Acronis TI9 - Deleting previous incremental backups

My destination drive for my incremental backups is near capacity. In order to make room for more, what is the best way to go about deleting previous backups? Do I start with the oldest backup first. What tool do I use in TI9 to delete? Thanks.

 

I'd suggest rearranging the way you do backups and then delete everything you've got.

For example, I have a master back up that is scheduled for every Saturday. I then have a schedule that attaches incrementals every other day (M,W,F). Come Saturday, the old master gets overwritten, and then the incrementals.

So that I always have a complete week to fall back on, I have two sets of schedules in the above format running on alternate weeks.

You can't just delete incrementals, as the whole series are required.

Colin

 

Hm! So if you have a bad bit on your your main disk it is most likely to show itself when there is most activity. That will probably be during your Saturday master backup. By then the backup taken last week has being overwritten. Or have I not understood you properly?
Phil

 

Phil,

I think you might have misunderstood my method, but if not, I'm open to suggestions.

Here is how I currently work.

Saturday Week 1

Master Image made called 'MainDrive_Week_1'
Increments on Monday,Wednesday,Friday = Maindrive_week_1x; where X = inc number.

Week 2

As above, but named Maindrive_week_2.

These weeks alternate.

The only problem with this, and I'd be interested to know if v10 fixes this, is that one has to be careful in which week the tasks are altered or set up. If you do it in the wrong week, TI just measures it's time from the current system time, so you could find both running at the same time. Changing the calender schedule to allow a start date would get around that problem.

Is there a flaw in this method that I've missed?

Colin

 

Makes sense. When I first installed the software, I thought I had set up the backups to do this but apparently I did not. So, I take it that I should go in and delete the master backup and all incrementals first, and then set the backups for the master once a week, and incrementals every other day. Is there a specific command in the setup that will accomplish this? Thanks.

 

Yes, I have misunderstood! Always at least one backup available. Fine.
Phil

 

To setup a system similar to mine, you'll have to do it manually.

Make sure you choose in the start parameters weekly and in weekly parameters Every 2 weeks.

Then for the increments or differentials you select either daily and then every other day or weekly and then on the next screen the days you want.

For the following week choose a different name for the file and follow the above, making sure, that you set the second schedule up actually in week2.

Colin

 

One more question. I am backing up two hardrives. My master or C drive has capacity of 140 GB, and my secondary drive, E:, has a capacity of 80 GB, (used to store MP3 files only). As it has been awhile since I did a full backup of my C drive, how long should it take to back this drive up, (currently at 110GB capacity. When the backup starts it tells me that the estimated time is one day and 8 hours. Is this correct, or do I have something set up wrong in the backup paramenters? Thanks.

 

Hello sidbueddro,

The estimated times for backup and restore are very approximate and could well reduce rapidly as the task progresses. In addition, I find the best compromise for speed versus image size is to set TI'S default options for Backup Compression to "Normal" and the Backup and Restore priorities to "Normal".

Regards

 

Colin,

Have finally gotten around to trying your method of scheduling backups as you suggested. However, I tried two times now to do so with the following problem. I scheduled my first backup, (week one), to run at 8:00 p.m., and on both occasions, the log shows the operation was completed successfully, however, (even with the backup name listed in the directory of the drive I am backing up to), there is no data in that file. I went ahead and just did a manual backup last night, (not scheduling like you suggested), and everything worked fine. Is there something I am missing in preparing the scheduled backup? The only thing I can think of is that I am not entering/requiring a password. Please advise. Thanks.

 

I don't have an answer for this strange behaviour, except it might be worth checking in Windows Services (start button\run\services.msc), that Acronis Scheduler2 is running and set to automatic. Ditto to Remote Procedure Call, which is an XP service, but can be set to disabled sometimes.

Colin

 

Have checked both and all ares showing as running and on automatic. In RPC it is showing a password. Is this the same password that is being asked for in Acronis? If so I don't recall ever assigning one, and don't remember what it is. Is there a way to find out what the password in RPC is or how to assign or reset my password in the Acronis setup? Thanks.

 

I've never seen a password on RPC. Are you logged on with Admin powers?

Ah I see what you mean. The password on the LOG ON tab, is the user name and password you use to log onto your account in XP. The schedule in TI will require this log on as well, so it can run under your user name.


Colin

 

Under that tab, and under "This Account", it is showning "NT Authority\NetworkService", and then of course a password that is there, but I have no idea what it is. Would I be okay in changing the password to one that I do know without messing this up? Thanks.

 

No don't change the entry in RPC server.

When you make your TI schedule, when it asks for a password (not the password protection for the archive) type in your user name and password in the appropriate boxes.

Colin

 

Colin,

Think the problem is fixed. Went to the Acronis website and downloaded the most recent build, and the scheduled backup seems to be working fine. Still have one more question from your initial suggestion on how to schedule. If I schedule Week One and assign a specific name to that backup, and then schedule a backup exactly the same for Week Two except with a different name, how does TI know to overwrite the previous backup from Week One, when there is a different backup name? I guess what I am asking is will the system automatically overwrite, always leaving one backup on file, without having to manually delete the previous backup? Sorry if I am being confusing with this, but just want to be clear on how this would work. Thanks.

 

Hello sidbueddro,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Acronis True Image 9.0 Home will automatically overwrite the previous full backup with same name. Therefore, with the backup schedule scheme you created you will have two full backups during a week (one untouched full backup during a scheduled creation of the next full backup).

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov