How to consolidate backups

First, lets make sure that your understanding of the planned settings of Full plus 5 incremental, store 5 chains is correct.
The chain length is 6 files per chain (Full + 5 inc); store 5 is keeping 5 chains @ 6 files per chain or keeping 30 backups.

Deletion of oldest chain (6 files of B1) will occur seconds following the creating of backup #31 which is Full B6. Future deletions will occur following the creation of each FULL thereafter. It sounds as if you made changes to the task to get your desired settings. If yes, you would get better results by creating a new pristine task with the correct settings. The new task should have its own unique name & point to its own storage sub-folder so the tib files from other tasks are not mixed. Name that will be assigned to the new tib files will the whatever name you assign to the new task.

GH25. Understanding differences between Inc and Dif for Safety

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Your dilemma on space. Each incremental has its own piece of the backup data and that piece is not backed up in any other incremental.
Therefore, deletion of any of the 43 incremental is not possible and still be able to recover any data. YOur choice is to
keep the entire backup of 44 files with no deletions.
or, delete the 43 inc and keep the full
or, delete the 43 inc and delete the full also.

If you choose to delete all 44 files created by this specific task, you can use the delete option found inside the task options which will delete task and all backups.
If you choose to keep the full but delete the 43 inc, then you will need to do the deletion manually via Windows explorer.
The task only can then be removed from th menu via the task opiton "remove from list"

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Depending upon the type of backup scheme you wish to create, here is an example of each type. These can be set up for Disk image, or Partiton, or Files-folders backups. These example show how to set up automatic cleanup so the program will do the deletion after it reaches your set goal of how many chains to retain.

Editing an existing task is not recommended. Rarely does an edited task perform to user expectations. It is usually better to start with a new task using a new non-identical task name and point to a new storage sub-folder so each task has it own storage folder/sub-folder. Old task can be stopped or deleted from the task listings.

GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme w/auto cleanup....Store/Keep 4 versions (chains). Use whatever number best fits the individual needs..

GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme w/auto cleanup. ...Keep Full plus 6 Inc per chain. Store/Keep 4 chains. Use whatever number best fits your needs.

GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme w/auto cleanup. ...Keep Full plus 2 Diff per chain. Store/Keep 2 chains. Use whatever number best fits your needs.

GH64. 71342: 2015 How to save a non-scheduled task.

GH63. 64640: Hints to help prevent issues with your TIB backup files creation.

GH63. 75086: A discussion on how to configure backup schemes.

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Hmm. I think my understanding of the "Full plus 5 incremental, store 5 chains" plan is correct, but the logic behind that choice was flawed. What I really want is a set incremental (or differential) backups since the most recent full backup plus a set of older "archives". The archives might as well just be full backups since the difference between (for instance) full B4 and full B3 + increments is not great.

I gather from your comments that I can manually delete old incremental backups associated with old full backups. I assume there is no way to tell Acronis to do this, but I guess I could have a separate task to create just the archives.

I don't see a way ask Acronis to restore from a full plus specific set of incremental backups, but if I go into my backup folder hierarchy and double click on a specific incremental backup I get a list of the full and all incremental backups up to the one I clicked on. If I double click on one of those listed incremental backups it looks like I then get the files included in the full backup plus incremental s up to that point. So I could manually build my own archive - just copies of files and folders outside of Acronis' control. Is that correct?

2015 does not offer any choices for deletion except the one in the Task options, which is
delete the task and all backups,
or delete the task and keep the backups
With either choice, the task is gone and must be recreated.
Any other deletions must be done from Windows Explorer.
Any manual deletion where Fulls are kept should be manually validatied.
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If you were to click on inc #20 for restore, the data restored would be
Full plus the incs 1-20 in succession. Inc 21-43 would be ignored.

If you were to click on 43 for restore, the data restored would be
Full plus the incs 1-43 in succession.

I am not understanding your comment about building your own archive.
Any missing inc renders the chain useless from the missing to anything newer.
If you were have 43 inc and delete #20 only, the chain would only be good from Full to 19 and only good if you were to validate the chain and advise the program to ignore each deletion window . The inc 21-43 would be worthless for any recovery.

If your chain type was differential, the for restore purposes, only the full plus one single differential file needed.
TrueImage complains but will restore a backup where dif 1-3 have been deleted and you can keep and restore the full plus 4 only.
Again validation is a required part of keeping the chain working if any deletion is done manually.

None of this is in the user manual so you would need to test your own settings.

Posting deleted - accidental duplicate

GroverH wrote:

2015 does not offer any choices for deletion except the one in the Task options, which is
delete the task and all backups,
or delete the task and keep the backups
With either choice, the task is gone and must be recreated.
Any other deletions must be done from Windows Explorer.
Any manual deletion where Fulls are kept should be manually validatied.
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Thank you. I didn't know about the need for validation. [quote=GroverH]

GroverH wrote:

If you were to click on inc #20 for restore, the data restored would be
Full plus the incs 1-20 in succession. Inc 21-43 would be ignored.

I don't know how to pick an inc file for restore. I see no such list in the Acronis user interface. If I use Windows Explorer I see no context sensitive Acronis option for Restore. However, if I double click on the inc file Windows Explorer displays a list of the full backup and all inc files up to the one I clicked on. And if I double click on an inc file in the new list, Windows Explorer seems to display all files backed up in the full plus incs up to the selected one. I don't know how to tell Acronis to use this for restoring, but I can tell Windows to copy those folders and files.

GroverH wrote:

I am not understanding your comment about building your own archive.

Using the technique I just mentioned I could create a folder in Windows that contains a full backup, another that contains the full plus incs 1-10, another that contains full plus incs 1-20, etc. Then I could delete that whole chain of Acronis backups. Of course I would need to build a new backup definition for that 5 chains of full plus 5 incs.

The recommened method for restoring a system or partition is to boot from the user created TI Recovery CD and perform the restore from the CD.
Using that method, you browse to the desired folder and click on the single tib files to be restored such as clicking #20.

Your suggested technique "might"work but I am doubtful. Primariloy because TI uses a history file for all backups and tracks each one.
Also searches for backlups at each startup. I don't believe you could keep them sufficiently hidden for them to function. It is something you would have to try or test to see if it worked. I believe multiple tasks of separate backups would be more successful or foolproof.

Luckily, the backups in question are not system or partition backups. They are file and folder backups - backups of some personally critical files on a NAS device. And these backups server 2 purposes: restoration of the files if the drive becomes corrupted, and an archived snapshots of old data. I would use the current Acronis chain for restoration. If I had used an intelligent backup scheme I could use old Acronis chains (or at least old full backups) as the archive, but, alas, I had a stupid backup scheme.

However, I have successful created 4 archival copies - plain old Window folders - of the important files using the method I outlined. I've created a new backup definition (I think that's what you call a "task") and deleted the old one from Acronis. I've also deleted the old backup chain.

I will not try this recovery technique on system and partition backups.

I'm not sure this is the correct forum to post this question. If it isn't please let me know if the question has been addressed and where to go to get the answer. I am using True Image 2015 and I would like to alternate backups between two external hard drives. I have been unable to get the program to do this. It seems to want to use a single drive/location. Could you let me know if this can be done and if so, how?
Regards,
Ron Kern

Ths next link of mine will provide what you need for using 2 disks.

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/64634

Other links of interest can be found inside my signature,
and this next link which is "reference only" is sure to be of interest.

Reference only. Not for the posting of questions.
https://forum.acronis.com/forums/acronis-true-image-home-discussions/be…