I just tried to do my first incremental

I recently installed Acronis True Image 8 (and have already received helpful advice for it on this and other forums). I successfully created my first full image. Acronis created this is as eight (I think) discrete files on my external hard drive. Today I created (I think) my first incremental image.

In the process of creating the incremental image Acronis asked me to point to the full image. I browsed to the external hard drive but I was then faced with the question: which of the eight increments do I point to? Acronis would only let me highlight one of the eight, not all eight. So I highlighted the first, which was labelled " C1" . When Acronis ws finished (it took about 25 minutes), I had a ninth increment, labelled: " C9" .

My question is: Is this the way Acronis is supposed to work when I do an incremental image ?


Babel.

 

According to the manual, section 4.2:

"If all image files are stored together, if doesn't matter which one you select, as the program will recognize them as a single image."

 

Thanks.
It's good to know that the program is working as it should.

Does a point get reached where the incrementals become too large, when it is better to erase the image and create a fresh full image ?

 

Sorry, I misunderstood your original post. The quote I gave you refers to which incremental to select when going to create another incremental.

Since the eight files you had were not incrementals, but instead pieces of one big full backup image, it makes sense that only one of them is selectable, and it should be the one with all the info that Acronis needs to know how many pieces make up the entire image.

As to your other question, when to do a full image, I can only tell you what I do. As a rule of thumb, I do a new full image once a week. YMMV

Good luck

 

Thanls, Jimmytop.

Now the next time I do an incremental (such as today or tomorrow), do I again select the first file ("C1") or do I select the most recent addition (presently "C9")?

Also, your second suggestion makes sense. In about a week I will delete all image files and do a new full image. Is that what you meant?

Babel.

 

Better to do the new full image first, then delete the old ones.

 

Hello babel17,

Actually it didn't matter which of the previous eight .tib files you selected when creating your first incremental. TI recognises that they are all part of a multifile archive and will add the ninth. The same applies when creating subsequent incrementals.

When it comes to restoring you can select an incremental restore point by time and date and TI will decide for itself which .tib files it needs to use.

Regards

 

Hehe, you made the same mistake I did - assumed the individual files are all incrementals. They are not, read the subject of this post. If he's trying to make his first incremental, why would he have nine previous incrementals??

His individual files are all pieces of one FULL image. In other words, when the full image was made, the original poster selected a fixed file size and TI created several files of that size. They aren't incrementals. They are one full image in several files.

But regardless, only one of the pieces has all the info that TI needs, and that's the one that it let him choose. It's not like having a bunch of incrementals where you can choose any of them. Read his original post, they were all unselectable except ONE. You can't even choose the other ones, they don't have all the info about the other pieces of the full image.

It's like when you backup to CD/DVD. Only one of the disks has all the info abou the full image, and that's the first one that TI needs to read.

 

Hi jimmytop,

No, I didn't misread babel17's first post. Certainly not after you advised previously that you had

I think that, by me saying "...which of the previous eight .tib files you selected when creating your first incremental.", it's clear the previous eight files were part of his original full image.

Regards

 

Hello babel17,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

It doesn't matter what part of the full image you choose when create the incremental image. The are two possible reasons for why there were 8 files created instead of one. First, you may have chosen the fixed size of the image file. The other is that your external drive may be in FAT32 file system and it doesn't support files larger than 2Gb. Acronis True Image "knows" that and splits the image file automatically.

When you create the new set of images (full and incrementals) it is not needed to delete previous becuase you may choose the same name for the image and Acronis True Image will simply replace the old file with the new one.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Still, yours and Acronis's responses are inconsistent with the OP's description:

It's easy to say, that one may choose any piece of the image. But it sounds like that's not the case. Acronis only let's you choose one. It only makes sense that the only selectable piece, is the one with all the info - the one that is akin to the last CD or DVD created when backing up to those media.

If, on the other hand, what you and Acronis have posted is correct, that he/she should be able to choose any piece, then why wouldn't the software let her??

 

I believe what babel17 was refering to was that he/she couldn't select (highlight) all eight .tib files at the same time. This is normal for TI and what Ilya and I are saying is that he/she could have selected (highlighted) any one of the eight files (not necessarily the fiirst or the last one) comprising the original full image in order to proceed with the first incremental.

Regards

 

Ah, ok I get it now. You're right, obviously I misread it, even the second time Sorry!
Thanks for clearing it up...