Steps requried to ensure smooth transition to latest update

To your point, it should all work. Casual users don't bother creating a new recovery cd with a new update, and we don't see compatibility issues. Advanced practitioners keep track of which build number created which backup files, and start new chains with a new build.
I'd recommend something in between. Create a new recovery medium for a new build, keep your old media as long as you have backups; don't use the ASZ; For a new full version, uninstall before upgrading, creAte a new medium AND new backup tasks.

"Create a new recovery medium " - do you mean put the new backups on a different backup media? I don't want to do that! I have one large external drive I am using. Surely I can continue to use the same external drive? Or do you mean to create a new recovery disk? Sorry I'm not sure what you mean.

What is ASZ?

I could start a new backup job on my existing media to signify it is the one done with the updated version, but I would continue to use the same external drive and have it still assigned the same drive letter. Assume that is OK?

Acronis Secure Zone = ASZ :)

Thanks Colin. I don't use that. Getting back to my other previous queries, on re-reading I now think that Pat meant to create a new bootable media for recovery purposes, not the actual backup media, correct? I have held off applying the new update because I have seen other people having some issues with it. Many are for issues not applicable in my situation, however I am hesitant to change anything at this stage because I am having some computing issues which may only be resolved by a recovery. I did read through the release notes and the new features added or fixed are things I don't use. There would only be some general bug fixes that might be applicable and although I haven't done a full recovery I haven't had issues with using the program for backup or for recovery of a single file by extraction from the full disk backup. At this stage I'm thinking if it ain't broke......

I believe your question have already been answered so I will just add some general comments as to my procedures.

1. Before upgrading to a new version or build, it is a good safety practice to make a full and complete backup of your system--not just a backup of drive C. Whether done from Windows or CD is ok, but it is good to have a good current copy if something goes wrong.

2. I would uninstall and run the 2013 cleanup tool.

3. install the most recent release except you might want to wait a few days to see if there is a hotfix coming for the GPT disk issue.

4. Cease to use the old tasks and recreate new tasks pointing to new empty storage folders.

5. If using a backup scheme which is not custom, I would create new custom backup schemes which do not involve consolidation.
An example of this type backup which does not iinvovle consolidtion is shown in link #2 below in pictures 11-full (if using full only backups); or if using Incremental, use 11-Inc; or if using differential. then figure 11-dif.

6. If something goes wrong, you always have the recent backup to get your system back the way it was at time of backup.

Thanks GroverH,

Definitely agree with 1. Is point 2 really necessary for an update of an existing build, or more for an upgrade to a new version? It seems like a bit of overkill to have to uninstall & reinstall the program every time there's an update. If this is really necessary, why would the update not include an uninstall as part of the update?

Point 4 - yes I would do that. By new folder, I assume that you mean if my current backup folder is "K\My Backups\Working Backups" I could create another folder" K\My Backups\Working Backups2" - which would be empty though the folder "My backups" would not be empty, containing previous backups in "K\My Backups\Working Backups"

Point 5- it might be helpful if I explain how I backup. I do not use automated backup, nonstop backup or even automatic deletion. Once a week I make a Custom full backup manually, in full disk mode. The next day I change the settings to a Custom Incremental backup and make that backup. I continue to manually create an incremental backup each day until I get to the end of the week. I then change the custom setting back to Full backup and manually backup. This is all done as one backup scheme and I have chains of full and incremental backups in the above mentioned folder. I assume this is a valid way to backup as I get the validation message (which is the only "extra" I have selected from options). I have also successfully extracted files from backups so it all appears to be good.

I prefer to do my backups manually at the end of each day as I only connect my external drive for the duration of the backup for security of the data. I still have heaps of space left on the drive so I will only need to delete old backups when space becomes limited.

I suppose what I was really asking before is if there is a real need to update the software if it is functioning OK for me and I'm not needing any of the new features or improvements to old features which I don't use?

Steps requried to ensure smooth transition to latest update---was your question. My response was an unistall. Is i t necessary? Whose to say. A lot depends upon the changes made in the new bulld. It's a matter of preference. I prefer the uninstall. Others are free to disagree.

Yes on your point 4.

On point #5, if I understand you correctly, your are editing your task on a regular basis which has proven a "no no" for many. Why are you editng. You could set up a custom incremental. If you do 5 backup each week, you could set the task for 1 full pllus 4 incrementals so a full would automatically occur after 5 backups. This does not have to be scheduled. In fact, you could use the edit setting function and create a desktop shortcut (same name as task) and you could initiate the backups from the desktop without even opening TrueImage.
In my custom incrmental setup, I have keeping 4 chains as the default but could set the 4 recent version chains to whatever number of weeks of backups you wish to keep.

Much of what we are discussing is a matter of personal preference.

ozeannie wrote:

"Create a new recovery medium " - do you mean put the new backups on a different backup media? I don't want to do that! I have one large external drive I am using. Surely I can continue to use the same external drive? Or do you mean to create a new recovery disk? Sorry I'm not sure what you mean.

Yes, you can continue your backups on the same media. I am talking about the bootable recovery medium.

I could start a new backup job on my existing media to signify it is the one done with the updated version, but I would continue to use the same external drive and have it still assigned the same drive letter. Assume that is OK?

Yes.

In answer to why am I editing...

Yes I had considered setting it up as a Custom of 1 Full and 6 incrementals with the Full to run on a Sunday. I prefer to have no other programs running when doing the backup and to do it at the end of each day when all the day's work is complete. Sunday is a day when I have time to do the full backup as my husband is busy using the computer on the other days. If however I miss doing an incremental one or more days (eg we might be away for a day or two) then the sequence would get out of order and the full backup would fall due on a day other than Sunday. I don't want to leave the computer on unattended if we are away and as I said I connect the backup drive up just for the time I do the backup so I like to be there and be in control of the process. I do not schedule the backups, I just use the "run now" each time I backup. Some weeks I might have one full and 5 incrementals, other weeks I might have 4 or 6 incrementals. The only thing I edit is to change from Custom full to custom incremental and back again to full each week. Is this really wrong?

If this is likely to cause problems, how can I set it up so that the full backup always occurs on a Sunday, and I am able to manually start the incremental backup each day at the end of each day when I am sure all work has been finished for the day?

Hey I just thought...

If you did completely uninstall TI 2013, wouldn't that delete your existing backup plans (schemes). Not the backup itself, but the backup plan that created it? Wouldn't that mean you wouldn't be able to recover one of those older backups? Or is there a facility to save the backup schemes in the uninstall? Of course this is of no consequence for anyone prepared to make new backup plans and backups from scratch with the new update, but I want to keep my old backups for now.

When you uninstall 2013 you will be asked if you also wish to uninstall the tasks and logs. As an extra backup you can export your tasks via the 'export tasks' option in True Image and re-import them later on.

ozeannie,
If the program is working using your procedures, then hopefully, it would continue with new new build.

Under your backup procedure of a variable number of backups, in you set up a single custome scheme, you would need other changes in order to overcome the variable number of backup problems. You would need to either add Chain2Gen or a custom batch files which would force a new full on a day of your choice. At the moment, try continuing with the procedure you are using..

Question regarding the old backups. Are new backups going into a new empty folder or where ? Are you keeping old backups?

I have a folder called My backups. Within that are 2 sub-folders: Initial backup and Working Backup of Anne7. The first just contains a full backup of the system when I first got it. The second contains sets of full + incremental backup chains. I have attached an image of some of the second folder to show clearly what I mean. I have 2 backup schemes installed: the Initial backup scheme (no longer used) and Working Backup of Anne7. I set the latter up as a custom scheme. I did a full backup manually, then I just changed the custom setting from full to incremental and did another backup manually. And so I continue until Sunday when I go back to a full backup. The scheduling is turned off and there is no automatic deletion selected.

If I update to the new build, I would create a new sub-folder within My Backups called Working Backup 2 of Anne7 and start over in the same way with a new full back up followed by incrementals.

Question on deletion: Since I do not have scheduling and auto-deletion turned on, what is the best way for me to delete old backups? I didn't turn this on because I wanted to be able to choose which backups I keep. I realise that if I want to keep a particular incremental I have to save not only it but every other backup prior to it back to the full back up on which it is based. Since I am doing everything manually, should it be possible to manually delete the backups of choice? I looked at "browse for backups" from within the program and I could see them there, but there didn't seem to be an option to delete them from the GUI. The only other way I can think of to do it other than manually would be to turn scheduling back on, select to delete backups older than a certain date, or not to keep more than so many backups and let it run...however this does not give me control over choosing which backups I want to keep. I haven't really looked into this at this stage because I have so much space left on my drive it isn't a problem, but the day will come....

Your storage folder does not include b1 or b2 backup chians. Did you delete or did the system delete automatically?

Whether the schedule is enabled or disabled has no bearing on deletions. The deletions is controlled by the backup scheme which is producing these *.tib backup files. Simulate editing your backup task and check which specific backup scheme you are using.

Here are a couple sample extracts from my guide on Backups.
Right click anywhere inside the backup task. Click on the Recover & explore option.
The result should be similar to the below. Look at the bottom of picture 22 for the listing of files.
click on the disk option in upper left corner. Your screen should list all of the same files shown in your storage disk.
This is also where the delete would be chosen. For example to delete the 5 files of backup chain b3, you should normally be able to right click on the B3 Full and choose the delete option.

Figure 21- Task Data (Explore & Recover)

Figure 22: Task Explore & Recover View    Plus File DetailsIt is this screen where individual backup files can be deleted from the existing task without deleting the task. Deletion of incremental backups will spoil the backup chain..

Good, got it :)

The reason those other chains weren't shown was that I just selected a portion of the screen for the jpeg. They are all there from the first backup "Working backup of Anne7_full_b1_s1_v1"

Note that rather than "Explore and recover" I only had the option "recover files" - probably because I haven't updated to the latest version, but the next screen was the same. I had seen this screen before on how to delete but it was a few months ago & I had forgotten where to find it, thanks. I knew it was meant to be done from within the program rather than on the backup media but thought it was via one of the tabs at the top.

Thanks for your help again, it seems as though I'm doing everything OK. I'll hold off on the update for now though as I see there have been some issues for some people and there is a hotfix to come out.