Consolidation not working
Hi. Using True Image Home 2010 with Plus Pack on Windows XP OS.
Acronis is scheduled to do a full backup daily using the automatic dating in the file name.
The backup is set to not overwrite the previous backup.
The consolidation option is set to maximum 5 backups.
The scheduled task runs ok, yet the consolidation does not keep count. So after about 10 backups, the disk runs out of available space.
How do we set the consolidation so it will only keep 5 full backups and delete the prior ones as it goes along?
Thanks.
Any news about this problem? What was the problem and how got it solved?
I have the same set up (except consolidation after 21 backups) ... and the same problem!
And this is really frustrating:
I've waited about 4 month for the build 7046 and I thought the problems were fixed. Now I've noticed the problem on my home and on my work computer. Furthermore I have installed this build on 8 more computers!... -> I will get many trouble in near future!
I would advise you to start off a new full backup as I have seen in this situation that if you wanted to restore you may find that it will not work.
Also take a look at the log files - do you see any errors - some errors do not appear on the calendar but can lead to this happening.
You can also try doing a manual validation and you may start seeing cannot find volume messages.
To start off a new full backup it is sometime better just to move all the file you have out of the way. ATIH will then start off afresh.
Having said that your "condition" may be different to the one I saw so this is just a note to make you aware of the possibilities.
One question - have you ever shutdown/rebooted your system when a backup is running - this has in some instances caused the problem to start.
> Also take a look at the log files - do you see any errors...
I always get the full log via e-mail. So I was able to look through all logs of the past few weeks. The result of my private backup: At the beginning TIH consolidated as planned, but some days later it just stopped doing it. Without any error messages. So I didn't noticed it until I got a message that the disk is nearly full.
The logs of my work backup are showing that TIH never started to consolidate. Strangely I'm having a ghost task from the date TIH should have started to consolidate...
> One question - have you ever shutdown/rebooted your system when a backup is running - this has in some instances caused the problem to start.
No, I've never done this. Also the system has never crashed while doing the backup.
And: I already found another system with the same problem. It was a fresh install with a fresh task and a freshly formatted backup disk. So starting a new task and removing the old backup files is no option.
I need a proper solution. Maybe the date variable the the backup file name can cause the problem? Or maybe the consolidation by file count doesn't work fine? Maybe consolidation by space is better?
Check to see if you've any images with TI issued names that will look like CSLID numbers.
If they are there, then a consolidation failed somewhere along the line, and has confused the scheduler ever since. You will need to delete these 'phantom' images, ensururing you don't delete your given name ones. You may find one of your archives is orphaned. The easiest thing to do, is to highlight it and run the task on it so that the database gets back into sync., unless it is an old one that you no longer need to keep or use.
I know the long file names (CSLID like) from log files, but I don't have such file names in my backup directory.
I think I'll use my batch file again, which moves the backup files to numbered sub-folders. Of course the recovery page of TIH won't show all the backup files anymore, but I think this is the safest way.
Why is it so hard for Acronis to let the user do a full backup every day and keep just the last X backup files? With TIH2009 this wasn't possible. With TIH2010 this works buggy.
Does this work correctly with TIH2011?
Normally I would expect to get TIH2011 for free because TIH2010 never worked correctly for me!
Another thought, the phantom task could eb the one stopping the whole caboodle, so updating the task scheduler might be in order the Acronis task.
Have a look at this link and my inclination would be to do the last item first and then if that doesn't work zap the tasks, obviously that will delete all your current tasks.
I can't answer your question directly about 2011 as I tested other things, but what I can tell you (assuming you download the trial and give it a whirl) is that all your tasks and schedules can be exported to a zip file, so in cases like this where the databse might need to be reset, you can re-import the tasks etc saving a great deal of time and frustration.
It might be that the ghost task has caused the problem, but on the other machines I don't have ghost tasks.
On my ghosted machine I've already run the script_fix tool to wipe all tasks. Now I'm using my batch file again.
Is there a way to re-import all backup files located on my backup drive to the recovery page? And removing orphan backup files?
2011 should auto detect image archives and add them to the list - only in Windows though.
Yes, I can confirm that the 2011 does auto detect image archives. I'm just testing it on my private machine. Nice new interface. In a week or two I'll see if it works better.
But this doesn't change the problems with all the other machines. I can't upgrade these machines. That would be too expensive.
And changing all machines to use my batch file will use some time. And time=money because I'll have to do it during work time.
Some official words would be nice.