How can I limit disk space used for backups

I have acronis true image 9.0. Is there any way to limit the total amount of disk space I use for an incremental acronis backup? I set up a complete disk backup and a daily documents backup to a 160GB external drive. But I find that in time the whole disk will fill up with these incremental backups. Is there any way to specify that only say 30% of the drive will be dedicated for backups and when this limit is reached the oldest backups are overwritten?

Also, what percentage of disk compression do you get when you specify 'high' compression? It seems that it only compresses it to about three quarters its original size when I do that. That doesn't seem to be that much savings.

Thanks,
Al

 

The only way to do it "automatically" in version 9 is to set up a secure zone, which will erase old files as needed to make room for new ones.

In version 10 it is easy to specify file number, size or age limits for a directory without having to create a secure zone or any hidden partitions or directories.

I don't know what compresion algorithms ATI uses but I know that with a little compression you can reduce backup time by having a smaller backup file. Too much compression and the computer spends more time compressing and that extra time more than offsets the time savings of having a smaller backup file. Many files these days don't allow for a lot of compression, they are in effect compressed as they are. So, exe files, pdf files, jpg, and lots of others don't shrink much even with strong compression algorithms.

 

and not only that, if you are running with NTFS compressed, there's little point getting ATI to do any compression anyway.

F.

 

Useful as the secure zone is, and I use it myself all the time, It will not play well with one base image followed by lots of incrementals. The Fifo management works best with a sequence of full images. The oldest being dropped automatically.

If one is using a combination of full images and incrementals Fifo can still work but it is necessary to insert a new full image into the sequence from time to time othewise the Zone will get constipated !


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