I removed "Entire PC" backup on February 4, it added itself back in on February 17
So I removed my "Entire PC" backup because I have a few TB of data to backup and backing up everything in one go is neither practical nor sane. This was done on February 4. I can learn this from looking at the activity log, but also by looking at when I created my post on this topic on this forum.
In that discussion I came to realize that I was doing it all wrong, so I settled down on making several tasks, one for each disk or partition on the system, rather than lumping it all together in this massive "Entire PC" backup task.
Today, on February 17 I noticed that my PC was not shutting down during inactive hours. Later in the evening I decide I need to unplug my backup disk (for reasons unrelated to the issue) so I try to do a secure ejection in Windows 10 and Windows refuses, telling me it's being used by a process. I am not aware that I'm doing a backup at this hour, so I start True Image to see what's going on, and sure enough there it was. That old fart "Entire PC" has been added back in automatically to the list of tasks.
Here are the screenshots to prove it.
I think I'm done with Acronis... I don't even care anymore if they get their act together.
I'm sick and tired of all this "magic" that software makers are pulling out of their you know what, trying to read my mind and predict what I may or may not want to do next, and then their software doing it "for me". It's called "artificial intelligence". It's artificial alright, but intelligent? Come on! Don't flatter yourself.
I know that True Image automatically scans your system and adds any TIB or TIBX files it comes across, but even so it only does so the first time it runs after installation. But this right here... this is beyond stupid! The backup in question and its TIBX files were deleted "entirely" (not just removed from the list of tasks, but deleted "entirely" as the prompt says). Yet somehow it has been added back in, doing double work of what my new backup tasks are supposed to do now that I have set up new backup tasks.
Acronis, will you please compensate me for this 3 hour and 20 minutes of my electricity and computer power? The computer did not go to sleep when it was supposed to because your backup prevented it. Yes, I set it up that way myself. But this backup should not have been done at all! You are also wearing down my hard drive! Will you buy me a new one?! You can send me a PM and we can discuss the details.
Had I not caught this it would have spent at least 5 more hours on this. It usually takes about 8 hours to do the "Entire PC" dance.
Acronis, your days are counted... 😊
Samir, this is a new behaviour that I have never seen before or experienced for myself.
If ATI was just detecting an existing .tib or .tibx backup file, then this should be shown in the 'Other' section on the backup page and have a [Reconfigure] button instead of [Back up now].
Forgive me for asking what may be a 'silly' question, but have your restored any of the contents of the C:\ProgramData folder path that could have brought back any data related to this deleted backup task?
If not, then this may be another manifestation of issues related to the Acronis Dashboard servers that have plagued some users for the last four months! Typically the issues have been in the area of changes to the Backup Scheme, i.e. changing Differential to Incremental, or losing the automatic cleanup rules resulting in disk space problems!
I would recommend submitting Feedback along with an Acronis System Report at a minimum or if you feel up to doing so, open a support ticket for this issue!
Well, this is a first for me as well Steve. I have never before seen this misbehavior.
Actually, I'm not so sure if existing TIB or TIBX files that True Image detects automatically go under the Other section in the list of tasks. I know what it looks like, the Other section appears at the very bottom of the list. You will recall that I recently worked on restoring a TIBX file of an old system to a VM, and I did so by adding the file manually from an external disk.
So I know for sure that those files go under the "Other" section at the bottom, because they don't have a backup scheme set up when you first add them because they are not seen as belonging to the current computer. For that reason they can't appear under "This computer" section at the top. But if you set up a backup scheme for them by clicking on Reconfigure they will be moved under "This computer".
However for files that are already on the computer but not added to the list yet, which True Image then automagically finds and adds... I'm not sure where they go. I sure don't expect them to start backing up immediately and setting up the schedules all by themselves.
I don't think this is important in this case. I have clicked to delete "entirely" when I removed the "Entire PC". I would not be able to add and run my new backups to that same disk had the previous backup not have been deleted.
It's quite alright to ask questions, I don't mind at all. The C:\ProgramData folder is something I have only visited recently when I was running tests of VHD and VHDX files that I created from my TIBX file. I visited C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V just to ensure that my old Hyper-V machines were fully deleted. I don't frequently visit these locations on my system disk and I usually don't do anything in there unless I have to.
The Acronis Dashboard hypothesis sounds interesting. It might be what's causing it, I don't know. I will have to look more into this. But does that mean I have to remove my "Entire PC" backup by visiting a website? I can't do it from within the True Image software? That sounds like the reverse of how badly Microsoft integrates its own services to its OS and software products (software side comes first, online services second). I don't even use my 250 GB of Acronis cloud storage, but I do have an account and a Dashboard of course.
Steve, I think you were right! This must be the cause? I can on my online dashboard that one "Entire PC" backup has been cancelled for this PC and the date and time match the event.
In fact, I see nothing but Entire PC backups! Where are my disk backups? Where are my partition backups?... where are all 10 of them for this PC?
In fact, I can see that it thinks it's "backing up" right now! But there is no such task in my True Image software!?
The option to delete this backup from the dashboard is not available. But it is available for other PCs that I don't have a problem with.
I will let this slide for now. I don't have time to play with it. But I have removed the backup from True Image, hopefully it will not get smart again for another two weeks.
Interesting problems! Nonetheless.
Samir, you definitely shouldn't need to visit the Acronis Dashboard site in order to remove your 'Entire PC' backup task. When you elect to delete it entirely, then that should be gone for good!
Take a look at the Dashboard to see if that deleted task is still shown there - it shouldn't be but cannot harm to check!
After the previous fiasco caused by the Dashboard last November, I have typically deleted my PC's from the Dashboard so that the server end of things cannot cause unwanted changes on my PC's! The only downside to this is that installing a new build or doing a repair install etc will add the PC back again by virtue of the Acronis Managed Machine Mini Service reporting home!
That's a terrible design flaw!
I almost got rid of this. First I added the TIBX file back in manually, all 716 GB of it, as it was not deleted from disk despite selecting to delete it "entirely" (unrelated to the previous time I deleted it permanently). I was met with a nasty error message after adding the file...
Despite what it says here, it has been added.
I wanted to make sure True Image and the online servers start talking again so I can stop the backup from the server side. It nearly worked!
True Image reported "The latest backup has been stopped by user".
It also showed up correctly on the Dashboard as cancelled. But once I cleared the previous error message it was back on the same page again... and it's saying "backing up" (even though True Image says "has been stopped").
I always disable the Acronis Managed Machine Service Mini. I have no need for the Dashboard and do not use the Acronis cloud. I've never been caught up in any of those Acronis service mess-ups.
I have stopped this service now. I forgot the name of the service but the name of the executable is mms_mini.exe.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/56697
I just have to figure out how to get rid of that thing in the cloud (dashboard).
It might be beneficial to let this True Image subscription plan run out so I can start off with a clean slate.
Why do disk and partition backups not show up on the dashboard?...
Samir, you cannot delete the PC or backups from the Dashboard if it thinks that they are still active, so you either need to do this when the PC is turned off or when the MMMS service is stopped (as mentioned by Bruno).
Please do submit Feedback and complain strongly that the Dashboard is yet again causing problems that will leave users at risk due to lack of free disk space if left unnoticed!
I did exactly that, I stopped the service, not the process (service stops the process). Then I was able to delete the affected PC from the dashboard. It should be all good now.
Can I make this permanent? I suspect that service will kick in again once I reboot my PC. Just like Bruno, I don't use the cloud and dashboard stuff.
I have opened and closed a support ticket within an hour since I found the solution already here on the forum. Which is impressive! Users helping users, it's the best support I know of. So thank you!
Samir, set the MMMS service to be Disabled for the start up option. That should stick until the next time a new build is installed etc (which resets all the services etc!).
