Image creation Schema - full + incremental

Can someone please explain in detail (the manual is not quite clear) as how the backup image schema works. Here are my questions.

Using Secure Zone[/B]
1. I first do a Fullbackup and then on a daily basis incremental backups.

2. If the SZ becomes FULL then as per the manual TI automatically deletes the oldest incremental backup to make room for this new one. The new incremental contains ONLY NEW information since the previous incremental, so by deleting the oldest incremental I do not have a TRUE picture of my disk image, as information is lost. If this is correct, then there is a flaw in this schema. I have no indication that this is happening in the background and that at some stage my backup image is not a true one (full+incremental)

3. When doing a new Full backup image and there is no room then it deletes the old Full backup + all incrementals. This seems OK.

Not using Secure Zone

1. I first do a Fullbackup and then on a daily basis incremental backups.

2. In this instance there is no indication as to what TI does when there is no room for incremental backups.

3. When I do a NEW full backup and choose the same name of the OLD Full backup, it does NOT delete the incrementals of the old backup as it does when using Secure Zone.

Comments please !!!!!

 

Hello Perryg,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

As stated in the User's Guide, in both situations described by you when there is not enough room for new incremental backup (and in case of using Acronis Secure Zone, it contains only one full image) you will get an "not enough space" error message. Please note that images in Acronis Secure Zone are deleted only in the whole set, i.e. the full and all its incrementals. Acronis True Image doesn't delete separate incremental images.

Thank you.
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Ilya Toytman

 

This is very interesting, however based on that answer I can assume that the best way to do it is having two different scheduled tasks: one to make a full backup not very often and another making daily incremental backups. This way you can reduce "no space" errors. Is this correct? is someone else using this this approach?

This is probably far from perfect because if the data grows too much you might get an error, and the solution would be to make the full backup more often. It would be great if TI could do it itself: When there's only one full backup and the secure zone is full it should delete everything and make anew full.

What do you think?

Thanks

MC

 

Hello mcongosto,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We appreciate your collaboration on this matter.

As Ilya stated above, the rules for managing free space in Acronis Secure Zone are as follows:

- If there is not enough free space in Acronis Secure Zone to create an image, then Acronis True Image deletes the oldest full image with all subsequent incremental backup images;

- If there is only one full image (with subsequent incremental backup images) left and full backup is in progress, then this only full image (with subsequent incremental backup images) is deleted;

- Otherwise (only one full image left, and incremental backup is in progress) then you will get out of space error. In this case you will have to either create full image or increase the Acronis Secure Zone size;

- You can always check how much free space left in Acronis Secure Zone on the second screen of the Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard.

If you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product, please feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov

 

I have an uncertainty about incremental backups - when I do an XP System Restore in the middle of a TI incremental sequence, do increments afterwards work OK? Since XP System Restore puts the registry backwards, I would suspect that all TI increments after that would be confused and a TI restore from them wouldn't work.