Files Back Up on Alternative Drive

HnLA wrote:

I like to do a Files Backup to a drive I keep off site every once in a while.  I am afraid if I do that it will mess with the backup scheme and not do the backup properly in the future. 

What is the best way to run this alternative backup? Thank you.

Create a brand new backup task for that purpose. You can set it not to run on a schedule, but just to run manually.

You should assign a fixed drive letter to your external drive, high in the alphabet (e.g. M) to avoid its letter changing.
Windows Disk Management | right-click the external drive | Change drive letters and paths.

Also, I'm not a big fan of "Entire PC" backup. It seems like a simple, comprehensive option, but it can lead to unexpected results. It will backup every drive connected to the PC, even external drives and flash drives. That can result in much larger than expected backup sizes. I would prefer to create a disk/partition backup that selects just the disk(s) that you intend, such as the internal drive that contains the system partition.

tuttle wrote:

HnLA wrote:

I like to do a Files Backup to a drive I keep off site every once in a while.  I am afraid if I do that it will mess with the backup scheme and not do the backup properly in the future. 

What is the best way to run this alternative backup? Thank you.

Create a brand new backup task for that purpose. You can set it not to run on a schedule, but just to run manually.

You should assign a fixed drive letter to your external drive, high in the alphabet (e.g. M) to avoid its letter changing.
Windows Disk Management | right-click the external drive | Change drive letters and paths.

Also, I'm not a big fan of "Entire PC" backup. It seems like a simple, comprehensive option, but it can lead to unexpected results. It will backup every drive connected to the PC, even external drives and flash drives. That can result in much larger than expected backup sizes. I would prefer to create a disk/partition backup that selects just the disk(s) that you intend, such as the internal drive that contains the system partition.

Ditto to everything Tuttle said.  Follow his advice and you will be in good shape. 

Thanks..

1 - If I set up another Files backup like you say, can I copy or clone the existing one, as it has all the files checked that I want to copy?  Which is best?

2 - I thought the whole point of Acronis was the Entire PC backup. I had a lot of trouble getting it to work when I switched the external drive, so I hate to mess with what is working.  Is there a way to just get it to back up the C drive?  Currently I see I have it scheduled once a week, and it takes about 10 minutes, 45 after interim backups. So that is not a lot of resources.

I appreciate your help.

The point of Acronis is to help you backup the data that is imporatnt to you and it can be customized with different settings, to help you do what you want it to (schedule, frequency, source, destination, exclusions, ect).  If you want to backup all disks on your system, including all internal ones and possibly temporary ones that are attached when the backup kicks off, stick with entire pc.  However, most people only want to backup a speficic disk (or disks) and are not aware that they may be adding other disks to their backups when they are attached if they have selected "entire pc" as the backup type.

Setup a new backup, hover over the source and you will see other options - you really want "disks and paritions".  Pick only the disk(s) you really want to backup, but ensure the top checkbox is selected on that disk - that will backup the entire disk - all partitions.  This will backup anything and everything on the disk, so that when you restore it to another one, it will be the same on the new one.

You can "clone" a backup task.  Click the drop down to the right of the name and select "clone settings".  This will create a new task with similar settings.  Make sure you rename it, and check all settings (to be sure) - specifcally, re-pick the source as disk and parition and use a new folder for this backup - good housekeeping.. .unique backup names, individuals base folders for each folder.

Once your new backup is running, you can stop the schedule of the old backup so it doesn't keep running.  keep those backups as long as you need or want and then you can blow them away when you're comfortable that the new backup is running as it should be and that you've built up a comfortable amount of history with the new backup and no longer need/want the old ones. 

Another potential problem is that if you change from "Entire PC" to specified discks, Acronis will automatically include the disk on which the OS is installed. You will need to manually uncheck the partitions on that drive if you do not wish to include them in the backup.

Ian