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Vastly Different Size Backups

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I am considering to upgrade to Acronis 2014, although without an explanation coming from Acronis, I am hesitant to buy. Here's the question: I have noticed that my current program, Acronis True Image Home 2013, produces variable size backup files. Since I had earlier experienced a Windows crash and had to restore a backup file, I am concerned over the possible incompleteness or integrity of the backup files. As you can observe in the attached screen capture of my backup files, they have a vast range in size from the smallest at 90,732 KB to the largest at 10,559,669 KB, with the current usage of my primary drive at 762,331,275.264 KB. How can the alleged most current backup of a much smaller size, 538,060 KB contain a FULL backup image of my computer in the event a restoration is required. Is this an Acronis 2013 defect? Has it been corrected in the 2014 version? Kindly explain.

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Your backups are incremental backups, and your picture shows the list of backup from the 10th incremental backup to the 31st slice.

You should validate your backup. If it validates, this means that ATI knows where the first backup is and where the other 9 incremental slides are.

You chain of incremental backups is very long. As a rule of thumb, your last full backup should NEVER get too old for you to go back to, if it were the only backup working.
To restore an incremental backup (let's say you want to restore your system at the date of the 10th incremental backup), ATI will need the full backup, and all the incremental backups until and including the 10th. If any of these slices is lost, damager or corrupted, you wouldn't be able to restore.

You should do more full backups. But your have a lot of data on your disk.

Ideally, you would segregate your backup types depending on the following:
- disk and partition backups for all hidden partitions, and the partition containing the OS and the apps,
- file backup for working documents and content that you want to keep a version of,
- sync backup for files that are big, in compressed format already (photos, videos, movies, PDF, ZIP) and don't change often if at all,
- redundant sync or copies for irreplaceable content, ie you cannot reproduce it or afford it again (work of art, pictures, unique documents) stored on a different site

Or, added to the "what if" restore part. Let's say you wanted to restore back to most current backup.
Then each and every one those inc files must be present and readable and non-corrupt. If any missing or corrupt, the backup would fail.
With additional tries, you might find you could do a partitial restore backp to the date of the last good in--if you could find which one that wa via trial and effort.

You might be interested in the automatic cleanup feature, available if a new task were started.
Click link 2 below, and follow the green colored link ti illustration 11-Inc.