Help with incremental backup, out of disk space?

I run a daily incremental backup and today it has failed because of lack of disk space, I am using the Acronis Secure Zone partition. Should it automatically delete the oldest backup when it is out of space? Can someone explain other forms of backups that this program can do?

 

If you only have one Full backup, then no, TI will not delete that. The User Guide has details on what scheme TI uses when space runs out.

 

I thought it would delete the oldest incremental backup not delete original full backup.

 

No - you need the FULL and all the INC files in order to restore from the latest backup.
If you delete any INC the chain is broken from that point on.

 

So it is impossible to delete the oldest backup because that would break the chain, the only way to remedy this is with a larger disk?

If so, does this mean I have to create daily full backups? That would take too long.

 

“I run a daily incremental backup … ”

You need to explain your backup schedule more completely. If all you ever do is run INCs, no matter how large your backup location is, you’ll eventually run out of space.
Do you ever run a FULL? When is it scheduled?
I run a FULL every Mon and INCs Tue-Fri. The following Mon, the FULL is over-written.

 

I first got the software about a month ago, both the destination and source drive are 300gb.

I ran a full backup about 3 weeks ago, and a incremental backup daily until today. I also frequently defragment, sometimes daily. From the start I was expecting for the oldest incremental backup to be removed, but now I realize that the incremental backup does not backup the changes of the full backup, but of the incremental backup before it, so it is impossible to continue backing up like this.

I would probably run a differential backup daily, and a full backup weekly. Thing is I cannot figure out the space left on the disk, or how big each backup is when using Acronis Secure Zone.

Will differential backups remove themselves to make room for newer backups? Should I run these instead of incremental?

 

“I also frequently defragment, sometimes daily”

This is going to cause you much grief. Both DIF and INC files will be quite large after a defrag. TI looks at changed sectors, not changed files. When you defrag, data is moved and sectors change. TI will back those changes up.

“Thing is I cannot figure out the space left on the disk”

If you mean space left in the ASZ, use “Manage Secure Zone” to see the remaining free space.

 

Another thing, is it really safe to work on the computer while it is backing up? You can still move files around and do things normally, but what if you were modifying a file and acronis was backing that file up at the same time. Would it be corrupt?

I've also decided to start running differential backups, but only if it deletes the oldest differential backup to make room for new ones. I would probably run a full backup every second week.

 

“Another thing, is it really safe to work on the computer while it is backing up?”
I’ve done it with no ill effects. But common sense dictates that you don’t go out of your way to make major changes during a backup. Most of my backups are scheduled to take place in the wee hours when nobody is using the system.

“… but only if it deletes the oldest differential backup to make room for new ones”
TI will not do this automatically.

 

But in the schedule task wizard, when you select differential backup it's description reads:

"When no space left in the Acronis Secure Zone, then the oldest full backup and all it's differential backups are deleted to free up space."

 

There’s a big difference between –
“the oldest differential backup to make room for new ones”
and –
“the oldest full backup and all it's differential backups are deleted to free up space”

 

So I suppose whatever it is that I'm trying to do just wont work.

Continue using the same backup task and reformat the drive once it fills up? Have it recreate the full backup from scratch?

 

“… whatever it is that I'm trying to do …”
You need to define just what it is you’re trying to do. Are you only interested in disaster recovery (only need backups from the last few days), archival (want to be able to restore from X number of days, weeks, months ago), a little of both?
Once you fully define our needs, then you can come up with a workable scheme.
Running INCs until your backup location fills up, to me at least, doesn’t sound like a good plan.

Here’s what I do on one system:
I have 9 scheduled tasks, all Full images.
One each for the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th.
A Weekly each Sunday.
Then three more, one each on Mon & Thu, Tue & Fri and Wed & Sat.
Once these 9 images are created, they just cycle through and get written over.

On another system:
I have two sets of tasks. One called EVEN and one called ODD (for even and odd numbered months). So this month (March), I run the FULL ODD at the beginning of the month and then daily INCs for the rest of the month. Next month I’ll do the same using the EVEN set of FULL/INC backups. I just keep repeating this month after month writing over the old image files.

I also have scheme using the ASZ, but you get the idea.

 

The purpose of the backup is mainly disaster recovery, I have started running RAID0 arrays for my first time and I use the backup just incase of drive failure. If the array does fail I would like to use the latest backup to rebuild the array. I'd also like to archive them for a little while just incase of a virus attack or something.

 

I know this is an old thread but after so many months I finally understood your backup plan theweaz. I was trying to accomplish what the OP was trying to do and your plan seems to work for me also.

Just wanted to say thanks!