How can I get rid of previous backup data really completely
I have several versions of Acronis True Image on different Windows PCs running, the problem seems to be the same with every version. No version apparently can interrupt and later continue backup operations running which would be nice when I have to leave my condo for a week. So I end up often with endless "Operations in progress ...." messages and finally kill the machines with the power button. The consequence is that next time either no backup can be made or only with different error messaages. What I usually do, is transferring the backup files after checking their integrity to anothe directory, deleting the job. Even after deleting the job and recreating it from scratch, making the first backup to an empty directory, I get a working backup but the program again wants to consolidate etc though and gives error messages. I would not expect anything relating to previous activity if I have created a completely new job. I even see that this is the 72nd backup etc. So how can I really get rid of a backup job and all its appendages etc so I can start with a really clean job again?
In reply to Franz, what actual versions… by truwrikodrorow…
Thank you for the input.
On different machines I am running versions 2011 - 2016 and experiencing the same problem in my opinion. I have usually created new backup jobs into the same dirs on the targets (local SATA-HDD or NAS in home network) and with the same names of the jobs. I will try it with creating new target dirs and giving different job names.
I am not using Acronis cloud. Unfortunately there is no way to use one's own cloud. I have a 1 TB webdav server space which I would use. But a cloud would need probably high upload speeds which I do not have available. So probably no cloud solution would be suitable for me.
Franz, it is always best to keep your Acronis backups in separate directories for each computer that they come from, as this makes it a whole lot easier to distinguish which files come from which computers. Having unique names for these jobs and files will help avoid any confusion when Acronis scans for existing backup files, so that it does not find any files that match a backup job on a different computer to the one that created them.
Cloud backup is still an issue for lots of users unless you are fortunate enough to have a good high-speed upload capacity from your broadband provider - I am limited to a maximum 5Mbps upload speed which makes for a very long backup time if doing so the the Acronis Cloud, so I mainly backup to local drives and my Synology NAS.
It is possible to backup to a third-party cloud drive but only if you can map this to a local drive letter or folder, similar to how you use Dropbox etc.
I did not mean I use the same dir for all backup files. Just when deleting a job which would not work I usually use the same name for the job and target dir when I create it again. For different jobs I use different names and dirs on my D-Link NAS drives in my home network. In my two locations I have only 500 kb (countryside) and 1 Mb (city) upload, much more would not be worth the money compared to the NAS-solution. The idea with the local drive letter for my webdav-space is great, I now remember I tried that long ago. The low upload speed is still the bottle neck.
Just experienced with ATIH 2014 on one desktop. But this is not depending on program version in my opinion.
File destination SATA HDD used only for backups in desktop. Old job not working correctly. I deleted the job, but not the files. Thereafter I moved the backup files which could be opened and seemed to be ok into another directory. Then I deleted the destination dir where the files had been stored by ATIH. I created a new dir with a completely different name for the source drive. I created a new backup job from scratch. Differential, no scheduling, some directories excluded, nothing special. I ran the first backup over night. Backup file seems to be ok when I try to open it. But ATIH has a red log bar indicating troubles and it tells me that I have 84 versions (!!!!) Messages indicate that backup file is created successful. Failure when trying to access a file during consolidation of files. Action terminated with errors.
Why does the program still remember 84 previous versions after deleting the old job? Which consolidation? Why should a consolidation be attempted when there is only a first and only one backup file existing? There is enough space on the backup HDD in the system, it is accessible all the time. Again I get the impression, that there are some old remnants of previous jobs somehow interfering.
Franz, information about old backup files is held in the Acronis Database files, so this may be where the 84 previous versions are coming from.
You have a few options you can try to resolve this:
1. Validate your backup task and take the Ignore option for each (of potentially 84) error messages that are given when missing files are encountered.
2. Rename or delete the Acronis Database and let this rebuild itself to have a clean start with information held about your backups. All backups will show initially as having never run.
To do option 2. you need to first stop all Acronis Services via the Services.MSC control panel, then end all Acronis programs via Windows Task Manager. Next, in Explorer, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ and rename or delete the Database folder found there. Finally relaunch the main Acronis application which will restart the programs & services and cause the database folder structure to be rebuilt.
3. Do a clean install of your ATIH application - i.e. uninstall this normally, then run the Acronis Cleanup Tool (link in my signature) - restart the computer to complete the action, then reinstall ATIH again from the latest available installer from your Acronis account. You will need to create new backup tasks after doing this clean install.
Bingo! Finally thee problem had a solution. I used method 2, renamed the database dir and after restarting ATIH it did not mention any zillions of old backup files any mor and I could see that a new database dir was created with much smaller files in it than the old ones . A differential backup worked on the basis of the previously made full backup without any complaints of the program.
Thank You for your patience!
Franz, glad to hear that the advice was helpful and things are looking good now.