TI 2009 Backup Rotations

Is there anyone out there that can help before I give up and move on to another product? All I want to do is to have the system do a full image backup every Saturday Night followed by an incremental on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After four weeks I want it to recycle / overlay / delete the oldest backup and start over again. This way I'll always have four full images and their related incremental backups. I've tried using the monthly schedule, the weekly schedule, etc. with no luck. Because you have to define the full backup name in order to create an incremental. I tried to run four full backups one each week and told the schedule to run them every four weeks. This would give me a full backup each week. I then tried to create the Incremental schedules for each rotation 1 - 4 to run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each of these was it own schedule so that that each could have a unique name. In the end I've been unsuccessful. The scheduling software appears to lack a field for a Start on Date which would make building the schedules easier then have to manually run them over a four week period. Second it's difficult to maintain the schedule TI keeps changing the based on backup name and the output file name, etc. What am I missing? I want this to run on its own without any manual intervention. Is True Image 2009 capable of this? Any other product suggestions, etc. Thanks,

 

This was something I'd hoped Acronis had solved when I first saw the new calendar structure, namely the ability to set up all the schedules and a forward start date.

Alas, what you need to do, is set up all the schedules, and then for example,

Wk1, Wk2 etc, then remove the schedule for Wk2 -> 3 run WK1, then remember on the day you want the schedule to start to manually add the weekly schedule back to WK2 and then repeat this for each of the four weeks, by the second month, they will then work automatically.

However, in my experience, make sure you do not tick the run task if missed, as there is the possibility of the schedule getting out of wack, even more so if you ever have to restore an image as TI will automatically start running and overwrite all your carefully imaged archive. It is also a pain to have to re-make the tasks if you have to install a new hard drive, as the old tasks will not work, as the hard drive ID will have changed, you also won't be able to edit them from within TI either.

Colin

 

That is exactly what I do, well, I do incrementials every day. Use the batch file and tell it how many incrementials you want berfore it stores the full back up and increntials into a folder for you. You can tell it how many backup sets to keep also before it recycles them. One task and a batch file is all you need.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1335938&postcount=10

 

Thank you Bodgy and ToyMaker for your replies. I'm just tiring to get it setup once and have it operate lights out after that. I've played with Bodgy's solution, it just takes time, to manually run them and calendar time to cover the four week period. I tried to trick it by creating the first full backup and incrementals and then moving the system date / time one week into the advance, that worked for the second set, but when I moved again one more week into the future I was getting messages about exceeding the Trial Version 15 day period. What's interesting is I originally had the Trial Version, but uninstalled it and purchase a version from Acronis Web Site. I spoke with their technical support and they had me uninstall it again and use the Micorsoft Installation Clean Up Utility and reinstall the product from their Web site. I moved the dates forward once again and had the same problems. It's either some type of security they've built in to prevent you from using a Trial Version longer than 15 days or there is left over pieces of the Trial Version that are going to cause me problems in the future. Anyway, I didn't think they'd help me if I was moving the system date around, so I'm going to wait and see if it's a problem in the future. Regarding my backups, I think I'll try Bodgy's suggestion and create them one week at a time over the next four weeks. I also found the backup scripts in a directory in User Data that I might be able to modify outside of their application. Oh well, thanks again for your help.

 

It's shame that Acronis can't master the art of some very basic scheduling routines so that folks won't have to jump through these stupid hoops. Probably the only real advantage ATI has over other brands is the automated management and scheduling, bu if they can't get those things right. . .

 

with Version 10 it works very fine. You say how much inkr/diff. BackUps you wish (i.e. 6) and then it will done an full.

(V. 11 I have not tested)

Its unclear why this is gon in V. 2009, but I think the idear is to make the version easier to operate...

 

To make something easier Acronis should have to create two different cases of use:
- Users
- Experts

Acronis has developed a Ti which is not down compatible (that's why the name is Ti2009 and not Ti12 ):
- There is no opportunity to import old Ti-tasks.
- there is no automated TIB-filename-creation anymore
- SecureZone from Ti11 is not usable
- etc...

(I have a little bit overdone my opinion but I cannot accept a company who develops software passing the requirements of the users!
And I think: They are proud of it.)

 

I think acronis has very much users, which are unable to use an backup program right. To unload the support hotline they thinks, we must make the program so easy to use, that everyone can operate with it.

But this is the wrong way! BackUp requires an minimum of konwledge.

The right way is to make an easier to read guide, with an very clear chapter about backup/restore strategies and how acronis works!

All current user guides of acronis TI are very unclear for normal users!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I still haven't found a way of maintaining multiple Full backups, weekly, followed by daily Incrementals.

The "batch file" method doesn't work for me, because I store the images on a network drive. It don't want to have it permanently mapped. Plus, I've read that renaming the files, outside of TI breaks it now.

I can't see how the 4-weekly Full backups, each with a different name, followed by 4 sets of Incrementals will work. The Full part, yes, that does work, as when the next Full runs, it deletes the previous one. But the Incrementals just keep going, and going, like the Energizer Bunny. There doesn't seem to be a way to "restart" them.

And don't suggest going back to 10, or 11, as neither of those versions handle networked drives correctly. Each time I've reported issues, it's always been, "That will be fixed in the next version". Well, with 2009, they do (so far) have appeared to resolve that, but the Backup Strategy they have implemented makes it unusable.

Cheers,
Eddie

 

Hello all,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

The latest build of Acronis True Image Home 2009 (9646) has the ability to create desired number of incremental/differential backup archives after the full backup. The functionality is similar to Backup Location Management in earlier product versions (Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis True Image 11 Home). You can find it in Optional Steps -> Backup Method while performing backup wizard setup.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev