Consolidation query

Hello Robert,

Thank you for using [[http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/ | Acronis True Image]]

If you consolidate the initial full backup with the following differential backup file (bkp1 & bkp2), the new consolidated backup file will contain the information that was included into the initial full backup and the following differential backup file, i.e:

bkp1 + bkp2 = current2.
bkp3 = current3 - current2

bkp3 is not useless.

Thank you.

Thanks for for that. The documentation is not at all clear about what should happen during consolidation nor is the software. For example, why does the software present all archive files on the first screen followed while the next screen lists them again, this time with checkboxes and called backups? No matter which I select on screen 1, screen 2 gives me the same choices.

Aso, I'm not clear on screen 2's "Select backups to keep". does this mean to keep as separate slices and consolidate the rest or does it mean keep in a new consolidated archive? What happens if I check all, one or two, the first or the last? After I do these selections, the consolidation either does not run or gives me new file names that I don't understand.

John LeBlanc

Just a follow up that shows how the help file could be more clear. It states:
---- help file ---
To select the backups you want to keep:
• Tick off the backups you want to leave. The other backups will not be included into the consolidated archive. Information on the selected backup (its name, date of creation, type and description) is displayed on the right pane of the window.
-----------------

so are the ones you keep the ones that end up being consolidated? If so, why the word 'leave' especially when the following sentence states that the other backups won't be included? won't these be the ones that are left?

How about:
To select the backups you want to consolidate:
• Tick off the backups you want to consolidate into a single backup. The other backups will not be included into the consolidated archive and will function as incremental backups to the new consolidated backup. Information on the selected backup (its name, date of creation, type and description) is displayed on the right pane of the window. New backups will be named ... (i don't understand the renaming scheme).

If the documentation were cleared up and Acronis provided a detailed step-by-step example, I think that would clear up a lot of confusion.

Hi Oleg,

Sorry to be slow, but are you saying the consolidation will update the bkp3 file as well?

Hello Robert,

Thank you for using [[http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/ | Acronis True Image Home 2009]]

You see it doesn’t matter whether current1 backup exist or not in your example. The consolidation runs using the following scheme:

1. Identifies the oldest slice in the chain;
2. Detects the next relative slice created after the oldest one;
3. Creates a new archive that will contain the data stored in the original ones. If both of the detected slices contain the data with the same sector IDs, the data from the newer slice will be placed to the new archive;
4. Associates the new archive with the rest of the chain;
5. Deletes the older slices after the consolidation is complete.

Does TI 11 do this automatically?  I've got the Home edition and I can't seem to find anyplace to check consolidation settings.  My drive is running out of space and I would love to consolidate.

Hello Craig,

Unfortunately, consolidation has been implemented in Acronis True Image Home 2009 only (I mean Home products line). Acronis True Image 11 Home has the ability to consolidate backups automatically, when you save them to backup locations or Secure Zone.

Please keep in mind that full information about backup locations is available in 8 chapter of User's Guide, which can be downloaded here.

Thank you.

Hello Alexander,

could you tell us the exact procedure do consolidation do?
because the current implementation is really slow,
and it always takes too much space and time in doing the job,

in my observation it works as below,

if backup files are

A-full
B-inc
C-inc
D-inc
E-inc
F-inc

the consolidate procedure always make another group of file

A1-full
B1-inc
C1-inc
D1-inc
E1-inc

then it delete original files,

this is incredibly inefficient,

is there a flaw in it's underlay design? :<

For anyone who wants to consolidate and doesn't have ver. 9, the following batch (I call mine acronis.bat) can be called before an automated backup and it works great.  I found it somewhere else in these forums.  Just cut and paste everything below:

@ECHO OFF
CLS
REM ======= http://www.acronis.com/r/support/en/kb/976/pre_l_i.htm source of batch file and more instructions
REM ======= Batch file for managing backup sets saved locally ============================

REM ======= Created by Acronis Customer Central ============================

REM ======= HOW TO USE ====================================================================
REM Rename the file from pre.txt to pre.bat
REM Set up one daily\weekly\monthly scheduled task selecting the option to "create incremental if possible"
REM Set this batch file as a pre-backup command
REM In the "Arguments" field of the pre-backup command specify the parameters described below diving them by one space

REM ======= PARAMETERS DESCRIPTION ========================================================
REM %1 - path to the backup folder, e.g. E:\backups
REM %2 - total amount of backups in each set (full + all incrementals), e.g. 2
REM %3 - amount of older backup sets you want to keep (set = 1 full + all its subsequent incrementals), e.g. 3
REM NOTE: total amount of backup sets will always be (%5 + 1) because there is always 1 current backup set and %5 older sets

REM ======= COUNTING HOW MANY *.tib FILES ARE IN THE PARENT FOLDER ========================
SET /a numfiles = 0
FOR %%i in (%1\*.tib) do SET /a numfiles += 1

REM ======= WHAT TO DO IF THERE ARE %2 FILES ALREADY? =====================================
IF NOT %numfiles% LSS %2 (GOTO check folders) ELSE (GOTO eof)

REM ======== CHECKING THE FOLDERS =========================================================
:check folders

REM ======= COUNTING HOW MANY SET* FOLDERS ARE ALREADY THERE ==============================
SET /a numfolders = 0
FOR /D %%i in (%1\set*) do SET /a numfolders += 1

REM ======= WHAT TO DO IF THERE ARE %3 FOLDERS ALREADY? ===================================
IF NOT %numfolders% LSS %3 (GOTO folder_rotate) ELSE (GOTO move_files)

REM ======= FOLDER ROTATION CYCLE =========================================================
:folder_rotate

REM ======== DELETING THE OLDEST FOLDER (set1) ============================================
IF EXIST %1\set1 RD /S /Q %1\set1

REM ========= ROTATING THE FOLDERS (SETTING VARIABLES) ====================================
SET /a numfolders -=1
SET /a next = 1

REM ========= ROTATION (CYCLE) ============================================================
FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,%numfolders%) DO (call :do_renames %%G %1)
GOTO move_files

REM ========= FOLDER RENAMES (CALLED BY A CYCLE) ==========================================
:do_renames
SET /a next += 1
MOVE %2\set%next% %2\set%1
GOTO eof2

REM ========= MOVE FILES FUNCTION =========================================================
:move_files

REM ========= NUMBER OF EXISTING FOLDERS +1 ===============================================
SET /a numfolders += 1

REM ========= CREATING NEW SET* FOLDER ====================================================
IF NOT EXIST %1\set%numfolders% MD %1\set%numfolders%

REM ========= MOVING BACKUP FILES FROM PARENT FOLDER TO LATEST SET* =======================
MOVE %1\*.tib %1\set%numfolders%

REM ========= DO NOTHING 1 ================================================================
:eof
SET numfiles=
SET numfolder=

REM ========== DO NOTHING 2 ===============================================================
:eof2

Hello all,

Chih-Hsiang Hsu wrote:

Hello Alexander, could you tell us the exact procedure do consolidation do? because the current implementation is really slow, and it always takes too much space and time in doing the job, in my observation it works as below, if backup files are A-full B-inc C-inc D-inc E-inc F-inc the consolidate procedure always make another group of file A1-full B1-inc C1-inc D1-inc E1-inc then it delete original files, this is incredibly inefficient, is there a flaw in it's underlay design? :<

That's a way how consolidation works.

Thank you.

Hi,

I am using True Image Home 2010 & am having problems backing up as my expernal drive is full. I have already set my disc backup to automatically consolidate before the disc became full, & also to consolidate the backups (incremental) after 15 days. However, this is not happening & the disc has become full after 21 days.

I have tried to manually consolidate but this will not happen either. The backup is encrypted (in case this has any impact). Does anyone have an idea as to what is wrong here?

Many thanks,

David

Hello all,

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

David Brown: In your case I need some additional information from you to investigate the issue and find out what exactly caused it. Could you please attach log files (click Tasks & Log -> Logs) when consolidation should be performed (but it wasn't)?

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.

Did my consolidation work?
I fully appreciate all the valiant attempts by users to figure out just exactly what "consolidation" is. Just knowing that there are many other people who can't figure out what the documentation is saying is very comforting. I have one more angle on the topic. I am using Acronis True Image Home 2010. If I can figure out the best way to use it, I will update to the 2011 version.

I have ATIH do a nightly incremental image backup to an external hard drive. Since I was new at using Acronis, my external hard drive got filled up and started to not complete the backups. So I tried to carry out a manual consolidation and found that there has to be a lot of disk space available for that. So I finally tried a manual consolidation to my internal hard drive with deletion of the original backups on the external drive. This actually completed, but I can't yet say that it "worked".

The problem is that the program said to check the incremental backups that I wanted to "keep", and all the rest, i.e. the unchecked ones, would not be part of the consolidation. So I checked the box for every incremental backup. But after the operation, over on the internal hard drive, I now have some version of the full backup, plus one file for each of the incremental backups that I checked. The only real difference is that the icons just to the left of the names now look more solid and darker blue. The files may not be exactly the same size as the originals, but the originals are now deleted.

So what do I actually have now!! Is it the case that the large file #1 is actually a consolidation of the Full plus all the incrementals, and the incrementals that are with it are superfluous? Or is it the case that the consolidaton didn't work, but the move did work? There was maybe 160 GB free on the internal HDD, so there was plenty of space for the 57 GB worth of backups. Or is it the case that, even if there is a move included, the consolidation operation takes place on the external HDD, where the original backups were made, rather than where the move is made to? But then, why did the icons change, if no actual consolidation actually took place? They are now different an more solid-looking. And ATIH now is seemingly not aware of the moved files.

I would be very grateful is someone could tell me what happened and what my current situation is. The documentation is extremely unclear as a result of the way it throws around terms without adhering to strict definitions, and it is quite ambiguous in its explanations, as well.

Thanks in advance.

It is the other way, when you select the backups to keep, all the previous backups in the chain will be folded into a single archive.

So if you
- backup (full)
- backup2
- backup3
- backup4

When you consolidate, if you keep backup4, you will be left with
- backup (full + 4)
The content of backup2 and 3 is lost.

Consolidation is a long and risky process and it still requires a lot of space. I personally stay clear of it. I recommend you stick to a chain of full + 6-12 incrementials, then a new full, so on so forth.
Then you set ATI to keep only the number of chains you can or want to keep in the clean up options

Thanks, Pat L, that's very clear. I'm afraid that I still have a question or two, if you don't mind:

1. Perhaps I won't consolidate then, but I'm still curious why ATIH requires at least one of the incrementals to be checked. If there isn't one checked, then the Proceed button is grayed out. So, if I follow your explanation, that would consolidate all the backups except the final incremental. I wonder why they wouldn't want a user to consolidate everything?

2. So, in my case (all the incrementals checked), what I end up with is a Full and All the incrementals, with non of the original files having been changed, except to change the icon.

3. I still have to wonder why they say specifically in the documentation that incrementals that are NOT checked won't be part of the consolidation -- or is my memory getting the best of me? I suppose what they were saying was that incrementals that are NOT checked won't be around after the operation, having been consolidated with the Full. So many people have complained about the documentation, I'm curious why they don't just make it more clear.

Thanks again,

DentMenthe

1- Well, if you dont' check any, you have nothing to fold in, so you cannot proceed.
2- If you check all the incrementals, then none is folded in and the chain is basically unchanged.
3- There are part of the process, but will not be kept around afterwards. The data they contain is folded in the full, but flattened. For differentials, they are not needed to consolidate, so they are simply purged.