Acronis True Image 2012 Guidance Requested

David, welcome to these user forums.

I would recommend looking at the ATIH 2012 User Guide as a starting point.  See the section: Backing up partitions and disks for more information on the actual process and the options available.

There is no need to do a sector-by-sector backup of your system - doing so will copy the whole drive and not just your Vista OS partition, hence why you are seeing such a large backup file - 666GB in size.

You cannot make your WD MyBook drive bootable - when you need to do any recovery, this should be done using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media which can be created on CD or USB stick by using the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media Builder utility provided with the application.

It is probably easiest if you make a backup of the entire disk drive including your recovery partition, as the latter will normally be less than 10GB in size and can provide a factory recovery if wanted.

See the section: Full, incremental and differential backups for information on the type of backup to create.  All backup schemes require that an initial full backup image file must be created, after which you can choose between making incremental backups (which contain all changes since the previous backup was performed) and differential backups (which contain all changes since the full backup was performed).  Incremental backups tend to be smaller but you all incremental files are needed to effect a recovery - any missing files will compromise the integrity of the backup chain.

Differential backups can be larger but they can be used on their own with just the full backup file being required.

Acronis True Image cannot be used to restore a single program or application - it can only be used to restore all OS programs & applications via a disks and/or partitions recovery.  You can restore / recovery individual files and/or folders from Acronis backup files.

Steve,

Thanks!  I will change my settings as you suggested, and create a new full backup.  Should I use disk mode, or partition mode?

Then, I'll probably switch to the differential method.  Do I need to keep more than one version?  If so, how many would you recommend, and how should I set up the consolidation option?

Also, if I have to recover the disk, do I start with the full followed by the differential, or the other way around?  Or do I just recover the differential, and it will automatically use the full backup?

I looked through the manual, but, as I mentioned, it just confused me.  It seemed to have an expectation that I have a better understanding of what it says.

David, keeping to disk mode would perhaps be the simpler choice, there should be little change to the other partitions on your system to cause any increase in size to your differential backups.

In terms of the number of versions to keep, that is your choice and may well depend on the amount of free space available on your backup drive along with your choice of how frequently to perform the backups.  It is good to be able to have the choice of reverting the system to an earlier point in time, so having one or more versions that cover a period of a month or two, so that if something goes wrong but isn't detected immediately you still go find an earlier restore point to go to.

For recovery, Acronis will offer you a choice of points in time that you can restore back to, these are taken from the different full and differential backup files that are available, so you should only need to select the latest file to be the starting point.  Acronis will take care of all other backup files that would be needed to complete the recovery action.

Steve, thanks for the guidance!  I have differential set up for once a week.

It is set to create a full version after 5 differential versions, and to store no more than 10 recent version chains.  Somehow this doesn't seem right.  I have plenty of disk space since I did not do a sector by sector backup.  What might you put the differential settings at?

David, if you are creating a new full backup after 5 differentials, then keeping 10 recent version chains will cover a period of over a year (70 weeks), so really the key question is what will the average size of a complete version chain be, i.e. the size of the full plus 5 differentials, then multiply this by 10 to get an idea of how much space this scheme will need.  

I personally tend to keep only 2 or 3 recent version chains and this is normally sufficient when coupled with doing the occasional manual backup to a different backup drive / network / NAS drive.

Steve, once again you have cleared this up.  I did not realize what the versions chains meant.  I will adjust this accordingly.

Thanks again!

Dave

Steve, sorry to keep bothering you, but I am now confused as to what ATIH is doing.

First I did separate full backups of OC(C) and Recovery(D), in partition mode. I did not schedule the backup scheme for (D) to run in eith diff. or inc. modes in the future, but did schedule the OS(C) partion differential backup to run every Sunday night.  See the attached file ATIH1.jpg

Second, It appears it did a second full backup of Recovery(D) shortly after completing the initial full backup, and called it Recovery (D)2.  Look at the file sizes in attachment ATIH2.jpg.

Finally, it was supposed to run a differential backup of OS(C) last night, but it appears it did another full backup, based on the time/date.  This morning, I ran backup again, and this time it did a differential, creating a file OS(C)1.  Again, see attached file ATIH2.jpg.

What is going on? 

Dave

Dave, I would need to see the log files for these backup tasks to try to understand exactly what ATIH was doing.  The log files should be found in the C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs folder (which may be hidden in Windows Explorer - change view options to show hidden files & folders if needed).

From your second image, the size of the second OS (C)2 backup file would suggest it is a differential rather than another full backup.

The two backups for your Recovery (D) drive would suggest that both are full backups though given this was scheduled to run, and the backup date / time stamps are just 4 hours apart, it may suggest than an error was encountered and the backup repeated?  The logs should clarify why it ran again hopefully.

With the later versions of ATIH the file names are much clearer as have a mandatory suffix added of _full_ or _inc_ or _diff_ which shows immediately what type of file you have.

Steve, I looked at the files, and they don't help me understand what was going on.  Do you really want me to attach the files for you to review?  There are a lot for this time period.

David, you can zip up the log files that cover the days when you were running the backup tasks then post the zip file to the forum.  It should compress down a lot given these are just text files in essence.

Steve, here are the log files I think you are talking about.  I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

Dave

Dave, thanks for the log files, these seem to show that there may be a couple of things going on here.

Your screen images both show that your backup target is J:\My Backups but some of the errors being shown in the log files are for files in G:\New backups.

If you have been changing your backup drive location or the drive letter has been changed, then this will cause problems with ATIH.  It is recommended that you set your backup drive to a drive letter that isn't likely to be changed due to attaching other USB devices such as memory sticks etc.  You can set the drive letter via the Windows Disk Management console and assign a drive letter further down the alphabet, i.e. drive S:

The second problem may be associated with the above issue, in that the logs are showing errors for the Acronis Database which is where ATIH keeps track of your backup files and backup history information.

It may be worth recommending a 'clean start' at this point, by deleting or renaming the current Acronis Database folder and letting ATIH recreate a new set of database files when it next runs.  To do this, you will need to stop all Acronis Services & Programs then use Windows Explorer to go to C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome where you will see the Database folder - rename this to Database.OLD.

Yes, I used to have them backed up to an external drive G:  I got a new additional external drive J:, and it is what I am using now.

I have renamed the database folder.  Should I delete all the backups from J: before starting anew?

David, rather than needing to delete all your backups from the J: drive, just remove the backup task that created them and start again with a new backup task, new name to a new folder on J: which leaves you with the protection of having the other backups should anything untoward happen - you can always delete these once you have everything working OK.

I did a complete backup of C and D yesterday, so I have deleted the old ones.  This morning I modified the C: backup option to differential, with a full backup after 5 differentials, and keeping 3 version chains.

Do you recommend a differential backup daily... I have mine set to once a week.

Thanks again for all your help and time.

Dave

Dave, because you have modified the C: backup to change it from full to differential you may find that it could create another full before starting to create differential backups - this is one of the quirks with editing existing tasks as it can cause version chains to be reset.

With regard to doing a differential backup daily, that really depends on how critical your data is that you are backing up - I tend to go with weekly rather than daily in the most part, and then have these set to run in the wee hours of the morning when I am fast asleep in my bed, staggered to avoid any additional load on the particular target drive I am using at the time for different systems.  I figure that I can recover from the loss of a few days data if the worse case happens - critical data is being backed up to my NAS Cloud storage in addition to the regular Acronis backups.

Steve, does that mean I will have two complete backups of C:, or will it just replace the existing one?  Sounds like I should have created a new backup scheme.  I guess it will all work out either way.

I'll stick with the once a week, like you, in the wee hours of the morning.

Dave

Dave, you may have two complete backups of C: but if you have enabled automatic cleanup this will resolve itself in time, presuming you have plenty of free space on your backup drive.  It won't replace the existing one but would start a new backup sequence instead, i.e. _full_b2_s1_v1 

I have a 2TB external drive, so I don't forsee a problem with space.  Would you recommend deleting the C: full backup now and running the differential backup so it will create a new full backup?

Dave, entirely your decision, there is no need to do so but up to you.

I think I will just leave it as it is... just in case.  As you said, it should get cleaned out in time.

Thanks again for all your help!

Dave

Steve, Well I'm back with another question...

I did a complete backup of my C drive, which it saved with a file name of OC(C).  Then I altered the settings to change it from full to differential. As you will see, it did the "differential", but it's size is larger than the "full" backup and named it OS(C)(1), which makes me think this was another full backup.  It did another differential backup last night, and it is much smaller, and it has a file name of OS(C)(1)2.  What is/did it do?  I'm confused again... not unusual.

Do I need to be concerned about this, or just let it ride?

Dave

Dave, unfortunately in these earlier versions of ATIH it isn't obvious what type of backup is being created just by looking at the file names when compared to later versions (from 2015 up) where the file name includes _full_ or _inc_ or _diff_ to show exactly what type of backup created it.

From the file sizes alone, I would say that the net effect of changing the backup scheme from Full to Differential resulted in a new full backup being created before the subsequent differential was produced.

At this point I would just let it run and observe how the naming conventions carry on from here.

Will do.  Thanks!

Steve, well I'm back for some wise advice.  If you look at the image Acronis 1.jpg, you will see it did what I assume is a new complete backup last night, OS(C)(2). Can I just delete the old original file OC(C) since the first run in differential mode apparently created a new full backup, OS(C)(1), when it first ran?

My settings are shown in Acronis 2.jpg.  Would you change these setting?

Finally, as you see in image Acronis 3.jpg, I have it set to run in diff mode on a weekly basis.  A lot of things in might change (Quicken, security updates, etc.) from day to day. Should I set this to run on a daily basis?

Thanks for your help.

Dave

Dave, looking at your settings, you will store no more than 5 recent versions before any automatic cleanup runs, so the main check point here is that you have sufficient space on your backup drive to hold these backup versions, i.e. looking at your first version, this adds up to approximately 310GB for the 4 files that form that version chain, so you would need around 5 x 310GB plus 230GB (approx. just under 2TB of space).  The extra 230GB is needed as the next full backup has to be created before Acronis will delete the oldest version chain.

For the original file OC(C) - you should be able to remove this, though it may be prudent to just rename it first, then run a validation for your backup task to check that it doesn't throw any wobbles because that original file cannot be found.  If the validation is OK, then delete the renamed file.

The decision as to how often to run backups will depend on how much data you would lose if you suffered a critical disk problem on say the day before the next backup was scheduled to be run?

For the majority of your Windows OS and Programs etc, I suspect that reverting back to the latest backup from a week earlier would make little difference.

However, if you have critical data that you could not recover (Quicken, documents, pictures etc), then make a separate backup task that only includes this critical data and which run every day.

Thanks!  I have a 2TB disk. Just in case, I may reduce the number of recent versions to 3.  Also, which file should I validate, and how do I do that?

Dave, it is the backup task that you should validate, not the backup file.

got it. thanks.

Well a strange (to me) thing happened on validation. I moved the original OS(C) backup file to another drive, and then ran validate on the diff scheme. It gave me an error that it could not find OS(C) backup. I picked the option to ignore the error and continue. It did complete, but notified me that it could not validate the original OS(C) backup. So, it searched my system, and found it in the drive I had relocated it to. Then it validated that.

Does this strike you as odd?  Anyway, should I move the original OS(C) backup file back to where it was originally?

Dave, it sounds like the original OS(C) file was recorded in the Acronis database for your differential task, so was considered a part of the version chain for this.  The key thing is that in moving it you have made some more free space on your drive, and it should be OK to leave the moved file where it is.

OK. There's plenty of room in the other WD My Book drive... still have 670GB left.  I forgot to mention, when it found the original drive, it actually created a new backup scheme which shows up now in the Acronis main screen, with the correct new path.

Clearly this program is smarter than I am.

Steve, another point of confusion.

At the weekly scheduled time (Sunday night), Acronis ran another backup. This time it named it OS(C). Based on the naming convention, I thought this full be another new complete backup. If you look at the image Acronis 1.jpg, however, the size looks like another differential. My new settings are differential settings are shown in image Acronis 2.jpg.

Finally, when you look at the status in image Acronis 3.jpg, you will see in the top task that is says OS(C) has not been backed up yet.

Can you explain this to me?  Should I just delete everything and start anew with the revised settings shown in Aronis 2.jpg? Did I confuse it when I changed the differential setting in the middle of a cycle?

Dave

Dave, hmmm...  the latest backup does look like a differential purely based on size but is not conforming to the expected naming conventions, i.e. would expect it to have been named OS (C)(2)1 as with the previous version chain.

From your third image, I wonder if having two backup tasks with almost the same name is contributing to the confusion, i.e. you have OS (C) and OS(C) with only a space to differentiate between them.  Perhaps this isn't being handled well in the Acronis Database files?

I would be tempted to advise that you keep the latest full backup image, then delete both of these OS (C) tasks, and create new tasks with unique names, i.e. DriveC and WindowsC for example.  You should create the new tasks with the desired settings and try to avoid making changes afterwards.

Should I set the new task as a differential to begin with, and let it create a new full backup to start?

Dave, yes, a full backup will always be created for either a differential or incremental backup scheme if one does not exist or it is the first time the backup scheme has been run.

If I delete the task, it will remove all backups. How do I just keep the latest full backup?

Dave, when you go to delete the task, you should see options to either just remove the settings for the task, or to delete everything.  Take the option to just remove the settings.  If you want to be double sure, then disconnect the backup drive when you do this.  Once the task is removed you can then remove the older backups apart from the latest full one.

The only option I can find is to remove the task from the list, not to remove it altogether.

I'm not sure removing it from the list will delete the database... or do I not want to remove it from the database?

Dave, if you are going to create a whole new task then you do want to remove the task from the list, which will also remove information about the task from the database.  This is necessary as your new task will have its own information in the database, and the old information isn't needed for the saved full backup file.