Cannot get an incremental backup to be created

1. If drive letter changes, or disk runs out of space, then obviously True Image won't be able to create a backup. You need to manage your disks to allow True Image to do its job.

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

3. Create a brand new backup task with your desired options. That is safer than editing a task.

4. 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

How can I get my external hard drive to always be named Z? Is it possible to assign it a permanent letter, regardless of which USB port I plug it into? Or do I have to assign a USB port a specific letter, which will be given to any external device plugged into that port?

Windows Disk Management | right-click the external drive | Change drive letters and paths.

While there, you should also add a recognizable label to every disk, so you can uniquely identify it without the drive letter.

If I do that, will the drive letter that I give the external hard drive stay the same regardless of which USB port I plug it into?

It does for me.

John B. wrote:

If I do that, will the drive letter that I give the external hard drive stay the same regardless of which USB port I plug it into?

As MVP Tuttle has indicated, the answer is "usually" yes the disk will load with whatever drive letter as specifically assigned to that disk.

There are some limitations. The letter will usually display correctly only on the same computer which assigned the drive letter. If disk attached to a different computer, the special drive letter will not be assigned but will assign whatever drive letter is next due up for use.

On some computers, when the disk is attached, you will get a balloon tip message indicating a disk has been attached and usually the message may include the drive letter being used. It is also a good practice to confirm (before backup time) that Windows has assigned the correct letter so that you have time to re-assign the correct letter before backup time arrives.

Some of us use screen reminders to ourselves before backup time to be sure and attach the storage disk. The use of DriveNotify is also very effective to making sure the correct disk is attached before backup is allowed.

I created a full backup last week called HPg4_full_b1_s1_v1 at 165.8 GB on True Image 2013. It was created as the first file in an incremental backup scheme.
I then went to create an incremental file today, but it failed because the letter assigned to my external disk changed from F to G. So I assigned the fixed (absolute) letter Y to the external drive and then went into my backup scheme configuration and set it to back up to the new location at disk Y.
I then ran the backup but rather than get an incremental backup based off of last week’s full backup, I am getting a very large backup that I believe is a full backup called HPg4_full_b1_s1_v1-2.tib.
Three questions:
- Is True Image 2013 creating a full backup?
- If so, why?
- What is the meaning of “v1-2”?

At this point, you would have better and more predictable results if you cease to tuse the problem task and start over with a new task.
You can either change the problem task to "do not schedule" or use the "Remove task from list" option. Then create a new task pointing to the new drive letter and pointing to a new empty sub-folder. My recommendation is a separate storage folder for each task.

This link can help and there are additional links inside that link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/54475

In my opinion, the program cannot correct for changes initiated by the user so one of my personal rules is "no edits to working tasks." If a correction is needed, stop using the task and start completely over with a new task with the correct setting and then leave the task alone.

If you want to use incremental backups, then set up the backup scheme as a Custom/incremental type and be sure to set it to "Automatic cleanup". The illustation below is a good example. I recommend you use the options as illustrated. Change the 6 and 4 to satisfy your storage needs and space limitations but use the option "STore no more than X recent versions" and do NOT use either of the other two opitons which is based on elapsed days or disk space limits.

Figure 11-Inc: Example of custom/incremental backup method settings
If using incremental type backups (which is full + X Inc), the 11-Inc is my recommended method. Change the 6 or 4 to fit your available storage.
These automatic cleanup settings will provide for automatic deletion of the oldest backups after the "Store no more than X number of chains" quota has been reached.
In this example, deletion of oldest backup will occur immediately following creation of backup #29.

Allow space for 1 more full backup in addition to "Store no more than X number of chains" as the program will NOT delete the oldest full until its replacement has been successfully created.

In this example, one chain or one recent version chain =1 full plus 6 inc or 7 files per chain.
If keeping 4 recent version chains (4 chains of 7 each) retention would be 28 files. Deletion of oldest chain will occur after backup 29 (full).

Also understand the limitations/risk factor of incremental backups. If one inc backups gets corrupt or accidentally deleted, all newer inc are worthless so avoid excessive number of incremental backups. Always maintain a full backup set which are current This explains why keeping a reasonable number of x "recent version chains" can be very important. Keeping a high number of incremental is a high risk factor to your backup data and should be avoided.
For a better understanding of the differences between Inc and Dif as it relates to the safety factor, review this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40810

When restoring an Incremental backup, select the specific Inc file to be restored and all preceding Incremental files plus the full backup base must be present and will be restored (multiple files required).

The 1-2 setting indicates the backup set is continuing with the disk letter changes but a new full needed. Frankly, as I mentioned above, I would not continue the use of this task but would start over. You can delete the backups later after you have new backups.

If your intention is to have a backup which will be able to create a replacement disk, then my recommendation is for that type backup to be a "disk image" or "disk mode" backup. This type is illustated in the very first picture of signature link 2 below.