Incremental Backup Question

XP (SP2).


New to Acronis.

I back up do DVD.

When doing an incremental DVD backup, which I prefer to do daily, it always asks me to "insert first media". Having to insert a new DVD for each incremental backup, it would take a new DVD per day, accumulating about 30 DVD's a month for one backup.

Why do I need to put in a new DVD each time a want to do an incremental backup?

I'm obviously doing something wrong here. Help, please.

Thank you.

 

As a suggestion, you may want to consider creating your images to your HDD and then burning them to DVD. If you use rewritable DVD's (e.g. DVD+RW) then you could continuously re-use the DVD's. This will overcome the issue that you have raised and the process will be quicker - probably a lot quicker.

I am sure that you have very good reasons for creating your backups on DVD, but if at any time you could move to using a HDD you will find that the process is much quicker, much more reliable and much less of a pain in the...

 

You're right. I tried that, too. I attempted to create the image on my 2nd HDD, which is a nearly empty 120GB Western Digital drive. Funny thing is, during the backup process - the program prompted me to put in another disk! Please tell me what caused that to happen. No way in the world could that drive be out of space. I'm only imaging about 2gb!

What caused that and how can I fix that problem?

I appreciate your comment.

 

I don't know your level of experience, so if you are not comfortable with my next suggestion then please ask.

Suggest that you partition the 120GB WD drive so that one partition can hold all your images.

On the images partition you could create 2 Folders, one folder for System images and one folder for Data File images.

Start with completely new Full backups. Subsequent backups can be either Incremental or Differential. There are advantages/disadvantages to both. You can read the User Guide or browse this Forum for more information, but at the end of the day it really is a personal decision which type of backup you choose.

If you still wanted to have the additional insurance of DVD backups then you could use any DVD burning utility to burn your backups to DVD. (e.g. Nero, Ulead, Easy Media...)

Before you start check carefully through all the options in ATI and make sure that you have set everything the way it should be for creating images to HDD.

 

I don't have a problem with that. To help me understand...why would partitioning the HDD into "System Images/Data File Images" fix the problem of ATI prompting me to put in another disk when I am creating the image to the HDD?

Also, what options in ATI are you referring to that would help solve the problem? I'm open to learning here.

Thanks.

 

It won't but it will help you get your system organised into definitive areas that deal with specific types of files.

It makes good sense to separate your files into : System, Data and Backups. Partitions help you to visualise a logical separation between these file types. For example, when you install Windows the default location for My Documents is the same drive/partition as the OS. This is not very clever. If you system becomes corrupted (and it will because it happens to everyone at some time) then your My Documents folder also goes to Blue-Screen heaven.

It is much better practice to locate your My Documents folder elsewhere. If your system only has 1 disk then you should at least locate it in a different partition. If you have multiple disks then obviously it is best to locate it on a different disk.

The same principle applies to Backups. Always keep your backups separate to the system and data files. If you only have 1 disk then you should consider the Acronis Secure Zone as an option. If you have multiple disks then simply separate out your backups from their source files.

The reason why TI is prompting you to insert another disk is obscure but I suspect that it is either because of a setting in the Options or because of a historical action that you took when creating the original Full backups.

Therefore, if you check through the Options and set these up correctly and then start the entire process again from the beginning there is a very good chance that the message will go away.

Options can be found on the TI "Tools" menu. Before you set or reset any option, read the corresponding information in the User Guide to make sure that you understand what the option does and how it should be set. If you have any questions please come back to the Forum.

 

Hi Papa,

Just a quick thing to check: what format is the 120GB drive in (NTFS or FAT32). You will need it formatted as NTFS if the file size of the image is over 4GB.

This has caught me out a few times as it's very easy to overlook.

>>>>F-4>>>>

 

Hello Papa,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that when creating incremental backup you should select the latest full or incremental backup you have. Therefore, if the full backup is stored on the CD/DVD disc you should first insert this the latest volume of this backup (if it is stored on more than one disc) after that start the Backup Wizard and proceed with the backup archive creation. When the wizard promts you to select the name and location for the archive file you should point to the full (or latest incremental) backup on the CD/DVD disc. After you cleck the "Proceed" button Acronis True Image will start to create the incremental backup and if there is not enough space on this CD/DVD disc you will be asked to insert a new disc. You can store more that one incremental backup archives on one disc (as long as there enough space for the backup archives).

Please explain your step-by-step actions which you took that led you to this issue. Could you please create a screen shots of all your steps?

Please also collect the log file from Acronis True Image 9.0 Home. In order to do so please do the following:

- run the program;

- select Show log on the toolbar or from the Tools menu;

- select the log with error messages;

- click "Save the log entry to file" (the diskette icon)

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov