Non-Stop Backup Space Usage - How to Control

For everything Nonstop backup open the Acronis True Image 2016 Web-Help page on the left side of this page.  In the toolbar at the top of that page you will see a Search field.  Type Nonstop in that field and click the search icon or hit enter.  All nonstop references in the help pages will display in a column in the left side of the page.  Browse through those and if you then still have questions post back.

The documentation doesn't address my question.....

Thanks

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#13720.html

Retention rules

Acronis Nonstop Backup keeps all backups for the last 24 hours. The older backups will be consolidated in such a way that Nonstop Backup will keep daily backups for the last 30 days and weekly backups until all Nonstop Backup data destination space is used.

I would imagine that once it is full, it will groom out the oldes to make room for newer ones, but that is not clarified - it only says that it will keep weekly's until all space is used.  You may want to reach out to technical support directly for specific clarification.  

It's been two months since I purchased my license.  Since only 30 days of support is included, this means I have to pay for a case in order to ask a question, because their documentation is incomplete?

Yep, I verified.  Only during the first 30 days can one ask a question of technical support.

That's an excellent reason to switch products.

There is no way to control NSB. WHen the backup space runs out, NSB stops with an error message. There is also no way to clean up the backup (in prior versions, it was possible to clean up older versions of the backup). NSB is not flexible, use it with caution. For example, there is only one way to extract files from the backup (using the restore function). If the backup is deemed corrupted, you don't have the option to try to open the backup file as you do with other backup types (with limited incremental succes in the case of a corrupt backup, I acknowledge). Use regular backups when possible (they allow you to implement retention rules), and keep NSB for files that really need real time backup.

Pat L wrote:

There is no way to control NSB. WHen the backup space runs out, NSB stops with an error message. There is also no way to clean up the backup (in prior versions, it was possible to clean up older versions of the backup). NSB is not flexible, use it with caution. For example, there is only one way to extract files from the backup (using the restore function). If the backup is deemed corrupted, you don't have the option to try to open the backup file as you do with other backup types (with limited incremental succes in the case of a corrupt backup, I acknowledge). Use regular backups when possible (they allow you to implement retention rules), and keep NSB for files that really need real time backup.

That's a bummer about there being no automated cleanup - at some point the disk will just run out space and have to start over which is anything, but ideal.  At a minimum there should be an automated grooming feature, or retention limit users can enable (just like the Acronis Cloud has).  I've steered clear of NSB for all the pain it seems to bring in the forums and the limitations you mentioned - plus the NSB feature is only as good as one day until the roll-up takes place and then you only have that one point in time from that day to recover from (and again when things get rolled up into a weekly).  I can't think of too many scenarios where a file would need to be backed up that often - I'd also recommend more frequent incrementals as well.  For files that are constantly changing (open spreadsheets, word docs, etc) they are typically  loaded into memory and not backed up until they are actually saved anyway.  Windows already has "system protection" that keeps changes of all changed files (as long as you give it enough room) using VSS so it kind of already has the NSB feature built into the OS (more or less).  Hopefully, Acronis NSB will get some more TLC and features in later updates - I cannot recommend it as a feature at this point in time though based on the feedback it's been getting in the forum.  

It would be interesting to hear some success stories for anyone who is using NSB successfully.