Disk Full, backup cancelled
The Acronis interface looks very simple, yet I have never been able to get the darn thing to work. I am attempting to do a daily incremental backup, but every day the "disk is full." Acronis is apparently trying to make a new full backup every day. I cannot erase the 6 or so backups Acronis has made, nor can I figure out how to get it to make the SINGLE incremental daily backup that I want. Any help appreciated.
Hi Pat, thanks for responding. I'm using Incremental. "Create only incremental versions after the initial full version" is checked.
I have it set for 7pm daily and every day at a few minutes after 7pm I get the "disk full" message, "action required" and "backup cancelled" when I access the program. I've been fighting with it for over two months and have no idea whether I have a backup or not. The disk appears definitely full and I have no idea what's on it. It is Acronis stuff, but not readable with anything I have.
I have 350GB on my 1TB internal drive that I am attempting to backup to my 750GB external drive.
You need to have about twice the disk space of all your backup files (and maybe a little extra), or ati will not have a enogh room to perform. Although incs can be small, ati has to be able to consolidate, which means building a file as big or bigger than the full. Also, ati alsways creates a backup before deleting or consolidating -- this is by desing so that if something goes wrong with a backup operation you don't deplete your backups.
So if you're backing up 350GB, and the incs are, say 20GB and yo have 5 of them, then you probalby need about 800GB - 900GB of total diskspace on the target disk. For a test, try cutting down your incs to 2 and see that makes a diff re the diskspace error message.
Dan,
Scott assumes that you are using consolidation. Are you?
You need to have about twice the disk space of all your backup files (and maybe a little extra), or ati will not have a enogh room to perform. Although incs can be small, ati has to be able to consolidate, which means building a file as big or bigger than the full. Also, ati alsways creates a backup before deleting or consolidating -- this is by desing so that if something goes wrong with a backup operation you don't deplete your backups.
So if you're backing up 350GB, and the incs are, say 20GB and yo have 5 of them, then you probalby need about 800GB - 900GB of total diskspace on the target disk. For a test, try cutting down your incs to 2 and see that makes a diff re the diskspace error message.
Wow! I bet that's not widely known. I knew ATI needed extra space, but didn't realize it was double the sum of all backups in the chain.
Again, ATI needs a lot of space for the consolidation process. If there is no consolidation, it is a different story.
When ATI consolidates, it creates a temporary file that stitches together what the files that have to be consolidated. After this temporary file is successfully created, the original files are deleted.
@Pat. I don't know what consolidation means with regard to Acronis or if it's on or off. How do I tell?
There appears to be SIX backup files on my target disk, all ending in .tib. I don't need six backups and the system will not allow me to delete any of them or make anything new. I need ONE dependable backup. How do I get this to work?
If you have it set to make a limited number of incs, then after it reaches that number it consolidates them andthe related full into one file, then starts making new incs over again with subsequent backups. IF you're not doing this, still, at a minimum you are making a new full everty so often and to do that you need room for the new full to be created successfully before ati will delete the old full.
Scott, thanks for trying to help. Acronis seems to be a perfectly horrible little product. I don't know how I have it "set." It's "set" however it came. The interface and controls on this thing are (frankly) garbage. The marketing and hype are patently false. They would lead one to believe that you simply click a couple of big buttons and you're good to go.
How do I reclaim my external hard disk space and start from scratch??
Consider this as a different approach. Use this example but change the 6 and 4 to fit your needs. The four relates to how many full chains (recent versions) you want to keep. A recent version is the full plus any incremental made after the full. As TI creates the replacement before it deletes the old, you need to allow room for one more full chain.
You indicate you have 350 used space which will probably create a full backup of about 240-250GB backup file. If using the 750, then the max you can keep is the would be about 500 gb in planned retention and allow 250 for temporary use the program.
Grover, thank you! My dialog box was mostly blank, showing none of the options on your diagram. I created a Custom Scheme and they showed up. I clicked "Back up now" and it's been running for 10 minutes, which is a new record for this program. Hopefully it won't cancel and will create a bonifide backup. Thanks again.
Understand that TI tasks like to be left un-edited. If edited, unpredictable results usually occurs. When creating a new task, point to an empty storage folder or sub-folder. The backups created by one task should not be intermingled with old backups. Acronis say intermingle is ok but in practice there seems to be issues so I recommend to start with an empty storage folder and new task.
One other thing often overlooked is the Windows System Restore points. Go into this folder and if you have this as active, then limit its space to a known value and it can usually do with a lot less than what its default value is set for. As I make daily backups, I have my system restore turned off and rely on restoring a backup if and when I have need for such.
Thanks Grover. I was not able to reclaim any of my Acronis-written HD before the current operation. Hopefully it's being overwritten correctly.
If Acronis becomes any more painful to work with a manual install of Win7 and all the software will be preferable. Acronis has been a nightmare. I'm very disappointed in this thing.
Dan,
There is a distinct learning curve which cannot be avoided.
Upon completion of your current ongoing backup, boot from the user created TI bootable media CD and restore a couple files from the backup into a test folder. Don't procrastinate as you need to know this works.
What size are your full backups and any of inc backups? Checking the Windows System restore settings may gain you you a reduction in backup size for both.
The type backup you need is one which includes all partitions on the disk and that includes any partitions without letters. A full and complete backup is often referred to as a "disk mode or disk option" backup because it does include each and every partition. The Windows Disk management console graphical view illustrated the partition arrangement. It would be good to print that picture so you know the sequence and size of your partitions and which partition is marked as the active partition.
One reason why we stress the need for all partition is that many are not aware of the need to include non-lettered partitions inside their backups. These partitions are not seen in all the views of "what to backup; whereas the disk mode includes them all. When creating a new task (or practice by simulating), click on the "multiple partitions" button and then click on the "disk mode" button at the bop. Look at the resulting view. The first checkmark will be the entire disk with all partitions checked. This is the preferred backup selection.
As the 750 backup disk is not able to store very many backup, having a larger or another of the same size would provide some additional security as you would have more backups to choose from.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
The above is a good link to review. It is 2012 but 2011 is very similar. If you have some times, you may find other things of interest in my signature below.