Number of full backups

I finally figured out how to make incremental backups with the scheduler where ATI will do a full backup and then incrementals until a preset number is reached and then do it all over again except a new name will be used.
I have anxiously been waiting until the prerequisite number of incremental were made to see if everything worked right. Lo and behold that number was reached last night and ATI created a NEW Full backup with a NEW name as expected.

However, the old full backup and its incremental were all deleted. I don't like that. Is there something I can do to prevent deleting OLD backups?
Bill

 

I only do full backups, myself. But my suggestion would be that when you know you've reached the limit for an incremental backup, to copy it to another location before it is deleted.

 

Well, if you create two schedules that are a week apart, then you will always have the current series and the previous weeks.

For example, create the first full backup on the first Monday and the second full backup on the second Monday, etc.

You can also create the full backups on the first of the month and the 15th, etc.

I'm curious how you got the name to change with the new full backup.

 

Bill,
I agree with you that a single backup consisting of a base image plus incrementals is not really sufficient.
However when you have solved the number of backups problem you should consider the risk of keeping them all on one HDD. Copies or even restores on another seperate hard drive are possible solutions.

Xpilot

 

I'll answer each question in the order posted.

HobbitRock5150.... That is an option. I will consider it after a bit more troubleshooting.

jmk94903.... That is also an option and I will consider it In regards to the automatic naming of the backups I found an explanation an instructions on that on the web. Maybe this site. I will try to find it again.

Xpilot.... I do backup to a SEPARATE HHD. And I think that the limit I put on the space to be used for backup is too small. I used 15 GB when I first set up the schedule, the full backup approaches that limit. There is not room enough to put a second Full back within that limitation. I'll have to go back and read some instruction. but I seem to remember that the allotted space would grow as needed if I put the backups in a secure zone.

Anyway, thanks guys. Keep the suggestions coming and we can figure this out.

Bill

 

Here is that attachment I mentioned. It talks about differential backups but you an change that to incremental when you schedule.
Bill

 

Hi Bill,
The size of a secure zone will be fixed by you when you set it up or change its size by using the secure zone manager. As long as you schedule full image backups as well as incrementals and the zone is big enough to take at least two fulls and their increments the first full will not be deleted until the zone is filled up, by which time you will already have a second full and some increments to play with. Easier to do than express it in words!

Just bear in mind that it is a bad idea to activate the start up recovery manager when the SZ is on a separate drive be it internal or external. This is because the SRM will modify your MBR. This will lead to booting problems unless the separate drive is present and working.

It is good that you are using a separate HDD for your backup images but should THAT drive fail you would be without any backup history to go back on. The worst case scenario is failure of both your drives which is why another separate location is desirable but of course hopefully it may never be needed.

Xpilot

 

Regarding Secure Zone. I created one with 61 GB of space. Can I copy an existing Backup file or a folder to that SZ. What I would like eventually is to have a SZ with all my backups, full and incremental, in the Secure Zone and make it a virtual drive with a drive letter.
Bill

 

Then I am afraid you are out of luck. Backups have to be created into the zone, there is no current facility to copy images to or from there.

Individual backups in the zone can be mounted as a virtual drive at will. However if you assign a drive letter to a secure zone it will no longer be a secure zone and AFAIK will cease to function.

Xpilot

 

Then I'll remove the SZ and do what I have been doing.
Thanks,
Bill

 

Hello blockie,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that you need to set quotas according to the desired amount of backups. For example, as you say the full backup is about 15gb, to allow Acronis True Image to keep two of them in Acronis Backup Location you need to set the "Maximum size" quota at least to 30gb.

You can find detailed information about Acronis Backup Location in chapter 7 "Backup location management" of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home User's Guide.

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.
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Marat Setdikov