Backup numbering fails to work correctly
I recently switched from True Image 2018 to 2020 and now my backup numbering no longer works correctly.
I use an Incremental backup scheme that initially makes a full backup and then six incremental backups before making the second full backup, etc.
I use this backup scheme daily for two different hard drives. One is a Disk/Partition backup of my C: drive and the other is a Files/Folders backup of my Data drive.
When I was using 2018, the numbering worked fine, like this:
Boot_ 2019-11-01_full_b1_s1.tib
Boot_ 2019-11-02_inc_b1_s2.tib
[...]
Boot_ 2019-11-07_inc_b1_s7.tib
Boot_ 2019-11-08_full_b2_s1.tib
But, now under 2020, instead of the next full backup incrementing to b2 (as shown above) it looks like this:
Boot_ 2019-11-08_full_b1_s1.tib
The b* never increments anymore.
I am using this line in the backup scripts, which always worked before this 2020 version:
uri="F:\Backups\@task@_@date@.tib" volume_id="0" />
I also know about using:
@exec@ but this doesn't cure the problem that I am having. This software always automatically incremented the b* for me.
I have tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling 2020.
I have imported my old backup scripts, but they act the same way as I am describing here.
I have contacted Acronis tech support, but that just ended with a three-week back and forth via Email with me uploading scripts, log files, etc. to their FTP server and no remedy.
I have played around with making a test backup that only backs up one small folder on my hard drive. That way I can run the backup repeatedly to test the number scheme by tweaking this line:
uri="F:\Backups\@task@_@date@.tib" volume_id="0" />
Sometimes I will take the @date@ out, other times I'll add the @exec@ in, etc.
I haven't been able to find a way to make things go back to the way they were under 2018 and previous versions.
Can anyone let me know some other way to approach this?
Thank you!
Here's what I have always done under v2018 and ALL previous versions of True Image going all the way back to True Image Home 2010:
Make a full backup and then 6 incremental backups, then another cycle of full and incremental, etc. So, each backup set contains 7 individual files that cover 7 consecutive days.
All of those backups go to my main backup hard drive.
Once that main hard drive gets full, I move the oldest set of backups to a second hard drive (all 7 files that belong to that one backup set).
With this process, I can have up to 42 days worth of backups available at any one time between those two hard drives.
If you're telling me that by doing this I am breaking all backups from being used then that's complete nonsense on Acronis' part and I will immediately request a refund and go back to using 2018 which works absolutely fine with the aforementioned method I am using.
Bill, assuming that you are speaking about Disks & Partitions type backups, then the following KB document now applies with ATI 2020.
Acronis have changed the format of the script .tib.tis files where you have been using uri="F:\Backups\@task@_@date@.tib" volume_id="0" /> in previous versions, such that you will no longer see any entries of this type and therefore cannot make this type of change.
A further complication is described in KB 63518: Acronis True Image 2020: do not delete first tibx file because your previous method of creating 2 chains of a full plus 6 incremental files will result in creating a small 12kb .tibx file holding metadata for all subsequent files in the task chain, so moving those files will cause the chain to be deemed to be corrupt.
I am not saying that you cannot take a similar approach for your backup strategy but that it will have to be a different strategy than the one you have used in previous versions of ATI.
See forum topic: Full Backups no independent entity - where the core issue here was discussed previously. There is a zipped powershell script here in that topic which moves full backup files to another location to help keep them completely independent of each other.
I am doing two separate backups. One is a disk/partition backup of my entire boot disc and the other is just a file/folder backup of my work hard drive that holds all of my important data. Both run once per day, first making a full backup followed by 6 incremental backups.
I have also successfully made test file/folder backups of the work drive by just telling the scheme to only backup a folder or two. Using the methodology stated in my original post, I have successfully had backups that will run a certain number of incremental backups after the original full backup and the the b* number will roll over from b1 to b2 on the subsequent full backup. But, once I tell it to backup all folders on the data drive, sans two, it seems to revert back to not rolling the b* number over and remains stuck perpetually on b1.
My backups ALL have just the .tib extension and I don't see any .tibx index files anywhere on my computer via a search of all connected drives. Not one single .tibx file exists.
Also, attached is the script that Acronis 2020 creates on my system for a test backup. Please notice the line
partition_id="\local\hd_ev\vol_guid(46E4A1634B7CA6D6B92A97B39EBF348B)" uri="F:\Backups\@task@.tib" volume_id="0" />
* also, since attaching the backup script, I changed the incremental iterations to 1 instead of 6 for testing purposes, so the line in the script that controls this will indicate 6 and not 1.
Which creates these files on my hard drive when executed 6 times:
Test_full_b1_s1_v1.tib (no .tibx files to be found anywhere on my computer via a search of all connected drives)
Test_inc_b1_s2_v1.tib
Test_full_b2_s1_v1.tib
Test_inc_b2_s2_v1.tib
Test_full_b3_s1_v1.tib
Test_inc_b3_s2_v1.tib
Now, if I edit the script and add _@date@ to the already existing line that Acronis originally created,
partition_id="\local\hd_ev\vol_guid(46E4A1634B7CA6D6B92A97B39EBF348B)" uri="F:\Backups\@task@_@date@.tib" volume_id="0" />
I get these results after 6 executions:
Test_2019-12-05_full_b3_s1_v1.tib
Test_2019-12-05_inc_b3_s2_v1.tib
Test_2019-12-05_full_b4_s1_v1.tib
Test_2019-12-05_inc_b4_s2_v1.tib
Test_2019-12-05_full_b5_s1_v1.tib
Test_2019-12-05_inc_b5_s2_v1.tib
Still not a single .tibx file to be found on my entire system via a search of all connected drives.
This is exactly how it used to run under 2018, except that I know from past experimentation if I add all of the folders to this Test backup that I really want to have, it will revert back to not rolling the b* over as shown in the above examples.
Again, the only change I made to the default Acronis-generated script I have attached is to manually add the _@date@ myself, everything else was generated by Acronis.
This is nuts and I see no good reason to mess with a simple thing like rolling the b* over and adding a date to the file name.
Finally, I manually deleted all middle versions of this test backup except for the oldest and newest. This should break all versions of this backup test, correct?
I tried restoring Test from within Acronis 2020. Of course, I had to click ignore a bunch of times due to those deleted versions that were between the oldest and newest and then I had a dropdown box containing the two versions I had kept intact (4 versions total in the dropdown when you account for each one having a full backup and one incremental backup).
I successfully tried two restores to a different location from the original location from within 2020. One restore was made from one of the full versions and the other was from the other backup's incremental version.
It seems that most or all of what I have just shown flies in the face of Acronis' own articles, or am I understanding this all wrong? Also, when I first had my interaction with their tech support, they didn't mention anything about the b* numbering no longer working, etc. I gave up on them because they were not offering any solution that would fix the issue.
Bill, if your backup tasks originate from tasks created on an earlier version of ATI, then these will continue to use .tib files even for Disk backups.
Only new Disk backups created by ATI 2020 will use .tibx files and be subject to the new behaviour mentioned earlier.
Files & Folders backups continue to use .tib files even with ATI 2020 as these haven't been migrated over to the new .tibx file format yet.
It is possible to fool ATI 2020 into creating .tib disk backups as documented in forum topic: How to create a Disk backup as .tib (not .tibx) that I posted back in September. I haven't revisited that method since the later builds were introduced so do not know if the process still works or not?
H,
I really appreciate all of your responses, but I have full/incremental backups of my C: drive disc/partition format that end in .tib and still no .tibx files anywhere. All made with 2020. How is that possible?
Bill,
Taken from the User Guide:
3.6 Backup file naming.
Depending on the version by which a backup was created, its name will differ.
Naming convention for backup files created by Acronis True Image 2020 or higher.
A backup file name has only the backup name and an incremental counter. It does not contain any additional information such as backup method, backup chain number, backup version number, or volume number.
A backup name may look like:
- my_documents.tibx
- my_documents_0001.tibx
- my_documents_0002.tibx
- my_documents_0003.tibx
Full and differential backups are stored in separate files and incremental backups are automatically merged into full backups.
The following backups continue to use the TIB format and naming convention:
- File-level backups for all destinations except for Acronis Cloud. File-level backups to Acronis Cloud are in .tibx format.
- Nonstop backups
- Notarized backups
- Backups which use CD/DVD/Blu-ray, FTP, or Acronis Secure Zone as their destination
Naming convention for backup files created before Acronis True Image 2020
A backup file name has the following attributes:
- Backup name
- Backup method (full, inc, diff: full, incremental, differential)
- Number of backup chain(p. 192)(in the form of b#)
- Number of backup (p. 192)version(p. 192)(in the form of s#)
- Number of volume (in the form of v#)
For example this attribute changes when you split a backup into several files. Refer to Backup splitting (p. 68) for details.
Thus a backup name may look the following way:
- my_documents_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
- my_documents_full_b2_s1_v1.tib
- my_documents_inc_b2_s2_v1.tib
- my_documents_inc_b2_s3_v1.tib
If you are creating a new backup, and there is already a file with the same name, the program does not delete the old file, but adds to the new file the "-number" suffix, for example, my_documents_inc_b2_s2_v1-2.tib