This is just stupid.....

I am using Acronis True Image 11 to backup a laptop. I have the laptop's 160GB HDD in 2 partitions - C: (40GB) and D: (80GB).

I have placed a Secure Zone on partition D: and it works just fine.

However, as you probably know, a failing hard drive on a laptop will eliminate both partitions - making my backups useless. So, I also connect an external Toshiba 160GB hard drive to the USB port and would like to save my Acronis Secure Zone to it to cover me in the event of a hard drive failure on my laptop.

If I try and create a second Acronis Secure Zone.....well, you just can't do that. Why? I have no freaking idea. It makes no sense whatsoever to me to not allow multiple Secure Zones.

So, when I domy backups, my backups eventually fill the external drive and Acronis simply chokes.

So, I tried a simple "G:\del *.tib" (G: being my external hard drive) as a "Before Backup Process" command, but it fails.

Not beding one to give up so easily (snd thinking a file may have been in use) I tried using the command line of Unlocker to unlock and delete the files. This too failed from within Acronis.

So, just how the heck do I backup to 2 places (for optimum data safety) and have Acronis automatically (or even using the command line tools available to XP and Unlocker) delet files when the drive areas get full?

Do you guys do end user testing? Surely I am not the first to have these issues.

 

The Secure Zone automatically deletes files as it becomes full, which is nice but the SZ can be problematic, especially if your hdisk goes wonky.

You can get the even better automated management of backups, along with much greater flexibilty by using the Backup Locations and Scheduled Tasks functions in ATI (see the user guide), even if using external drives. Also do a forum search for "Grover" and check out the guides at the bottom of any of his posts.

 

Hello jimhubbard,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please try creating a batch file (.bat) to use as pre/post command instead of specifying the command directly.

As pointed by shieber, you can also use Acronis Backup Locations for automatic management of backup archives. Please see chapters 3.5 "Acronis backup locations" and 8 "Backup location management" of Acronis True Image 11 Home User's Guide for detailed instructions.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Sorry for the lag time in responding.....

Setting a backup location was easy enough. IMHO, this option (and the option to setup a secure zone) should be integrated into the backup process. When you are setting up a backup task or process, the screen that asks you where to place the backup(s) should also have the option of creating the secure zone or backup location along with a small statement of what each is....

That would make the whole process a lot more intuitive.

Thanks for your help!