Looking For Advice
Hi All,
I am using Acronis True Image Home 2010 and this is my situation..
I am backing up a 1TB drive (C:) onto a 1.5TB external HDD.
I have selected to backup the whole disc so that I can restore the entire operating system and all data in case of a system failure.
I started by doing a FULL BACKUP which took a very long time which was expected.
Since then I have done a couple of INCREMENTAL BACKUPS.
I tried to do another INCREMENTAL BACKUP last night and it appears I have run out of space on my 1.5TB external HDD!
Replacing the external HDD for a larger drive is not an option at this stage, so I am looking for some advice on the best way to be able to backup my data.
Will I need to wipe the external HDD clean and do a new FULL BACKUP?
Or is there another way without having to do the FULL BACKUP?
I am just looking at a solution that would be quicker than doing a FULL BACKUP.
Cheers,
Phoenix
Consolidate will be impossible because it requires a free space for a new full backup, and there is not enough even for a incremental. In trhe future I would consider separate backups for system and data, so that consolidation require less space for its full backup, and may be even storing data as a copy, not a data backup if data is incompressible like pictures and videos.
Thank you for your suggestions.
I have an idea of using a 2TB External + 1.5TB External for backup.
When the 2TB is full I can start to make incremental backups on the 1.5TB and from what was stated above Acronis will be able to restore by following the trail of incremental backups on the 2 drives?
Main thing I am hoping to achieve is reducing the amount of times the customer will need to run a FULL BACKUP. It will be quicker for him to run an INCREMENTAL BACKUP. It takes a long time to do a full backup. (Should have gone with internal drives for backup instead of USB).
Yes, ATI can span a backup chain across multiple destinations. One thing to consider is the type of data being backed up and whether the data need versioning. Acronis is great at imaging and pretty good at file backup.
So a good strategy is:
a) to limit the data that requires imaging (Windows, programs files) by creating a system partition, and backing this up on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) with an incremental chain and new full backups. A good way to estimate the number of incrementals before a full is to decide when the last full is not a viable backup to go back to in the worst case where none of the incremental can be restored (that would be case where the first incremental after the full becomes corrupted).
b) choose a backup technology that fits the kind of data, the protection and the versioning needs. A file backup from Acronis is great to keep versions of content that is uncompressed and that might need protection. A simple file replication tool is enough for content that is compress, doesn't change much and doesn't require protection (movies, music, pictures, ...).
When in place, you can have a backup disk about the same size as the data to be backed up. Otherwise, I always recommend to have backup space about 2.5 time the size of the data to backup, so that you can at least do one chain of incremental before a new full backup.
I got a 2TB Internal Drive for the client, and advised him to transfer all his data onto this drive.
We now have the 1.5TB Windows Drive backing up to the 1.5TB External Drive. (Windows drive is now considerably smaller, faster to backup, and the external will not run out of space any time soon!)
And the new 2TB Internal Data Drive now backs up onto the 2TB External Drive.
Thank you for your responses it has been a great help and the next Acronis setup I do I will follow your advice.