TI 2009: How to create series of incremental backups and keep the old series

TI 2009 was a step back for me because it is impossible to create series of incremental backups and keep the old series unless a given size quota is exceeded. I found a solution now for me and want to share it - please allow me a short introduction into the problem:

The new invented consolidation feature is absolutely useless for me: If I create a small incremental backup the backup needs maybe a few minutes but consolidation needs hours. As a result one of the advantages of incremental backups - the fact they are fast - got lost. So forget about consolidation

There have been heavy complaints by users about not being able to create series of backups - so Acronis offered a patch (build 9646)which cures some issues but doesn't fix the problem. Please read here (I'm not appending to this thread because this posting would be hard to find).

With build 9646 you are able to start a new series of backups after n incremental/differential backups - which is good. And you can delete old backups if you check an additional box - but the disadvantage here is that all your old backups will be deleted (please see attached picture which is in German - but should look similar in other languages).

To overcome this issue I created a Visual Basic Script which you can embed in your backup task. It will delete old series of backups - but only if the size of the folder which contains all backups exceeds a certain size.

Here is how to use it:

• Download the attached file removeold.vbs.txt to a directory in your computer
• Rename this script from removeold.vbs.txt into removeold.vbs (the forum rules do not allow to attach vbs files, that's why we need this workaround).
• Create a new and fresh backup task in Acronis 2009. Be aware you need at least build 9646.
• As backup method choose incremental or differential. Check the box Create a new full backup after n backups and choose something for n.
• Do not check the box Remove old archives - the script will do this in a more intelligent fashion
• In the backup options go to Pre-/Post commands. As pre command enter removeold.vbs, as working directory choose the directory where you stored the vbs-file. As parameter 1 type the directory which you specified in the backup task as target directory (for example K:\MyBackups). As parameter 2 set the amount of MBs this directory should not exceed.
• That's it. From now on before a backup task will be performed the script will check whether the folder which should receive the newest backup is exceeding the given size. If yes, it will delete the oldest series. It will not delete anything if there is only one series.

I do not guarantee that this script will work in all cases - so test yourself. For me it works - although I think that this functionality should be part of TI. This was my first contact with VB script - and I can say I don't like the language. So if anybody of you rewrites this script in Java Script please let me know - I'm just too lazy now to translate it.

Enjoy,
Loopguru

 

Hello loopguru,

I appreciate your work to solve an important bug in Ti2009.

But one note:
Be aware that Ti2009 saves/maintain all TIB-filenames in a database.
(it is new with Ti2009!)

If your VBS deletes TIB-files, will the database get knowledge of this?

(I cannot test it because I don't use Ti2009. And my trial is expired.)

 

Hi Mr. Morse,

thanks for your feedback. I read in this forum that TI2009 maintains a database - but still it is unclear to me what this means in practical terms.

As far as I can see deleting the old series with the vbs script does not cause any problem. What I tested:

1. If the script deletes an old series I still can restore from the newer series of files. I do this simply by double-clicking on any of the files in Explorer (see picture 2 in the middle). The result of this is that I see in Explorer all backups which belong to this series (see the last picture 3).
2. In TI2009 itself there is as well no problem. If you delete an old series TI2009 gets aware of this at the next program start. As you can see in picture 1 TI shows only series 4 and series 5 of the backup I named TmpBackup. The old series 0, 1, 2, and 3 which were removed by the script are not shown anymore. So TI2009 is aware of file deletions. I guess this view in TI2009 is what most people refer to as the "Database View".

Right now I do not see any problem in restoring data from any of these files and I don't see TI2009 gets confused about deleting old backup series. Of course there's always the chance I missed something,

Thanks,
Loopguru