Simple backup strategy

I've seen a few threads that mention doing incremental backups, and maintaining say..two weeks of available backups at any given time.

Since TI can't do this by itself, I was trying to think of an easy way to make it happen. After thinking about it, I came up with a fairly simple solution, but it's not fully automatic. If there's a better way, please share it.

(one time actions)
1 - Create a folder for your backups - ex: f:\images
2 - Create a subfolder - f:\images\OneWeekAgo
3 - Create a subfolder - f:\images\TwoWeeksAgo
4 - Setup one schedule...say 2am - incremental backups
5 - On Sunday, be sure the root folder for the images is empty
(recurring actions)
Each Sunday - after the 2am image is complete
1 - Delete f:\images\TwoWeeksAgo\*.*
2 - Move f:\images\OneWeekAgo\*.* to f:\images\TwoWeeksAgo\
3 - Move f:\images\*.* to f:\images\OneWeekAgo\

That should give you a fairly easy way of having two weeks of backups, not relying on one full image for the whole thing.

Note that the delete/move processes could be easily accomplished with a simple batch file. Which, could be scheduled if you really wanted this to be hands off.

Thoughts?

 

As disk space is cheap these days I just have a large securezone and two schedules for backups. I have a monthly full backup and weekly incremental. You can have daily incremental if you need it and weekly full if that's what you want (or any other combination) but there is only ever a need for two schedules and these run automatically at the time that suits you. If your secure zone is reasonably large (you can easily work out what's needed) then you don't ever have to do anything. Old backups are not overwritten until the zone becomes full and so you can have whatever level of historical backups you need as long as your secure zone is large enough to accomodate it. It's not hard to set up and is automatic. Of course it's wise to check logs to make sure that backups are completeing successfully but that's not exactly a time consuming chore.

For the benefit of anyone who is not familiar with how TI manages the securezone you cannot just have one full backup followed by an infinity of incrementals. The secure zone will eventually be full and your backups will fail due to no space in the secure zone. You have to do periodic full backups and then TI has something to overwrite ( the oldest backup) when it runs out of space in the secure zone. The larger the secure zone the more historical backups you can keep. It's up to you to create a zone that is large enough to accomodate a reasonable number of historical backups but as I said it's not hard to work out and disk space is cheap.

 

Hello airjrdn,

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

Your idea is quite right and will certainly work. You may post the source of the batch file on this forum if you wish. Also you may schedule two tasks: each fortnightly and choose different folders for them. To schedule the task once in two weeks please choose the "Weekly" method and set it once in two weeks.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Could someone explain the purpose of the secure zone. I backup onto an external HD, no secure zone and I'm not sure what the purpose of a secure zone is.

 

The secure zone is a FAT32 partition that is hidden from Windows and only Acronis True Image can see it. Otherwise it's like any other partition. I guess that the main idea of having a secure zone partition is that it can't get accidentally overwritten or deleted by any Windows program so it's more secure. Also, you don't have to give a filename to True Image to tell it where to back up to or restore from.

 

Hello pjb024,

In addition to your reply, Acronis Secure Zone is not available for viruses, trojans etc. so the images cannot be occasionally damaged. Everything you posted above is correct as well.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello Ilya

I think that True Image is a very sophisticated but simple to use system and by far the best in the market. The only thing I think is lacking is the ability to verify a specified image in the secure zone. Currently it checks everything and sometimes I just want to check the last backup I made. It would also be useful to be able to view what backups are in the secure zone and the size so that secure zone can be fine tuned by the user. Otherwise, it's a brilliant piece of architecture.

Paul

 

Hello Paul,

We are planning to develop special explorer for Acronis Secure Zone. However, we cannot tell the exact date (or version) when it is introduced into Acronis True Image. This explorer will give you great abilities in managing Acronis Secure Zone.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hi paul,

I think it worth pointing out that once you have overwritten an old full backup with a newer one, you can no longer use the previous incremental restore points (they become orphaned).

Regards

 

I hadn't written one, but since you mentioned it, here's one that should do the trick:

Code:

SET OneWeekOld=d:\batch\OneWeekOld
SET TwoWeeksOld=d:\batch\TwoWeeksOld

del TwoWeeksOld\*.* /Q
move OneWeekOld\*.* TwoWeeksOld

Be sure each of the SET statements points to your OneWeekOld and TwoWeeksOld folders respectively.

 

Hi Menorcaman

Yes that's quite correct. When a full backup is overwritten it's related incrementals are no longer available and they will also get overwritten.

Regards