NEWBIE DATA BACKUP QUESTION

Hi,

I just purchased Acronis True Image Home 11 yesterday and used it for the first time. I have a recording studio and what I want to do is backup projects that are on my internal drive to my external drive so that if a client records a new song or edits an old song, all i have to do is an incremental backup and the new song and changes to old song are get updated on the external drive without me having to transfer the whole folder over. Now I tried the data backup yesterday and it seemed to work perfect! I was so excited that it worked on my first try but when I disconnected the external drive and tried to open the files on another comp, the file wouldn't open. It seems as if the back was like a shortcut to the original files rather than a copy of the original files. I believe the file name was ".tib"? Now when i connected the external drive back to the computer that i originally backed up the files from, I was able to retrieve the files after a few clicks of the backup file but the explorer bar was showing as if I was accessing these files from the original drive and not the drive I chose to back them up on. I hope this makes sense to you. I'm a first time user so my apologies. Can anyone explain what i'm doing wrong or guide me in the right direction? I'm still waiting on a reply from acronis tech support but since i'm new, i'm not sure how long they take to reply. THANKS!

 

I don't use TI to backup data but:

My guess is that you don't have TI loaded on the second computer and it doesn't understand what a tib file is. TI saves its archives whether they be images or Files and Folders backups (data) in files with a .tib extension.

TI stores the backed up files in a large container file with a tib extension in the filename. It does not store the files as separate files on the backup device as would happen if copied them to the backup device using Windows Explorer.

My other guess on the data restore location is that the original location is being displayed which is what happens when you look in an image archive. To check this you could move a couple of files on your HD that are present in the backup to a different location temporarily and then open the archive. If you are indeed looking in the archive the files you moved will be present. If they aren't then you are indeed looking at your HD.

 

Make a rescue CD and use that to boot the second computer. You will need the CD to restore your data in the event of failure of your internal hard drive. You should be aware that if you intend to use TI on two computers then you should buy two licenses.

 

The oft neglected XCopy command would be perfect for what you want to do. After an initial backup of the folder, any future backup will do only changed files. Using True Image for this is adding a huge and unnecessary risk factor to your saved files.

 

DwnNDrty, is right on; xcopy does just what you want.

ATI only archives into a file and you need ATI to be able to get inside the file or get things of it.

Use xcopy and keep things simple, straightforward. However, you will still want some kind of backup protection for your harddrives, and ATI still might be your best bet for making image backup files. This would letyou restore/replace a hard disk without having to reinstall the OS and all the proglrams and then copy back all the data -- you could do it allin one step by retoring an ATI backup image.

 

I'm going to disagree a little with the use of XCOPY or even other fancier copy programs for his application. As you probably know, I also do not like the idea of data backups where the files are stuffed into a container file either and I only use TI for imaging.

However, the use of XCOPY (unless there is a feature I am unaware of) will replace an updated file. If you realize you did something wrong during your last edit session and go to your backup - you will have it alright but it will have the error as well. In other words there is no journaling or versioning. You could setup some kind of folder/file renaming scheme. Regardless of method, people should be aware of this potential pitfall.

I use the paid version of Syncback and it does support versioning. This was the reason I use it over the free version.