Question how to setup backup with two external drives

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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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I have a question concerning how to setup Backups with Acronis for my system.

My computer has two drives (C: and D:) which I would like to backup. I have two external USB devices that I want to use to store the backups on.

Here comes how I would like to use the external drives: I want to have one USB drive connected to my computer and the other one I keep disconnected at home. This way the two drives are physically at two different locations in case my office burns down or my computer is pinched. After a week or two I want to swap the USB drives so that I connect the one I kept at home and take the one from the office at home.

My requirement is: in case one USB drive gets lost I must be able to restore the system with the other drive alone (up to the version that has been stored on that drive before I took it home).

This is how I set it up:
In Acronis I created two volume backups, one for Drive C: and one for drive D: and configured them to take one backup per day starting with a full backup followed by incremental backups. This works fine so far.

After a week or two I want to swap the drives. So I create two new volume backups and configured them to take one backup per day starting with a full backup followed by incremental backups. But what do I need to do when it's time to connect the first USB drive again? Do I need to do a full backup first? What do I do with the configured backups in Acronis? Can I continue using them or do I need to set them up freshly?

Many thanks for your help.

Regards,
Dirk.

Tue, 04/01/2014 - 07:07
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Comments: 3768

Good plan. I do something similar, rotating two external backup drives.

Assign a fixed drive letter to your external drive, high in the alphabet (e.g. V) to avoid its letter changing.

Create a separate backup task for each external HD. If you also want separate backup tasks for the source drives C: and D:, then you'll have four backup tasks:

- Backup C: to external drive 1
- Backup D: to external drive 1
- Backup C: to external drive 2
- Backup D: to external drive 2

A task for Incremental or Differential will always begin with a full backup. That is necessary, as that becomes the baseline.

For an Incremental task, after the first full backup, subsequent backups will be incremental, each one based on changes since the previous Incremental backup, all the way back to the second backup being incremental based on changes since the full backup. As such, you need all links in the chain, all incremental backups right back to and including the first full backup, in order to Restore.

For a Differential task, after the first full backup, subsequent backups will be differential, each one based on changes since the first full backup. To restore, you would need just any Differential and the Full backup on which it is based.

You should not allow an incremental chain to become too long. An incremental restore depends upon every incremental in the chain being valid, including the original full. It's better to limit each chain to just a few incrementals, followed by a fresh full backup to start a new chain.

You should validate backups periodically. That would alert you much if the full backup were missing or unreadable.

Tue, 04/01/2014 - 16:39
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Posts: 2
Comments: 1

Thank you very much tuttle for your explanation. What about this concern:

Let's say I start like that (A means baseline of C: on USB drive A / A1 means first incremental backup on USB drive A, etc.):

A, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 then B, B1, B2, B3

Can I really continue with A6? If Acronis relies on the backup flag of files to work out what has changed it wouldn't work.

Wed, 04/02/2014 - 06:43
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Forum Star
Posts: 51
Comments: 3768

Yes, that will work. Disk/partition backups do not care about Windows file dates.

But, do not name your external drives "A" or B". Assign a fixed drive letter to your external drive, high in the alphabet (e.g. V) to avoid its letter changing.

Wed, 04/02/2014 - 13:57
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