Simple Question About How to Use Incremental files

I am a new User of True Image. I have made a Complete BU file and using that file as reference have made 6 daily Incremetal files. If I wanted to do a complete system restore, I am confused whether I do:

A. First restore the Complete image file; then restore the LAST Incremtal file

or

B. Restore the Complete image file; then the oldest Incremental file; then the second oldest Incremental, then the 3rd Onc; then the 4th Inc. ; then the 5th Incremental file and finally the 6th and latest Incremental file.

Which is it. The Help and FAQ do not give the answer in English that is 100% clear to me.

Thanks,

Phil

 

If you want to do a complete system restore you simply select the latest incremental that you wish to restore from and TI will automatically apply all images from the related full backup and all the incrementals up to and including the restore point you have chosen.

 

This is an amazingly simple way to do a complete restoration for a non-bootable Windows system or a bootable sytem.

Is this explained any where in the Help for Acronis v8, or in any FAQ on the Acronis site

I searched high & low and found nothing. This is SOOOOO Important a concept that I would think it would be in big, bold letters under all Restore headings, but I sure did not see it anywhere?

Phil

 

Have you read the user guide?

 

He only reads bold font above 20 pt hehe

 

Hello Phil,

Thank you for your interest Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We will certainly include the explanation of how to work with incrementals in the User's Guide.

Thank you for your input.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

I was not satisfied with any of the answers given by Forum users..especially the snide remarks about reading the manual...which were NOT helpful fellas!!!

I asked Acronis tech support and got a clean answer which was " Please also note that incremental image contains only information that was changed since the last full or incremental image was created. The situation you have described is absolutely normal. Please remember that Windows and it's applications permanently changing your hard drive content. Therefore you have such different incremental image sizes.

For example, in case you will defragment your hard drive next incremental image will be the same size as full."

In other words, UNLIKE other BU apps which use tags set on each file, Acronis literally includes any sectors changed since the previous BU (Complete or Incremental). The comment that if you defra the disk, the Incremental will be the same size as the last COmplete nails the reason "why" my Incremementlas were so large, even though I had made NO FILE CHANGES. I hope this is helpful to future users of Acronis as it was to me.

 

I don't think that asking if you have read the user guide is a snide remark. The question you asked when you initiated your thread was answered and you went on to ask if the concept (of restoring a full disk) is documented anywhere.

As for you asking Acronis support and getting a clean answer, the answer that you have posted bears no relation to the question you asked in this thread.

 

Hi Phil,

That's right. Imaging software is not what you want for daily backups.

With Acronis True Image or its competitors you make an image of the operating system when it's working well. If you have data on the same drive or partition, or programs, you'll get them too. But you have no reason to make an image of your operating system every day, unless you do something that changes it. You use the image file for restoring the operating system when something screws it up, not before. You won't need it often, but when you do it will save an immense amount or work.

Your data, on the other hand, does change every day. For backing it up, you want software that runs daily and backs up the files you choose, but not the operating system. Windows has its own backup application and there are quite a few others. The incremental or differential backup files they make will not include the operating system and will be very much smaller than image files from True Image.

 

After one month of using trueimage, the backup drive is full? Whice incremental file can I delete to creat more space, but still keep at least one or two week backup.

 

Carl

You cannot delete incremental files that relate to the last 'full' backup you did as they are all needed in the event of you requiring to do a 'full' restore. The best way to do backups is for you to create a secure zone on your backup drive and then to do full backups weekly and incrementals daily. You can change the frequency to suit your own backup strategy but for the sake of giving an example then weekly full backups and daily incrementals is quite a typical way to use TI. If you follow this strategy and allocate a secure zone that is large enough to accomodate at least two backup cycles then you will find that TI manages the secure zone without any user intervention and when the secure zone gets full it will automatically re-use the space occupied by the oldest full backup and its related incrementals.

Hope that helps.

 

Thank u very much. you are good.

 

That's interesting! I do something simular but I don't use Secure Zone, not even sure what it is, and I have been around for more then a year. But I follow this somewhat, I make incrementals until my dedicated external drive fills up, then delete the drive and do a full backup again, hoping nothing catastrohic goes wrong during this backup. Then I just start the cycle again. I just do incrementals before any software changes, and not daily. But you say that Secure Zone will help me manage this somehow?!? thanks!!!!

 

I think the weight of opinion on this forum is that if you backup to an external drive, there's no point in making a Secure Zone on it. I know I don't use it now that I have a USB external drive.