TI 11 Home - All Diff files needed?

Hi,

I use TI 11 Home to back up. I set my backup task to perform archive splitting to DVD size, and to do differential backups. On the first run, I get about 20 GB, split as 5 files MyBackup[1,2,3,4,5].tib. On each following night I get one differential backup of a succeed number, such as: MyBackup[6,7,8,9,10,etc.].tib. According to the manuals, only the complete backup and that last differential are needed for a restore. Can I safely delete the intermediate files MyBackup[6,7,8,9].tib, only leaving the last one?

Or, does this mess up the way Acronis counts the files?

Thanks,

Scott

 

Hello Sidearm,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup software

You can safely delete all differential archives leaving only last one for restoration (of course you should keep full archive).

Thank you.

--
Michael Levchenko

 

Hello Scott,

As Acronis Support said, you can successfully restore an image using just the original full image and the last differential. However, I'm not aware if Acronis fixed it in subsequent versions of TI (i.e. TI 10 or TI 11) but with TI 9.0 you require all the intermediate differentials in order to successfully VERIFY the image.

Rergards

Menorcaman

 

Menorcaman,

Thank you for the tip. Tonight I will try to validate a backup using only the full backup and the last differential one.

I will post the results.

Scott

 

Menorcaman,

You are correct that all differential files must be on-line to validate an archive (and this is documented in the manual).

But wait; it is worse than that. I moved all the intermediate differential files to DVD and then to off-site storage, leaving only the 5 files that are the full backup (MyBackup[1,2,3,4,5].tib)and the last differential (MyBackup12.tib) on line.

When the next 3 nightly backups ran, they created a MyBackup[6,7,8].tib in succession.

Now I have multiple backup files with the exact same name, that only differ by creation date. This makes a nightmare out of archiving and off-site storage:

Why does it re-start the numbering sequence?

Anyone at Acronis care to comment?

Scott

 

Hello all,

We'd like to inform you that if a backup contains multiple volumes and the new volume is created, Acronis True Image chooses the first available number in the backup chain starting from 2 and adds it as the last symbol of the backup name. The program doesn't check if the other backup filenames contain higher numbers, therefore these backups are not taken into the scene during the filename assignement.

If you have any further questions concerning our software, please submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will do our best to help you as soon as possible.

Thank you

--
Eugene Bogdanov

 

Eugene,

Thank you. That makes it clear.

Given the lack of AES encryption, the inability to manage the disk space usage and simutaneously split files to be burned to DVD, and now the inability to delete any files from my local backup disk without messing up the seguence number progression, I have one question:

When will TI 11 to be finished?

I'm finding this product nearly useless for making a secure backup where I can move the backups to DVD and store them off-site while still being able to manage my local disk usage and keep track of file names, due to the following:

1. AES security is not there
2. Archive splitting can not be used on a backup location
3. Deleteing any files from the local disk causes file renumbering, making locating a off-site file difficult (lots of things can change a file's date and time stamp) so names have to be trusted.

Do you have any suggestions on how to use TI 11 to acheive my goals. These are standard goals of any backup utility.

Scott

 

Did I miss something. I wasn't aware that Acronis had offered symmetric encryption as a feature of TI11?

F.

 

That's what the website used to say it did on this page

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/comparison.html

They said they were going to correct the page but as of 10/30/7 it still says there is "password-based encryption (AES)" in ATI 11 Home and 9.1 Workstation.

I believe even the password is not encrypted to AES standards and the backups are not encrypted at all.

 

Thanks for the link.

Looks like I had missed this feature. Just as well

On a pedantic point, whilst the data would be suitable for AES (symmetric) encryption, passwords are normally encrypted by hashing algorithms - so I would not infer that the stated feature is suggesting encryption of the passwords. The fact that the passwords are not recoverable since V9 at the very least would imply that they are hashed anyway.

F.

 

Yes. Precisely. So it appears that nothing is AES encrypted, which I believe Tech has confirmed, which is why they are supposedly planning to update the web page that suggests that something is being AES encrypted.

 

Well you would know about it since you would need to dream up and supply a symmetric key (or password) in order to carry out AES encryption.

F.

 

Does anyone at Acronis have any suggestions on how to achieve what I have stated above?

Fragmenting and encrypting the files offline is no good, as I then need a second PC to decrypt and defragment them before I can do a restore if my primary PC is crashed.

How is archive splitting supposed to be used for DVDs? If I just turn it on, then I have to let my differential files grow forever or they get renumbered.

The files can't use a date stamp filename format without using a backup location, which can not be used archive splitting.

I'm frustrated with this program.

Can anyone offer a suggestion?

Scott

 

lHi Scott,

As you are finding the limitations of using DVDs for archives are considerable. I discarded the idea long ago and went for a set of portable hard drives.
Their only disadvantages over DVDs are the initial cost, size and weight. Otherwise they are streets ahead in terms of speed,flexibility and reliability.
There need be no more problems of archive splitting so "backup locations" can be used effectively. I sized my Image drive so there is room for sufficient full backups to meet my requirements, it follows that incremental or differential complications no longer feature.
I started off with external USB drives but soon changed to an internal rack that takes drives in removable drawers. Working thus from internal to internal drives is so much faster and more reliable than any other method available with the added advantage that the whole of the imageing process can be automated.
The icing on the cake is having a pair of restored hard drives external to the computer but ready to go at a moments notice as well a range historical backup images to choose from.

Xpilot