How To: Monthly Full and Weekly Incremental ????
As much as I try, I can't figure out how I can get ATIH2010 to do a Full Backup every 4 weeks with Incrementals in the intervening 3. (Retaining the last 3 Sets of Full+3Incremental (12 Files in total)
Help Please?
Also, is there a way I can get the backup to run with a system account rather than my account. I change my password every 8 weeks, and thus the scheduler fails to execute the backups until I remember to chanage the password.

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Thanks... Chain2Gen is brilliant and just what I need. IMHO this feature should be built in to Acronis !!!
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Thank you for the followup. More and more users of TrueImage Home are finding that C2G can make their backup procedures much more predictable and dependable.
If you are using an external hard drive for your backup storage, also try DrvNotify listed in my signature index below.
GroverH
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GroverH:
I HAVE "HIT THE WALL" USING CHAIN2GEN AND NEED SOME ADVICE.
I'm using TI Home 2010 - Build 7046.
I appreciate your comments on the use of Chain2Gen scheduling using a NAS for office backup plus a USB portable HD for off site storage.
The procedure I developed consists of six separate tasks for backup purposes.
1st Sunday of the month - Full backup to Monthly Folder - separate TI task - MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=12
2nd, 3rd, 4th & Last Sunday of the month - Full backup to Weekly Folder - four separate TI tasks - MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=4
Monday - Saturday of the week - Full UserFiles to UserFiles Folder - separate TI task - MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=6
** It would be nice if the Acronis programmers would add another selection option for the Monthly schedule called "Fifth"; First, Second, Third, Fourth, FIFTH, & Last. As my use of the option, it becomes apparent that there are cases for a "fifth" & a "last" parameter as they have different meanings in some applications.**
I'm backing up the files to a USB portable HD weekly. Due to the time/size it takes to backup the Sunday image backups, I don't off-site backup the monthly folder; thus more than one task is needed to backup the Sunday monthly backup. Due to the limited syntax in TI Home, as I understand the program, for handling only a single day of the week, I had to create five tasks for the Weekly backup. With better TI syntax, the five Weekly/Monthly tasks could have been limited to two; Weekly folder and Monthly folder.
Questions. 1) Any idea what is going to happen when the "last" Sunday falls on the "fourth" Sunday; both scheduled for the same start time?
2) Did I miss something in Chain2Gen concerning "Option 5 - set a trigger based on today being a specific occurrence of day in a month"? It is my understanding from reading the documentation, that the "trigger" is for switching from "Incr" to "Full"; not what I need for switching the destination of the output backup file.
My "hat is off to all of you" who had a hand in the development & documentation of the Chain2Gen procedure. When I examined the batch/script files, other than the one we normally modify, I was completely blown away! And I thought I knew how to write complicated batch files for mainframes/micros; dating myself.
Thanks again for reading this.....
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Thank you but I can take no credit for the construction of these files. Oracledba is the provider and desires(typo) righfully deserves all the credit. Maybe he can offer some comments. Can you change the schedule so one begins a minute or two later. TIH will run the second when the first is done.
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Your previous comment was "right on".
I reviewed my tasks and found that I could reduce the number of tasks from 6 to 3 by doing the following.
Monthly HD Image - 1st Sunday/month @ 11:45pm - \NAS\archived share - 12 sets
Weekly HD Image - Every Wednesday @ 11pm - \NAS\image share - 5 sets
Daily UserFiles - Sunday-Tuesday & Thursday-Saturday @ 11:00pm - \NAS\backup share - 6 sets
With the above, I only have one "Daily UserFiles" task that is redundant with the "1st Sunday Monthly HD Image" task.
Thanks again.
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The more you work with this great program, the more you find it can do. The trigger file will cause the set0 file to be emptied forcing a new full--which is one of the beauties of the program.
I use C2G in 4 of my tasks. Two use the standard Acronis_PreProcessing_task.bat files pointing to two different internal drives; and the other two use the Acronis_pretask.bat file which utilizes the DriveNotify program by MudCrab with each pointing to a different external eSata drive. I like DriveNotify because it reminds me to attach the correct external based on the specific task that is being run.
I trust that you have other TIH backups stored elsewhere than the NAS.
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FHWA_Retiree - saw your and Grover's posts this morning as wanted to comment tonight but I see that you have developed an elegant solution. Nice job.
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GroverH:
In response to your comment "I trust that you have other TIH backups stored elsewhere than the NAS."
I am using a Netgear ReadyNAS+ with 4HDs at my home office and in support in a "friend's" law office. Yes, I have 2 portable USB HDs for each of the NAS units and I do a "One-Button" copy of the "Daily UserFiles" (6 files) & the "Weekly Image Files" (5 files) Shares to the USB drives on a weekly basis and they are stored in my Bank's Safety Deposit Box. The kind you can "walk up to" without getting someone to "open the gate" so you can get to your box. One goes in and one comes out!
FYI, I found that I had to setup the "One-Button" copy procedure to "Erase all of the previous files" from the USB drive for those two shared before copying the current files to the portables due to the Chain2Gen storage methodology of set folders. (If I don't, a single file could be stored on the USB drive in more than one place; set0, set1, & etc.)
In order to speedup the process due to the USB's slow copy speed, I don't copy the "Monthly Image Files" to the USB drives. They are being keep only on the NAS for "emergencies other than fire/thieft" and have a low probablity of being needed if a fire/thieft actually occurred. I may rethink that and copy "Quarterly Files" after I figure out how I would create them in another Share on the NAS using Acronis/Chain2Gen syntax.
Again, thanks for all of the help. I'm now starting to "install" your suggestion about setting the "TRGR_ON_MAX_TIB_CNT" to something other than 1 and controlling the trigger with the "TRGR_ON_DAY1=XXX" where XXX is the scheduled day to execute Acronis.
It just gets better and better as I continue this journey! :-)
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