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"Create full version after every..." does not work

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I have a backup set up with the following Backup Scheme:
Backup method: Incremental
Create a full version after every "6" incremental versions
Old version cleanup rules: Delete version chains older than "90" days

The problem is that it just keeps creating incremental backups and will not make a new full backup. Right now there is a full backup and 40 incremental backups (I installed this Dec 15). Is this a known bug or this there something I can do to make it create a full backup once a week?

1 Users found this helpful

My experience is that you will get better results if you use a different option.
Instead of use "older than x days" or the option based on amount of space,
I have found that using the option "keep x number of recent version chains" to work for me.
Too many incrementals can be a risk to your data should become corrupt, then all newer inc have no value.
Adjust the 6 and 4 examples to fit your own specific needs.

Figure 11-Inc: Example of custom/incremental backup method settings
If using incremental type backups (which is full +?Inc), the 11-Inc is my recommended method. Change the 6 or 4 to fit your needs.

Allow space for 1 more full than your selected number (4) as TI will NOT delete the oldest full or chain until its replacement has been created.Also understand the limitations/risk factor of incremental backups. If one inc backups gets corrupt, all newer inc are worthless so avoid excessive number of incremental backups. Always maintain a full backup set which are current This explains why my keeping a reasonable number of x "recent version chains" can be important. Keeping a high number of incremental is a high risk factor to your backups and should be avoided.

Avoid editing a task as I have found the results not always to be what is expected. Usually, it is quicker to create a new task pointing to a new empty sub-folder rather than depend upon an edited task.

Carl,

Create a new task and use the recommendations of Grover for the clean up. The fact that it doesn't create a new full after 6 incrementals is one issue. Grover's recommendation should avoid issues about the lack of clean up, but I am not sure the 2 are related.

Thank you for the information. I have created a new backup task and changed it to "Store no more than x version chains" as you suggested. I also changed it from Incremental to Differential because I think that will work better for me.

As Pat said, the cleanup issue is separate, and since I haven't hit the 90 days there was no reason to think it wouldn't work. The real problem here is that it was not creating a full version once a week. And my original setup matches the examples that Acronis provides, so I would hope that they actually tested that. Do Acronis engineers review these forums?

Carl, this is an example of my results.

The forum is seldom visited by Acronis staff and is not a company support forum, just a user forum.
You have to know that if you modify the retention settings (including the number of partials before a new full) during the course of a chain, you reset the counting. If you change from 6 to 7 after the partial number 5, you will end up with 12 partials (5+7), then the chain will behave normally. If you change it from 7 to 6 after the partial number 7 you will end up with 13 partials (7+6)

Thank you both for your assistance. I won't know for 14 days whether this worked but I will update the thread once I find out. BTW I followed the advice and created a new task rather than editing the old task so that shouldn't be an issue.