How do I delete JUST THE OLDEST backups instead of multiple "versions" of them?
My system does not seem to be deleting old incremental file-backups automatically, as I'd hoped it would do. My backup destination is therefore filling up, and I am desirous of preventing it from overflowing.
I just tried to manually delete the oldest backup (through ATI!), and it told me that if I did that, I'd end up deleting a number of "versions" as well. I told it to go ahead, not realizing that those "versions" included the LATEST BACKUPS as well as the OLDEST! All my February backups are now gone, along with the early-January backup I was trying to delete. I am left with the remainder of the January backups, the middle of the range I once had.
I must say I am extremely disappointed with the user-friendliness of the Acronis interface and program. It is much inferior to DriveImage, which I used with great success when I had Windows XP. Unfortunately, I've already paid you guys, so I guess I'm stuck.
So, for future reference, how do I delete JUST the OLDEST backups, and NOT ANYTHING ELSE?
Best results seems to be obtained by using the keep x number of recent version chains. Do not use the keep x based on days or disk space.
Is this defect recent? I used disk space limits on various earlier ATI versions without issue.
Thanks for your quick reply. I have set up a new task as per your instructions (deleting the old tasks and their backups - ugh), and I do very much hope I did it right. I paid for this version on February 1st, so I have a few days left to see if your suggestion works.
I find it intolerable that a program should be so vulnerable to corruption from the editing function that was built-in to it in the first place.
Should I decide to demand a refund on my ATI Home 2012, is there any other version of Acronis backup which will be more flexible and allow me to fine-tune such details as aged-deletion? In other words, is there a version that is BETTER than Home 2012? By "better", I do not mean "more features", but more capable of the basic tasks asked of it.
John,
I did not mean to infer to delete old backups. You may want to try and recover via a file recovery program.
From the standpoint of backup retention and cleanup, the current 2012 seems to do the best as compared to 2010 and 2011 versions.
Editing tasks cause the data base program to become confused as to its goals. Create the task and leave it be. If changes needed, stop the task and create a new task with new goals and new folder and new file name.
If you want to consider running two programs in tandem, try adding the free helper program for TI which is Chain2Gen. Check my signature below. This is helper program for TI but written by forum MVP OracleDBA. You could test both and use the one that works the best for you. I use both.
Tuttle,
The basis of my comments is the postings by users of having disk full errors or the elapsed days not working. Whether this is a user issue or a program issue, there is no conclusive proof. I have never tested either and the keeping x number of chains has worked for me.
Edit: I know that Acronis expended considerable effort improving the reliability of the how the tasks retained their backups. The posting on this issue has been much less than it has been with 2011.
Grover said: "Editing tasks cause the data base program to become confused as to its goals."
Are all Acronis products made this way, or is there one available which does NOT become confused? A simple yes or no, please.
John,
I am not associated with Acronis. I have no experience with their business versions. My comments related exclusively to my experiences with version 2012 of TrueImgeHome and those instances reported by other users.
When a task has bee edited, I personally would like to see the program advise the user that the task will restarted with new goals. Currently, after edits, the program will adjust but the adjustment period can be quite lengthy.
Well, I'll wait five days (the "Wait no more than" parameter has been set to four days), and see what happens. If this works, then I'll overlook the complexity (and the s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s) of ATI, and live with what I paid for. If it does not work, then I'll demand a refund and keep looking for a solution to my needs.
Steve Jobs was always famous for telling his people to keep things simple simple simple. Acronis would do well to consider that directive.
Not everybody is a computer geek or a programmer, especially not home users.
Not everybody wants to mess with 100 scattered and deeply-buried settings.
Not everybody is OK with a highly-unintuitive user-interface.
Acronis, please re-consider your interface, and have it tested by people who have never used such a program before. Do NOT allow your programmers in the same room as the testers. Your menus are obscure and scattered, right-clicks do odd things in odd places, and places where right-clicks should have menus have no such. The interface sucks, frankly. It smacks of having been developed by very-experienced programmers, who know exactly what they're looking for and where. It also smacks of having been developed by people with little sense of style, esthetics, logical flow, or ease-of-use.
I don't want to tweak and fudge and search and install workarounds, I just want the program to WORK PROPERLY out-of-the-box, and especially not to delete things I didn't tell it to delete. Come on, guys.
I'm ranting; my rant will be read by nobody important, but I got it off my chest.
Thanks for your help. I'll be back in five days or so.
John,
If you are a new user to 2012 version, this link may be of interest.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
I just followed your link to create a disk backup, and a file backup. I'm keeping three older versions, running the backups once a day.
Ever played the college drinking-game called "f***-up"? ATI Home reminds me of that game. The point of the game was to create elaborate, counter-intuitive, and arbitrary rules on precisely how each drink was poured and consumed; if you made a mistake (or "effed-up"), you had to take another drink, until you got it right. Of course, the drunker you got, the more times you had to repeat the attempt, and...
ATI Home is one complicated, jumbled program, with things you're not supposed to do because you'll break things. But you can't possibly know not to do them unless warned by someone who's experienced. Then you need to perform a cryptic DOS-like action by adding an underscore after the filename, and are prohibited from using certain characters in the filename. But you're not told any of this while you're typing. Why can't Acronis have the program monitor what you type and offer the corrections to you on-the-spot? ("Sorry, you cannot use spaces", etc.)
Unbelievable. TOTALLY unacceptable. And considering they've had three years to correct the problems, also laughably inept. Who would hire these guys?
I'll give it five days. If older versions are automatically deleted while leaving newer ones untouched, I'll live with my purchase. I hope I'll be able to tell if the older versions are disappearing...
Your help much appreciated.
John,
My comments are just that--mine. As I wrote before, I am not an employee of Acronis so you cannot consider my comments as official instructions. Official instructions can be found in the Acronis published user manual.
My comments about dashes and underscore are mine and intended for clarity and their help will vary by user. Some users have short simple backup names while others have extended names and meanings. The point being that if both the user and the program use numbers or special characters, some sort of separation is need for clarity. You can use or ignore my comments.
Here is one link where Acronis discusses how their file names as constructed.
http://kb.acronis.com/content/19313
Good luck.
I'll give it five days. If older versions are automatically deleted while leaving newer ones untouched, I'll live with my purchase. I hope I'll be able to tell if the older versions are disappearing...
I gave it more than five days. And my hard drive filled up almost to the point of running out of room.
I then discovered I had two separate partition backups running, which may have accounted for the problem. I have deleted one of them. What's left is an incremental File backup, and a partition backup. Overnight, the stored data /decreased/ by 3GB, which I guess is a good thing.
I'll give it a few more days...
It looks like you can't "age" incremental File backups. Why not?