Unable to validate/recover one version of a backup archive without the validating all versions
Background:
Our backup policy is that we have two external hard disks. One is kept off-site and one is kept on-site. Each time we do a backup, we use our Acronis backup template (of the type CUSTOM > FULL) to create a new archive on the on-site hard disk, and then the two disks are swapped. In this way, the latest backup is always off-site and the next-to-latest-backup is always on-site.
Problem:
When I try to validate/recover a backup with only one of the hard disks connected to the computer, validation fails because Acronis is unable to find all "versions" of the backup. My question is: If I'm doing a FULL backup, why do I care if some of versions are currently not found? What I want to do is validate this one archive irrespective of whether or not other versions are valid.
Additional information:
--When I try to validate/recover the backup archive on another computer (i.e. any computer other than the one in which it was initially created) then validation succeeds. It seems that Acronis insists on validating all of the versions when and only when it knows that other versions exist.
--In Acronis 2011 I do not have this problem and I am able to validate one version of a backup archive on another computer, without having all versions present.
--It is possible that I am using the wrong backup scheme for our type of backup policy. If so which would be more appropriate?
In conclusion:
How do I validate a single version of a backup archive on a different computer?
Thank you. I presume that would be a good work-around. But there must be a more direct way of doing it.
How can I validate one version of a backup archive without validating all versions?
A backup task is tied to a specific target disk. When you switch disks, you should also switch backup tasks.
The validation will fail if the disk offsite is the disk being checked so it is essential when validating the correct matched task be used.
Each backup task has the option to validate the just created backup. This is part of the options. The options to validation are
no validation
validate now
validate on a different schedule
Having each disk have its own backup task should solve you validation errors. You are correct, a single full backup should be the only file being checked. Or, if it checks others, only the files created by that specific task will be checked so all will be present.
Any deletion of old backups should be done from within the program as per GH5, or better yes, set up the new tasks for automatic deletion as per example GH11.
GH5. How to delete backup files using Acronis Backup 'Explorer'
GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains). The 4 is user choice.
Validation can also be done manually from the TI Recovery CD.