Total Failure Occured. Do I Restore Image or Inc. Backups or Both?

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by TomBrooklyn, Aug 14, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    My C drive became corrupted. I am in the process of restoring but I'm not sure what to restore.

    I have an image taken July 23 and 9 incremental backups.

    I figured I'd restore the image first. I'm doing that now with verify. It's going to take 1:15 just to verify.

    After that I figured I restore Incremental Backups 1 through 9 in that order.

    Is that right or should I restore from 9 to 1 order? Or something else?
     
  2. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2005
    Posts:
    2,318
    You could have selected the latest incremental and that would have restored your computer to that date. Let the current restore complete and check all is well. Then run another restore with increment 9 selected.
    A validation started at No.9 will include all the increments and the base image. This will take longer than the first one you ran. The same applies to the restore. Send out for some sandwiches [​IMG].

    Incrementals can save space and some time at the front end but the reverse usually applies at the back end.

    Xpilot
     
  3. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Hi XPilot,
    I was looking in the pdf manual and found nothing about that, but I googled "Incremental Backups" and it advised the general way to restore them was that they had to all be restored one at a time. I forget if it was from first one to last, or most recent to oldest. Are you sure that you just restoring the last incremental would do the same thing? Is it because the program is smart and it knows to restore them all including the base image?

    I actually ask that for future reference, because that is the way I plan to do backups, but it turns out that is not the kind of backups I have. Upon closer examination I realized I have a

    True Image Full Image.tib

    and

    Full Backup True Acronis 1 through 14.

    (for some reason it's listed with the Full Backup True Acronis on top, then 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 9 is at the bottom of the list and that's why I thought at first it was the highest number.)

    Next I thought these 14 might represent the 15 days I had the 15 day Trial offer when these were made (with 14 instead of 15 because one could have been cut off by the exact timing.) The Full Image is dated July 23. The 14th backup is dated Aug 5 and that is 14 days later than July 23.

    But then I noticed all 14 Full Backups are dated Aug 5, 2007 at 8:39:46 AM and they are all described as Volume x of multivolume file archive Full Backup True Acronis.

    This made me think they were all part of one big backup.

    Then I noticed it is also labled "My Documents Incremental." I think I selected incremental when I set it up.

    Bottom Line: I'm not sure what I got or the right way to proceed at this point. I couldn't find it in the pdf manual, although I'm going to go back and read it again.

    I'm going to repost this to help make sure someone sees it. I had a full system corruption and I got to get my data restored.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2007
  4. taob

    taob Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2007
    Posts:
    13
    See page 12 of the manual, section 3.2. "Incremental" backups record only the changes since the last incremental or full backup. "Differential" backups record all the changes since the last full backup. Thus, to recover the most up-to-date version of your disk, you need to start with the most recent full backup, then restore (in chronological order) each incremental backup.

    If you were doing differential backups, then you would only need the most recent full backup, plus the most recent differential backup.

    From oldest to newest (chronological order).

    It sounds like it is smart enough to look for all incremental backups older than the one you selected, so under the covers it is taking care of all that for you.

    That's because the list is being sorted lexically rather than numerically. All the numbers started with "1" come first, then the ones starting with "2", etc.

    How big are each of those files? Did you have archive splitting enabled?
     
  5. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Yes. I understand that. That is why I was seeking verification of what XPilot said above which was just restore the last incrimimental.
    Perhaps. That is what I am seeking verification of.
    The files were all exactly the same size. I don't have it in front of me now, but they were something like 34.5x GB each.

    I don't know if I had archive splitting enabled. All I can say is not that I know of.
     
  6. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 14, 2005
    Posts:
    2,318
    I cannot give you any further confimation. All I can say is that TI will recognise the whole of an achive if the latest increment is selected.
    Prove it for yourself by starting the process and run a validation. The time it takes should be enough to convince you.

    Xpilot
     
  7. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Hi XPilot,
    OK. That's all I was looking for. I just wanted to make sure you meant what you wrote above because the general info I read about incremental backups indicate they have to be restored individually and it wasn't clear to me from my understanding of the TI manual so far to do that. I guess Acronis is "smart" and knows to install all prior incrementals.

    Then there is the way I see them labled in the recovery window that has now made it unclear to me whether they are indeed even incremental backups as I think I set acronis up to make, or some kind of single backup spanning multiple volumes of some sort.
     
  8. SloPoke

    SloPoke Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2007
    Posts:
    34
    You can restore to the point in time of any incremental backup by restoring from the selected incremental backup file, provided all previous incrementals and the base full backup are available. You absolutely do not need to restore the base full backup and each incremental in sequence up to that point.
     
  9. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Wait: I have "Full Image" and "Full Backup" & FB Incs. Now What Do I Do

    I had some trouble and I think I may see the problem. I'm going to try to restore again from scratch onto a different hard drive which I prefer to use anyway as it is a SATA drive rather than an IDE.

    I have a "True Image Full Image" and a "Full Backup True Acronis" plus "Full Backup True Acronis x" where x = 1 through 14 (I incorrectly thought it was 1-9 at first. (I also have a 15 now but I think that occured after I had a restore of Full Image and ATI ran a scheduled backup.)

    1. I have gotten the Full Image restored but I can't seem to get the Full Backup and Increments restored. I think I'm missing something but I'm not sure.

    2. I also see "Email Full Backup." What am I supposed to do with that?

    3. I also see some folders from "My Documents" like "My Music" and "My Pictures", and some other misc folders that were on my original C drive that I wouldn't even normally back up. I'm not even sure how they got there. There are also subfolders under C: for "Start Menu" and "System Volume Information." I don't know how they got there or if those have to be restored somehow. Those are all folders. I cannot see down to the file level and can't tell what, if anything, is in there. I see all this by booting from an ATI boot disk.

    4. All the above is listed on my backup hard drive which is coming up labled in ATI as C:. Whenever I try to boot the computer from a hard drive thats working, if this drive is installed, it interferes with the boot. It seems to want to be the C drive. This started immediately after my original C drive which was IDE became corrupted. This backup drive is a SATA drive.
     
  10. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Hi XPilot and All:

    In case my above post is too confusing, allow me to rephrase in a concise simple question...

    I have a "Full Image" and a "Full Backup" with "Full Backup Increments."

    Now, what is my sequence to restore?
     
  11. TomBrooklyn

    TomBrooklyn Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2004
    Posts:
    76
    Update:

    1. I tried to restore "Full Backup Increment 14". (14 is my latest increment, not 9) The program choked and immediately went into reboot.

    2. I tried to restore "Full Image." This worked. I put image on 160G SATA drive but it made drive only 80G which is the size of the orig drive I imaged.

    3. Next I will try to install ATI on the computer so I don't have to work off the boot disk, then

    4. I will try to install the "Full Backup and Full Back Up Incrementals" by selecting the latest incremental, which I'm guessing (?) is next? Does that sound right?
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2007
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.