Why did Acronis 2012 form three separate backups each day on the same external drive ?

Hi Roger,
We appreciate hearing from you, but it might be best if "your client" posts here so we get information from the end users point of view. What I mean is this. It's very helpful of you to post on this person's behalf, but the information is coming second hand. Here is an example.

He called me because he couldn't open the backup folder on the target drive. Turns out that it can be opened if Acronis is not running as a startup item.

A back up folder on a external drive is always accessible. It will be accessible from any computer it is attached to with or without the presence of Acronis. While you cannot open a .tib file without Acronis installed, opening the folder and seeing what it contains can be done from any PC. The same way you could open a view a folder containing office documents, but if office is not installed, you can't open the files.

Obviously, there are other circumstances here. I'm sure as a support professional you understand. So, maybe these are non-stop back ups? The folder is locked when the program is actively writing to the directory. I'm just guessing.

As far as what's best moving forward. Yes, if it were me, I'd start fresh with a newly installed version of 2014. Although I would have first removed the older version 2012, and installed 2014 cleanly. This is not a requirement, just what I would have done myself. Clearly someone needs to evaluate his needs and intended use in order to recommend the best use case for him. If storage is an issue, maybe running weekly full back ups with daily snapshots would be more effective. Retention rules also set according to his needs/environment.

The MVP's and others here are happy to assist.

Hi Roger,
I would concur with the prior comments by MVP Shadowsports.

I feel for both you and your client. In my opinion, the program has a distinct learning curve regardless of skill level. I think my 8000+ help postings as a senion citizen user would attest their need for assistance. Your questiions cover a wide range of possibilities.

The answers to many of your questions may be found in the log files. Each individual backup creates it own log file. At this point, we do not know whether the backups created were created via the system of via non-stop online backups. Were the unwanted backups created via the 2014 version? If yes, the answer to their prevention is found in the first few links provided below. The user could be the cause by his selection of backup creation methods. Any new 2014 backup task will be a scheduled task unless the user intervenes and changes the default settings.

Start by looking at the main Aconis menu where the tasks are listed. If you or your client want to post screen captures of your main menu, that would be one place to start. Visually, look at the main menu listings. Any that show the backup to be scheduled.

Click on signature link 1 below and look at the header " New! Illustrated Examples of Assorted Functions." This will provide answers via examples of many of the issues you face. Here are 3 examples:

GH1. How to change a backup task from scheduled to "Do Not Schedule".
GH2. How to enable a backup task schedule or change a schedule time..
GH3. How to create a non-scheduled backup task on the first try.
GH4. Illustrate Manual Backup Now option.

GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains. Automatic cleanup.

A reformat of the target drive shoud not be required as a simple deletion from within the program would suffice. The the unwanted backups are occurring due to open tasks which are still scheduled, you will need to disable those tasks in order to stop the unwanted backups from occurring. One such cure would be to run the TI cleanup utility and to install 2014 fresh again. Both the old and the new serials would need to be input into a clean install.

Thanks for the replies. I enjoy the Mac platform where most programs do not require extensive reading. SuperDuper and TimeMachine are very user-friendly and I've never read their documentation.

He was unable to access the backup folder for many months and at anytime of day. I witnessed the same issue and Acronis app was not running when the folder could not be opened. Acronis was eliminated as a start-up item, then the computer was restarted, then the backup folder opened. The three sets of daily backups were plainly visible, such as 6:00PM, 6:02PM, and 6:04PM.

The simple solution has been found. The external drive was reformatted as per the client's request, but the back up three backup schemes remained, showing that they are retained by Acronis on the internal/primary drive. Each one was deleted using the "cogwheel"/option and then the full backup (incremental) was chosen for daily at 6PM but was manually started.

It would have been nice for Acronis to have a "weekday" option to include only Monday through Friday, but that was not available. It would be a nice enhancement for Acronis to add (among other things) WEEKDAYS as a checkbox.

This client relies on me to problem solve and does not enjoy technology as much as we do.

Will check on his backup folder tomorrow and give follow-up here.

Most likely the 3 tasks were created inadvertently by the user when attempting to create the backup. As 3 tasks were created, this would seem to imply that the user clicked the "Disk & partition backup"(in upper left corner) multiple times to create multiple tasks.

The correct procedure would be to click the only once and create the task and then go inside the task and click the "backup now" option. Many many users have reported this type problem until they realize that a subsequent backup can be created via the "backup now" opton and clicking the "disk & partition backup" button is the wrong method to use when wanting to create repeat or instant backups.

GH4. Illustrate Manual Backup Now option.

Under the weekly option, individual days can be selected for any combination of backup to occur within the week and repeat the following week, etc.