Acronis True Image Home 2011, Update 1 (build 6696) - Old version clean-up not working

Brad,

It is possible that you old backup versions are in fact not tracked by ATI any longer. This can happen in various scenarios. On way to check is to click on "explore versions" of your backup and see if you can find the corresponding versions in the timeline at the bottom of the backup explorere that pops up.
If you don't see them, you can safely delete the TIB files with Windows Explorer.

If you see them, then there is some corruption in the database. The best thing to do is to start from a clean slate:
- using windows explorer, copy (don't move) the TIB files you want to keep for safekeeping, if any,
- in ATI > Tools, export your backup settings,
- in ATI, delete the entire backup(s) (not remove). This should delete all the TIB files, your settings, and your schedule.
- Uninstall ATI, use the Acronis 2011 cleanup utility,
- Reboot
- Install ATI,
- Before launching it, to avoid ATI discovering all you previous individual TIB files, you can hide temporarily the folder in which you copied them TIB files for safekeeping. Otherwise, give ample time for ATI to discover them all. Then, remove (not delete) them from the list of backups,
- reimport your backup settings
- after your new backup(s) have run for a while, you can consider deleting your TIB files in the safekeeping folder (they are not tracked by ATI any longer).

I am having the same problem, old version cleanup is not working, even after trying the suggested solution. Is there anything else I can try?

I am removing ATI 2011 and going back to 2010. Between notification not working properly and automatic cleanup not working at all, I have had enough. If ATI 10 does not work, then I will retreat to ATI 2009 which I know worked. I would drop Acronis entirely except I have a $$$$ investment. Changing providers would just cost more $$$. I can live with 2009 or 2010.

Acronis has no estimate as to when 2012 will be available; I have no confidence that it will work any better than 2011.

David,
I have had good success in using the cleanup options. Set the options to keep x number of backups. Do not use the option based on days or disk quota. If you use incs, they change the type. Same is true if fulls. Just base the cleanup on retaining a specific number of chains. Keep the backup file name simple with no spaces or periods or parenthesis. I prefer to end my backup name in two underscores--as a matter of personal preference as to what works for me.

David,

The solution that seems to work best is to "Store no more than x recent version chains".

If you change your backup settings it is better to create a new task, with a new name.

I am confident you fellows are correct, but both responses, David and Pat L, fail to say absolutely that the solution will work. David says 'works best'; does that mean that it works more often than it fails?

Pat L also says "works best"

I backup two systems. Each full backup is 35GB per system. After a few differential backups, or several incremental backups, most of my allocated disk space has been used. So, I cannot leave an old backup.

My scheme is: full backup followed by 6 differential backups, then another full backup etc.. After the second full backup has been completed, I no longer need the previous chain. What setup do you suggest?

Yes, I understand that I should be using 1,000 GB of disk space, but all of us do not have that kind of space. A single chain per system is good enough for me.

Joe,

Set it up to store no more than 1 version. It will create:
- full1, 6 differentials,
- full2, then delete full1 and its 6 partials, then, the next time it runs, it will continue building differentials on full2, etc.

Since ATI 2011 has issues with deleting intermediate differentials within a chain, I don't use differentials (note this problem is different from the problem of not deleting a complete backup chain). One key benefit of differentials, is that you should be able to delete intermediate differentials. As this doesn't work well, I prefer using incrementals, and keep more chains. Your choice.

Pat L

I appreciate your response, and believe it would work if 2011 did not have issues deleting differentials. I have tried both incremental and differentials. The results are consistently inconsistent. So I just finished installing 2010 and executing my first backup. I will use your suggestion for keeping only 1 version. Maybe 2010 will be consistently consistent:>).

Hey Guys-

I have previously tried the solution given by Pat L. on 2010-11-30, and I have tried the settings mentioned by GroverH. I currently have these settings:
Custom Scheme
Backup Method: differential
Create a full version after every 2 differential versions
store no more than 3 recent version chains
do not delete the first version of the backup

I've tried different combos of differential, incremental, etc, etc. Nothing seems to work.

I would love to try ATI 2010 or 2009, IF I could find somewhere to download them, AND they work with Win7 64-bit. Since I purchased ATI 2011, I don't seem to have access to 2010 or 2009.

I'm open to more ideas! I had such high hopes for ATI, but it's definitely a pain having to manually go in every few days and delete it's old backups to make room for new.

Thanks :-)

Joe and all, Here are two tests I ran today after Joe asked his question. This is the settings I used for the test and illustrations of what the backup storage folder looked like after each chain.  The options were set to always retain one chain and create a full backup after each 6 differentials.  Different hardware combinations could produce different results. The backup was a single partition backup of an XP Pro system. Backups were created manually by pressing "Backup Now" button for each iteration of the backup. 2011-6696 used.

Click image for larger view.

Still no luck...is there someway that I, as a registered user can get a copy of ATI 2009 and 2010???

Thanks

My Account with Acronis continues to show my registrations for 2009/2010/2011. The web site allows me to download any of the three.

GroverH,

Thanks for your detail work and presentation. I will certainly setup my backup as you suggest; first with 2010. If it works well and consistently with 2010, then I may try 2011 again.

David D,
What type backup? Is this a full disk backup of all partitions or is this a files and folders type backup?

doh! I guess that explains it, I didn't buy ATI until 10/5/10, and it was ATI 2011. I wonder if my reg # would work with 2009 or 2010.

David and others,
The examples below based on David's post #9 and is a continuation of my #10 posting. I continued my testing onto a Windows 7 Home Premium Asus 64 bit Laptop. The backup source was an 8GB flashdrive. The target was a 1.5T external sata disk via usb 3.0 docking station.

I am totally new to Windows 7 so my experience with this OS is minimal.
The first task was set up for 2011-6703 (same as 6696 except is part a av security package).

Backup scheme-Diff
Create 1 Full plus 3 diff
Automatic cleanup
Retain 3 chains
Do not delete original
I ran 17 backups and the successful results are displayed in attachment #1.

There was a beginning hiccup. The program create two successful backups and then halted on the 3rd with two error messages.
"Access to the file is denied."
"Failed to open data scream:
My fix was to share the destination folder with Administrator which is me as I am the only user as Grover. Program resumed the backup on next time due without further errors.

Between the first and second test, I also edited the registry to turn off UAC which was becoming a real pain.

HKLM\software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Changed ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin from 5 to 0
Changed ConsentPromptBehaviorUser from 3 to 0

I did not need to share the second target folder and the 2nd test completed without errors.

The second test was a custom backup scheme.
Create 1 full plus 2 differential
Automatic cleanup
Retain the 2 most recent chains.
Program ran 15 backups or 5 different chains and the program functioned correctly by keeping the 2 most recent as optioned.

Note: The set the power configuration to prevent the computer from sleeping so the computer was operational (disks active) for the 24 hours involved in the testing.

Once I resolved the initial errors, I had no further issues. Most of backups were created via the scheduler (every hour) with a few initiated via the Backup Now option.