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Rotating Backup Sets

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Is there a way to maintain 2 (or more) rotating backup sets using ATI2009?
I currently do a full image backup with 3 incrementals a week, but the next week, when a new Full Image is created, the previous one is deleted.

Thanks,
David

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This batch file has been created to retain 9 backup sets of 1 full backup plus 3 incremental or a total of 36 backup files.This is a modification of BrianK earlier posting of a simple but workable batch program.

After your single full backup and incremental 2,3,4 have been created (one backup set) by your Acronis scheduled task, this batch file will rename the folder and allow next backup set to be created on the schedule you dictate into its newly re-created original folder named Week0. As times passes and a new backup sets are added, a new folder will be created for each backup set. Once wee has been created, then wee will be deleted each week so weeks 1-9 will be retained on a revolving basis. As a new backup set is added, the oldest is deleted. It is up to the user to determine whether his hard drive has sufficient space to maintain the 9 sets of backups. The first set of backups is usually representative of the storage space to be needed multiplied by the number of backup sets..

Assuming that you:
1. Assign Inc-.tib as the backup file name. 2. Assign the drive letter X: to your external drive. 3. On the external drive, create a master folder called ATI-INC ...a. Then inside the ATI-INC folder, create a sub-folder called Week0 4. Plus a few additional required steps covered by step 5. 5. Download the attached INC-Oct16 pdf file and it shows you in detail how to accomplish this. Read the pdf and then ask your questions.

This colored illustration is specific to your needs providing you want to retain 9 sets of 1 full plus 3 incremental. It can be copied into your clipboard and pasted into Notebook and saved as Rename-INC.bat into a folder of your choosing or Drive X. If you wish to retain more or less backup sets, you can modify and/or request some help here.

ECHO OFF
X:
CHDIR X:\ATI-INC
IF NOT EXIST X:\ATI-INC\week0\Inc-4.tib EXIT
IF EXIST week9 (RMDIR /S /Q week9)
IF EXIST week8 (REN week8 week9)
IF EXIST week7 (REN week7 week8)
IF EXIST week6 (REN week6 week7)
IF EXIST week5 (REN week5 week6)
IF EXIST week4 (REN week4 week5)
IF EXIST week3 (REN week3 week4)
IF EXIST week2 (REN week2 week3)
IF EXIST week1 (REN week1 week2)
IF EXIST week0 (REN week0 week1)
IF NOT EXIST week0 (MKDIR week0)
EXIT

The Inc-Oct16 pdf guide was not written especially for your specific number of incremental files to be retained, but was written and illustrated for one full backup plus 6 archives. Backup set retention is 9 backup sets. However, the remainder of the guide is applicable to your needs. The guide is a building block to your understanding how to modify its contents to fit your needs. The guide also lists a variety of file retention examples.

Testing can be done very easily once you get all the pieces together. You don't have to wait for the schedule to complete. The testing can be accomplished by running the scheduled task manually several times back to back (waiting just enough time between runs to allow each task run to complete) to see if the backups are completed and folders renamed.

If you run the task 6 times, what you would expect to find when viewing the ATI-INC folder would be one Week1 folder with one full backup and 3 incremental backups; plus a Week0 folder with one full and one very last incremental--or a total of 6 files for the 6 test runs.

Edited.Oct19 One line of batch file changed. DEL changed to RMDIR /S /Q plus pdf file updated Oct 24.

Attachment Size
7158-85720.pdf 75.52 KB
7158-85723.pdf 99.13 KB
7158-85726.pdf 86.55 KB

Thank you for your quick response. I think this will help me to accomplish exactly what I want. While I think this functionality should be built right into ATI, your work-around looks great. It probably took longer to document it than it took to develope it, so thank you again.

David