Finally figured out how to use TI 2020
I started out with TI 2009 Home, moved to 2010 Home Plus Pack, then to 2011 Home, then to 2013 Family Pack, then to 2015 TI and finally to TI 2018 before buying licenses for my 3 computers on TI 2020. A great product with reasonable incremental updates along the way. TI 2020 is a new product and in some way revolutionary product at least for Acronis. It uses a new backup format that does compress the backups quite a bit more. My 900 GB system drive backs up with TI 2018 to 608 GB and with TI 2020 to only 508 GB. That is good. However the system 2020 uses for backup is entirely different from all previous versions. Previously you could work with multiple backup files in multiple places and even with external drives that I found quite useful. 2020 ends that. You only can move, delete, rename backup files with TI 2020 itself. That doesn't fit my mind nor my workflow. I am continually making a mistake and moving, renaming or deleting a backup with Windows Explorer which just totally confuses TI 2020 and in fact makes that backup and all its subsequent backups useless even though they are sitting right in front of you on one of your disks. It also has a chain operation where every backup relies on a backup before it. So if you make a change to any backup in the chain you are screwed. My workflow given NVMEs/SSDs are so cheap and small and cases so large is to use multiple full backups of my OS disk and put them on one of my many disks in or external to my system. 2020 really doesn't like that workflow. It insists you do it its way. So after working with it and trying to learn its idiosyncracies for four months I have realized that the best way to work with TI 2020 is to completely uninstalll it and reinstall my 2018 licenses and TI 2018 Software. I have done that. Erased all the TIBX backups and have redone full backups on both of my desktops with TI 2018. I feel much happier now that I am back with software I trust and can rely on when disaster happens. I have no idea what Acronis was trying to accomplish with their changes and maybe this is the way server farms do their backups but for this individual long time user it simply doesn't work. I will keep auditing the Forum and if Acronis ever fixes their workflow I will be happy to update to 2021 or 2030 or whatever it is when they fix things.
I concur with Steve on this. You discovered the operating parameters of TI 2020, adjusting your workflow to those parameters is necessary if you continue to rely on Explorer for TI 2020 file management.
If you use Ti 2020 to create backups in your desired location and use one off backups when needed you can accomplish the same end result without the use of Explorer.
Since AP can detect trying to manipulate .tib and .tibx files, I wonder if it would be possible for it to be a little more explicit about the potential damage. In other words, if you try to delete, move or modify a backup file, could it inform the user that doing so will break the backup chain and they must do so within the ATI UI.
I think there is a catch 22 situation with AP and a user warning. Ransomware, malware, and virus detection software has been designed at the behest of users to not be intrusive unless a real threat exists. I con envision some users going into panic mode with such a warning thinking they have been infected by ransomware or some other nasty!
Having said that I believe a warning popup could be added into the app to warn users about the issues of using Explorer to manipulate backup files. After all, TI is integrated into Explorer so it should not be all that difficult to add in triggers that raise popup(s) warning(s).
Steve and Enchantech are right, of course, that users of a product must adapt to the requirements and restrictions of a product or their use of the product will fail. However, some ATI customers that developed backup management schemes that have worked for years are now finding that those management schemes no longer work. Of course there are backup management schemes that do work with ATI 2020, but that doesn't lessen the unanticipated disruption caused by the new rules.
William, I wish we could say that Acronis hears you and is working on a solution, but I think that is not the case.
Previously you could work with multiple backup files in multiple places and even with external drives that I found quite useful. 2020 ends that. You only can move, delete, rename backup files with TI 2020 itself.
My ATI journey is not unlike yours William, going-back to the earliest days of Acronis' inception, and I, too, have got backups everywhere it seems. I am not (yet) on 2020, but 2019 works the same way I believe and yes, when you delete-or-move a .tib file the Acronis app doesn't like it. But I have decided that my previous methods owed in large part to paranoia, fear that I one of my backups would not work and I'd need another.
I can't use the Cloud for backups, but like Steve Smith have many multiple destinations, including a 2nd onboard SSD, an always-connected USB drive, and a manually-connected USB drive that I plug once a week. Oh and I have a Synology and other NAS boxes but don't use those for image backups.
For me the key has been to develop Trust in the bu software and the methods, and then just to leave them the heck alone. Acronis True Image software has had a lot of problems over the years, many (most?) having to do with UI changes, but at least I have not encountered a "corrupt backup (tib file)" in many years now, which used to be IMO fairly common.
I do still have issues with my automatic backups encountering "lack of space" occasionally but I think these are mostly my fault. I'm getting better with those settings and oh my I don't worry about backups nearly as much as I used to with the earlier Acronis products.
I expect you are correct but I started using computers in the days of typing programs on punch cards and had my first pc in 1981, so I have seen enough that trust does not come easily for me. And when I have developed a belt and suspenders system that I know will work particularly when a disaster occurs I will keep it. I admit that I am extreme. Who else uses 5 NVME 2 tb drives in one machine with 4 2 tb SSDs as backup. Particularly with only one of the NVME's operating with both data and OS. So the other 8 drives simply are there to hold full backups. I built a 3950X machine that is a little more normal but it has two 2 TB NVMEs and one is the OS/Data and the other is simply to hold my two most recent full backups of the C drive. I have developed this method only because I have been left high and dry by supposed "good backup systems" only to have them fail in a time of wreckage and great stress when I absolutely needed the backed up data. I will not be left in that position again. And I admit I refuse to use a new and different system when we have one that is robust and works perfectly well. I, for one, am not at all angry at Acronis. Obviously they felt like they needed to move on and I can see the decision that "if it works for MSFT and CSCO it will work for the masses." However I do not employ a 1000 IT engineers to make sure my systems and data are secure so will continue to do it the old simple way as long as it continues to work with TI 2018.
Sure well I built my first computer in 1976 and wouldn't go back to punch cards for love or money. And at my age Simpler is Better.
But whatever works for you, great. If it ain't broke, don't fix it--stay with 2018. FWIW I was lured toward 2020 by a 5 PCs for $30 bucks deal and haven't used the upgrade bc it turns-out it won't work with my oldest backups. But I'm only out $30 bucks.
William, if all your "5 NVME 2 tb drives in one machine with 4 2 tb SSDs as backup" are physically in the same computer case, then I hope that you have this protected by a good UPS for both protection against power failures and surges etc.
One thing I learnt a long time ago is that a power cut can destroy any computer if not protected! I lost a (now ancient) PS/2 model 80 with internal SCSI drives when a power surge blew the motherboard and drives! That was a long time ago and I have used UPS since then, plus also have multiple different computers sharing vital data etc.
The other factor that presents risk to having multiple drives in a single computer is malware which can spread extremely rapidly through all connected drives in stealth mode.
There are many users complaining about Acronis integrating its Active Protection anti-ransomware feature, but this is an extra level of protection that many less experienced computer users really need to have in place.
I have been very fortunate to have never been hit by any ransomware but have dealt with the results of other virus type malware for friends & family where precious data was lost and much time was spent on rebuilding a working system from the ashes left behind.
I remember punch cards too! I have a punch card storage cabinet that I use for tools etc in my garage that I was given by a customer where I used to go repair Punch & Verifier machines back in the late 1970's. The earlier Punch machines still had valves and reed relays etc. This was at the same time that larger computer systems had a whole 8 or 16KB or memory and loaded programs from paper tape over star wheels! I still have a punch card wreck knife sitting in my old IBM CE toolkit used to remove the card jams!