Deletion of backup images

[Colvin]

This may be a frivolous question, but I'll ask it nonetheless. I now use an external USB HDD to save my backup images to. I'm wondering a couple of things:

1) Can I delete all the incremental images, saving just the initial full backup and then continue with the incremental images?

2) Can I simply delete all the backup images and begin over with a full image and then the sequential incremental images?

Which would be the preferred thing to do?

Thanks!

[Colvin]

*BUMP* I didn't want this to get lost and/or overlooked. ;D

And let me add one related question to my previous 2. When using the "Secure Zone" you could create a new Full Backup image and it would overwrite the previous one and thus make more room in that partition. So, can this also be done in a plain vanilla partition as well? Or must all the previous image files be deleted when the partition gets full?

Thanks for any help on these 3 questions.

[John Farrar]

Hi Colvin
Why don't you schedule one day to create a full backup, and another schedule every other day to create an incremental backup? After 7 days the first set will start to be overwritten by the next schedules so you only ever have 1 full backup and 6 incrementals.
HTH
John

[Acronis Support]

Hello Colvin,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

The incremental image doesn't depend on the successive incrementals created and depends on all the previous incrementals and full image. That is why you can delete several last incrementals and all the previous ones would be valid and able to be restored.

Briefly, the answer to all your three questions is Yes, you can do it.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask them.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

[brandis]

-{ Quote: "
The incremental image doesn't depend on the successive incrementals created and depends on all the previous incrementals and full image. --
Ilya Toytman" }-

This Statement is not clear
it
doesn't depend on the successive incrementals
but it
depends on all the previous incrementals and full image
??

What will happen if we delete a increment in the middle?

[Acronis Support]

Hello Stefanos,

If you delete an incremental all the incrementals created after the deleted one will be useless and any incremental created before the deleted one you will be able to restore.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

[hemputi]

@John Farrar: I'm looking for a procedure like you're talking about: Scheduling for an automatism to have let's say 1 Backup an 4 incrementals a week. Without running my backup disk out of space at least. As far as I understand yor post - when the full backup starts again all incrementals are obsoleted, that means not longer usable. At this time you only have a one day backup - not four. If this is not true - could you please explain how to do it. I'm highly interested how to plan a permanently and automaticly running one week backup.
Thank you - Ede

[TonioRoffo]

When overwriting a full backup, incrementals from that set should be deleted - Acronis doesn't do this right now, which is an annoyance.

By the way, watch out with overwriting an existing full backup - it's not safe.

If your computer crashes heavily while overwriting the full backup, you might wind up with a lost system disk, and *NO* viable backups!

For this reason alone you should have at least 2 sets of full backups on your target disk, alternating...

[pjb024]

If you create a Secure Zone then you can automate the backup procedure. Let's say you do a weekly full backup and daily incrementals. Eventually the Secure Zone will run out of space but TI will release the space occupied by the oldest full backup and all it's related incrementals so your backup will not fail due to lack of space. When you create the Secure Zone just be sure to make it large enough to hold at least two backup cycles.