Back up takes hours, does multiple copies

Is the backup disk formatted in FAT or FAT32? If yes, it is possible, depending on what setting you used for the backup, that the backup file is bigger than the size of data on the disk, and then get split in 2GB/4GB chunks.

The backup of 4GB of data should be smaller than 4GB. Did you turn on a "sector by sector" option? If yes, remove that option.

If you are backing up to NTFS and you have normal compression, no "sector by sector", try to do the same backup from the recovery CD. If the problem subsists, there might be a disk error. Run chkdsk /r on the partitions being backed up.

If the problem goes away, you have some issue with the Windows installation. Simply delete the backup task (this will delete the schedule and the TIB files). Download the schedule manager here and ZAP all the tasks ( http://kb.acronis.com/content/1859 ); alternatively, uninstall ATI, reboot and reinstall.

Then create a new task and see if the problem subsists.

Thanks, yes, the backup disk is formatted in FAT32, & on checking I see that the backup file is indeed split into chunks of 4Gb, six of these and one of 2Gb. I didn't use the sector by sector option.

I had already uninstalled ATI, rebooted, and re-installed but this has not solved the problem. I have looked at the log of previous backups and notice that the long time it takes seems to be during the operation "Locking Partition C". This used to take between 6 and 10 minutes but recently it has crept up, first to an hour, then 4 hours, and when I backed up today it took nearly 8 hours!

I am at a loss as to what to do next, whether just to leave it like that or not. I am fairly confident but don't have the knowledge to do anything complicated. Any help welcome!

What is the size of your disk, the one that you are backing up and has 4GB of data on it?

Hi Pat I am Currently having the same issues as Kay But both my drives are configured to NTFS. My files are split into chucks which vary from 6 GB to 1 MB.

"If you are backing up to NTFS and you have normal compression, no "sector by sector", try to do the same backup from the recovery CD. If the problem subsists, there might be a disk error. Run chkdsk /r on the partitions being backed up." -PAT L

Could you clarify about "do the same backup from the recovery CD". I don't quite understand how to go about this.

Any help would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

N Sulay,

I suspect that you see partial backups, which is normal depending on your backup scheme (version chain, incremental or differential).

If you want to verify this, you can capture a screenshot of the directory where your files are stored, and another one of the backup options.

I hope you have a working ATI recovery CD... I was merely suggesting to do the backup from it and compare results in the previous case.

Thanks for the reply Pat!

Do you know how do I stop it from taking partial backups?

My Back up location is to a folder in a shared network drive.
I have also attached a screenshot of my backup options as you requested.

would it be reasonable to think that the "Archive Splitting" tab is causing it to create multiple copies. Even though this shouldn't happen since the available space is more than enough.

The only reason I haven't tried it the other way is because it usually takes 5-7 hours to back up.

I don't think that archive splitting option is the source of the apparent splitting here. In fact, I suspect that what you are seeing are just partial backups (differential or incremental).
The only thing that makes me hesitate is that I don't see where the corresponding full is.
Since you are using Backup and Recovery, I suspect you have another task running a regular full backup, and this task is running an incremental backup.

Pat L wrote:

The only thing that makes me hesitate is that I don't see where the corresponding full is.

Could you please elaborate a bit more on this.

Also I ran a Backup this time to an external hard drive and it seem to have created one file this time. I could use this alternate method but it still boggles me why didn't it do this the first time.

I have a lot more PC's where some of them have one backed up file while others have fragmented copies

With Acronis Backup and Recovery, you can set up different tasks (one full, one incremental) for the same content that are linked (the incremental task builds on the full task), whereas with Acronis True Image Home the 2 tasks would be completely separate.
In your case, if the 2 OP30i.tib are incremental or differential backup files, there should be some other backup file which is the full somewhere. It could be in another directory, created by another task.
If you are using a built in Acronis Backup and Recovery scheme, I don't know how the app manages the files created by that scheme.

You should consider posting in the Acronis Backup and REcovery forum...