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Consolidation of Full Backups

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Hello, I am using version 9796 of True Image 2009 on WinXP Pro. I have a task that creates a weekly full backup. I would like to keep six rotating weeks of fulls. When I create a task to just create a full backup the consolidation option disappears. When I select Incremental the consolidation option is available.

How do I automate the consolidation of full backups so I always have six available? In this case, I do not want incremental or differential backups.

Thank you,

John

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AFAIK, you don't consolidate FULL backups. Consolidation is used to combine a FULL and selected INC or DIFF backups based on that FULL.

IF you have A FULL created on Monday and another created on Tuesday, consolidating them would just wind up with a backup exactly like the Tuesday one.

You need to look at the second consolidation option, the one that allows you to auto consolidate when backups exceed a certain number or number of days or by size of archive.

This should work with Fulls by deleting all but the image it is about to make.

ABR10 will do exactly what you want in an easier fashion , but a more complicated GUI and of course more expensive.

Maybe Acronis defines "consolidate" differently than everyone I know.

What's being combined when dealing with all FULL backups? Is TI actually merging 2 FULL backups into one or is it just deleting the oldest? As I mentioned before, wouldn't a "consolidation" of two FULL backups be nothing more than an exact copy of the most current?   

Hmmm. TheWeaz makes a good point. I always thought consolidation to Acronis was the deletion of previous backups based on a chosen criteria of quantity, size and time.  To re-state my goal, I would like to retain six full backups at all times with the newest full backup causing the oldest to be deleted.

bodgy, In TI 2009 when I select a Full Backup vs an Incremental the auto consolidate option disappears. (See the below images) 

Are you saying that TI 2010 does have the auto consolidate option when only Full Backup is selected?

Thanks,

John

You could set up one scheduled task for each day of the week- 7 total tasks. Each day you would write over the one from the previous week. I’ve done this and it works well. You would have 1 more than you wanted, but if space is a problem you could skip a day. Or to save space you could run a FULL on Monday and then an INC to that on Tuesday, a different FULL on Wednesday and an INC to that on Thursday and so on. You could still restore to any given day, but the total space taken up by the backups would be less than 7 FULLs.

OK – sorry – I forgot you were only running Weeklys

On one system I run a FULL on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of each month (5 tasks). This is one less than you wanted, but might work.

Have you considered using a simple batch file to maintain several versions of your backups.  This illustrates saving a revolving 10 weeks of full disk backups. The batch files drops the oldest backup and renames them all one week older. I can supply more details if interested.

Hmm, I thought 2009 had the second option, well 2010 does.

I'll double check what I wrote.

When consolidating, ATi reads the full and the incs/diffs makes a new full including the updated info from the incs/diffs. This is why backing up with consolidation takes so gosh darn long, longer than just making a full backup. The saving grace is that on those dates when you're jsut making an inc/diff, you can save lots of time.

In trying to schedule a back up task, each time I get to the consolidation tab and try to fill in the required info, Acronis freezes and the task scheduling fails. I'm Acronis 10. Any one else have the problem? Solution?