounds great but has the disadvantages of being 'all eggs in a big basket' as far as any significant event such as a power surge, water damage, fire or malware / ransomware attack.  Your NAS drive backups should fare better provided you have separate protection in place for the NAS and are not using an open, insecure share to the NAS or keeping Windows mapped drive letters to the same.