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Drive Image - Call for "Next" HD?

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Hello, all—

I need to know if ATI 11 will use the empty space on an existing HD for part of a large archive, then call for another drive to finish the archive.

I've been making regular image backups of the HDs in my system (to dedicated "backup" HDs), and it's past time to add "new" data from the primary system HD to the image file (original plus incrementals) series for that drive. The target HD isn't completely full yet.

TI estimates a bit over 200 GB to be added to the original image family, and the 1 TB HD that's been receiving the various images has just 200 GB space available. The preview of the archive operation states that there is insufficient space available on the target drive...which I understand.

There is some uncertainty among the information presented in the Help file and the PDF User Guide for ATI 11. So, my specific question is whether ATI will begin the archive operation at all...and if it does, will it allow me to select another HD to finish the archive after the current drive is, in fact, full? (That is, will ATI treat a target HD in a manner similar to how it would treat an optical drive, asking for "another disk"? The HDs I use for archiving are NTFS formatted, accessed in an eSATA drive dock.)

Would configuring this next archive operation to use a custom file size (smaller than "full file size") help allow me to fill the current drive and use another formatted, empty drive to finish the operation?

Thx in advance for advice and counsel.

Shenzie

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Shenzie,

You just need to edit the destination of your current backup and replace it by a new drive with a different drive letter. It is best if each drive has a fixed drive letter.
For example, you current drive (almost full) is currently drive F:, assign the fixed drive letter F: by using the disk management console.
Plug your new disk, and assign the drive letter G:.
Then edit your backup destination and change it to G:
The backup chain will continue and TI will remember that some part of the backup is on F: and some part is on G:

Once done, boot on your recovery CD and try to restore at least one file that you know is on F: and restore another file that you know is on G:, just to make sure this is working as designed.

Thank you for your reply, Pat. Some follow-on questions, if you don't mind...

Taking your example of the first HD used being F: and the one used to receive the balance of the backup being G:, does the metadata file associated with the backup become fixated on the drive letter of the second drive being G:? Or, alternatively, will a restoration from the overall backup that requires a file(s) from the second drive prompt me to locate the drive by its current letter? (I've had experience that the main backup dialog allows browsing for a backup to add to the list, but I sometimes start my system from a different HD in a different version of Windows, and so drive letter assignment varies. If the drive letter of the "continuation" HD is hard-wired in the backup metafile, I'll have to be sure to annotate the backup.)

A loosely related question: Is it possible to edit the "friendly" name of a backup as it is presented in the My Backups list in the main backup window? I don't find the question addressed in the User Guide. If it is possible, how?

Shenzie

Shenzie,

ATI tracks where the TIB files are in a database file located in a ...Acronis/TrueImageHome/Database/ folder (in Win7, it is under C:\ProgramData\). Typically, if you select a TIB file and try to restore it, when ATI fails to find where the rest of the archive is, it will ask you to browse to it "Please specify location of volume X" where X is the number of the missing backup (the full is volume 1).
If you change drive letters, you definitely make it harder to track everything, so you have to try a restore as I suggested, from the boot CD.

Yes, you can edit the name of a backup. I recommend you keep the name of the TIB files identical to the file of the task name, and that you keep it as simple as possible, and that you let ATI number the files. Eg MyBackup2(4) is the third (not the fourth) incremental on top of the second full.

You've told me what I needed, Pat. Thank you.

The problem I wanted to solve was the name of a backup as it appeared in the list of "My Backups" in the primary TI dialog. I had a 28-part image (on a FAT32-formatted HD) that had a typo in the name as it appeared in the list. Though I had renamed all the *.tib files to correct the typo, the previous name still appeared in the list. When I browsed for the backup, the name that then appeared in the "My Documents" list was the that of the 28th part. However, careful manual editing of the XML database file allowed me to cause the generic backup name to appear in the list. The same procedure allowed me to change the generic names (as appear in the My Backups list) to read as I should have created in the first place.

>>> Acronis, a context-menu means to edit a backup name *as it appears in the list* would be very handy.

Inspection of the configuration of the database XML file makes clear why you advise great care in managing the drive letter of a drive that contains the remainder of a backup. I think I'll experiment with a drive that's almost full and a small backup...rather than chancing a problem with a 210GB backup!

One last question: If the multiple files comprising a backup on a FAT32-formatted HD were copied to an NTFS-formatted HD, is there a straightforward means to reconfigure the multi-file backup to a single file backup?

Your generous sharing of tech knowledge is much appreciated!

Shenzie

I think that if you change the location of a backup from FAT 32 to NTFS, ATI will automatically stop splitting the files.