Can not restore Acronis image files created on external hard drive
I am struggling to help a non-technical friend restore an Acronis TI 2020 image file for her laptop. Due to space limitations, the images were created on an external drive connected via USB.
She runs a new full backup each week, but ran out of disk space several times recently. I did not have the software configured to delete old backups automatically - mea culpa. I deleted several of the most recent tibx files that were left behind when the backups failed.
I have tried the following approaches so far:
1. Boot up Windows 10, and use the True Image GUI. I had to manually add the older backup via "add existing backup". After doing so, I was unable to start any sort of recovery process.
2. Boot up using an Acronis Boot DVD based on the ISO file downloaded from the Acronis web site. This acted exactly the same - no success.
3. Created Acronis Boot DVD based on the Acronis Media Builder inside Windows 10. I chose the "simple" option. This was a total failure, since the DVD was not bootable.
4. Created Acronis Boot DVD based on the Acronis Media Builder inside Windows 10. I chose the "Win RE" option. This was a total failure, since the DVD was not bootable.
I have had some problems restoring Acronis image files on my own Windows 10 computers, with Acronis TI 2017 installed. One solution I used successfully on my own PC is the MVP WinPE Builder tool. Is it possible to use the MVP WinPE Builder tool for Acronis TI 2020?


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Is this problem documented somewhere? I have used Acronis for more than 10 years, and I routinely delete image files due to space limitations. Acronis 2017 simply won't create a new backup if there is insufficient space.
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See the following KB documents published by Acronis with regards to .tibx files.
KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file
KB 63227: Acronis True Image: Do not delete .TIB or .TIBX files outside of Acronis True Image
KB 63498: Acronis True Image 2020-2021: new tibx backup format FAQ
KB 63425: Acronis True Image: Limitations of tibx backups
KB 63445: Acronis True Image 2020: how to view and manage backup versions in new backup format
KB 63444: Acronis True Image 2020 and 2021: tibx backups in local destinations
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This sounds like another reason why the move to require all TIBX files to be in place was a bad move by Acronis. It goes against intuition and people with some knowledge should expect to be able to delete previous full backups or previous differentials without adversely effecting the whole backup history.
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Chris, Acronis provide for users who want to delete unwanted backup files in the new'ish Clean up versions tool introduced with ATI 2019 and later versions. This allows for this to be done safely!
KB 61844: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: How to delete old backups
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