What exactly do i lose by consolidating ? Can I delete the last increment and try again ?
Acronis True Image 2014 Build 6673
So i've been trying out ATI and so far i'm not impressed. :(
I've made several backups over the past 2 weeks (9 in total) and the backup chain seems to have been consistent so far until a few days ago.
The option for this backup was for a incremental file backup of the entire main drive to a external backup drive.
The main drive size is 55.4 GB with about 50GB used at the time of the last attempted incremental backup. I'm constantly testing new mobile applications and syncing with iTunes so the size of my increments usually grow a few gigabytes with each new increment.
So far my increment sizes have been about (respectively) and as seen in this screenshot.
http://puu.sh/aCTfu/e29014898b.png/ss%20(2014-08-03%20at%2008.02.47).png
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About 28GB for the first backup.
10GB for the second backup
90MB for the third
9GB for the fourth
11GB for the fifth
6GB for the sixth
7GB for the seventh
5GB for the eighth
15GB for the ninth
Then as a few days ago that number rose to 37GB for the 10th backup. Which on the surface from my POV doesn't at all seem warranted as i hadn't made that many changes to the file structure to warrant such a large 10th increment (not even close). And i checked the files themselves and the file name of the last backup differs slightly from the first nine increments with a trailing file name of "-2" So i'm going to imagine a new full backup was made ???? :( >:-|
The current free space on the backup drive is 45GB.
So I have a few questions.
Is this normal behavior ?
What options do i have without losing any file versions to mitigate space ?
What exactly does the consolidate versions option do?
Would i lose different versions of the same file name by using this option?
If the above isn't a practical route can i delete the last increment, re-validate my existing structure and try again without losing anything?
I haven't made any changes to this terminal since I waned to check with this forum first.
Are there any additional options i have from the CLI?
**I've read most if not all of whats in the Acronis KB, the forum and in the help articals/pdfs please don't refer me to those they don't seem to provide any practical avenues of mitigation of space at the moment.**
ps: The last thing i want to do is lose any previous file versions so backup cleanup is not a viable option.
Pat >:-| , This is very infuriating.
The last thing i need is to have to start from scratch and create a new base. I have very little space left on all available media as it is.
**
I would also appreciate a solid response to my questions about consolidation itself.
What exactly is recursed, deleted. and/or mitigated after the consolidation process? What will i have access to and not have access to?
Will i still have access to the date ranges for the backup information thats saved?
Will i still have access to different versions/sizes/attributed files that have already been backed up?
In other words, is the consolidation process more like a docucomp process or more geared towards compacting the existing compressed database.
**
There is also nothing to suggest that ATI didn't have access to the original backup files. So i have no idea how this happened in the first place.
How does such a process fail so suddenly with no warning and absolutely no hardware issues?
My original conceived question remains. Can I just delete the last increment backup created from ATI, re-validate and try again?
PS:
I suppose i also have the option available to myself to backup this "-2" file in a separate directory as well
When you consolidate Full1 with Incr1 and Incr2, you end up with one new full that reflects the status at Incr2. All changes between Full1 and Incr2 are then lost. Think of it as video editing, ATI will create a temp file by copying Full1, and then will insert the sector information of Incr1, then of Incr2. If this operation succeeds, ATI will delete Full1, Incr1 and Incr2, rename the resulting work file, and the rest of the backup chain, so that it looks like you had started the chain with a new full when you did the old Incr2.
If you are running out of backup space, this probably explains the pb with consolidation since it demands a lot of space to create the temporary new full. etc.
To preserve the integrity of the internal database of ATI (which never syncs back to what is truly on the disk), delete your last incr backup version from the UI of ATI. Then revalidate the backup.
Starting a new task in a new directory is a very safe way to go also!