A way to delete previous backups autmatically?

Hi,

is there a way to set acronis to keep a certain number of backup copies & delete oldest backups as it creates new ones?

For ex:

i have acronis set to schedule backups overnight. rather than have it do incremental backups, i prefer to do whole backups; this way it's possible to have more than one backup on hand. however, this takes up space quickly & i need to remove the previous backups. i'd like to be able to have acronis somehow do this automatically. is this possible?

so, then i can have 2 copies & each time it makes a new one, it deletes the 1st of the 2 copies. otherwise i have to manually delete the oldest copy everytime i make a new backkup which defeats teh purpose automatically scheduling...

any input would be appreciated. thanks.

bill

 

If your running V10 read this BACKUP LOCATIONS don't work. If your not running V10 then you will need to write batch files for pre/post processing to accomplish your task.

 

ok,

i'm running v9. so you're telling me that v 10 allows me to set limits similar to what i'm trying to accomplish correct? is it more detailed than just setting size limits? ie can i have two different backups (ex- 1 system image 2 my documents data) & set it to keep 2 of each backups & delete the older 1 whenever a new backup is made?

thanks.

bill

 

Hello bilyth,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as thomasjk said you can achieve the goals you described using Acronis True Image 10.0 Home, which allows you to create Backup Location and set the backup rules according to your needs. You can set to each backup location maximum storage space, maximum number of backups and maximum storage period for the archives. Please find the detailed instructions on how to create and configure backup location in chapter 3.5 “Acronis backup locations” and chapter 7. "Backup locations management" in the Acronis True Image 10.0 Home User's Guide. In addition, I would recommend that you have a look at this thread delete inkremental Backups after a defined time, which contains the information about creating and using backup location.

Note that you can create several backup locations with different set of quotas. For example, one for disk/partition images and another one for file-based backup archives of your data.

Please note that the backup location checked for rules violations after the backup archive creation. If any limitation is exceeded, the oldest backups will be consolidated or deleted.

We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home to see how the software works on your computer.

Please also note that if you use Acronis True Image 9.0 Home (or earlier versions), as thomasjk mentioned you can use pre/post commands, for example, to delete backup archives you do not need before or after backup creation.

The instructions on how to use pre/post commands in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home is described in chapter 5.3.3 “Pre/post commands” of the Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide.

An example of the batch file, which allows you to automatically rename backups can be found in the Acronis Public Knowledge Base in article named Automatically Renaming Image Archives.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

You can set limits based on disk space used, number of backups, age of backup, or any combination thereof. Run managed backups with scheduled tasks and then, once you get it set up, you can virutally forget about running backups--it will be automated.

This added function in Version 10 makes it worth the price of admission. If you want to do what you describe, forget about hassling with batch files in V9 and step up V10.

 

great thanks guys; i'll try this...

i've set the backup locations & hopefully will work out. just out of curiosity- if i have 2 different backups (1- data, 2- system files) & i set it to max 5 backups...will it keep 5 copies of each different backups or will it count a total of 5 backups among both backups & delete whatever is oldest?

thanks.

bill

 

Bill,
Assuming you've set up two separate backup locations, (it's imperative that each backup task that is assigned to a backup location has its own separate backup location) each task will get a total of 5 backups if that's what you've specified. Differential and incremental backups count towards the total.

CatFan