True Image Home 2009 - Scheduler Problems

I have set up True Image to run three different full backups on successive nights by scheduling a daily run every three days, each to a different file name. That way I continuously cycle through always having 3 complete backups. Because Acronis doesn't let me specify a start date, I set it up by advancing the computer date by one day for each setup making sure to return the date to its proper value afterward.

I schedule each backup to start at 11:00PM when the machine is idle.

There are two problems that I have encountered doing this:

1. If the computer is idle at the scheduled time, the scheduled event is queued and doesn’t execute unless I manually bring the computer out of idle and let it go back into idle. If the computer is active at the scheduled time, the event will be queued and then execute when it next goes into idle. In essence this problem makes the use of the idle setup in the scheduler useless for me.
   
2. If the computer is active and doesn’t go into idle until after midnight, then the event executes properly when the computer goes idle, but the next night it gets queued to run again so that two backups are queued the next night at the scheduled time; the one that ran the previous evening (actually run the morning of the same day) and the one scheduled to run that evening at 11:00PM.

Is there something I have missed in setting this up? If not, is Acronis aware of these problems and do they plan on fixing them?

If I can not do what I have set up then the way I can get around it is to remove the idle from the schedule. That would mean that if I am active at the time the backup begins my computer slows down to a crawl as I try to do anything else. In addition, I have the backup execute a pre batch program to shut down all of my programs and stop my network before starting. I would have to give this ability up or face the possibility that I will lose whatever data I am working on at the time the backup starts and this is something I would prefer not to do.

Windows XP SP3
ATI Home 2009 v 9709
Not using Secure Zone.

 

Hello MichaelY,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

What do you mean by "idle"? Do you mean Sleep mode? If this is correct, you can overview several threads on this forum related to this issue. Use Search to find the appropriate information. If this is not correct, please explain in some words.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee

 

If you're having trouble gettng the ATI scheduler to work, you canuse the Windows scheduler to run the Trueimageservice.exe file with the .tis task file as a parameter. The wondows scheduler gives you much more control over how and when tasks run than the ATI scheduler -- it's a bit of a pain to set up but onc eyou've done it you can forget about it.

You can search the forum on how to do this but basically, you find where Trueimage service.exe is located an where you .tis files are located and then the windows scheduler command is
"[path]trueimageservice.exe" /script: "[path][task filemane].tis"

so it will look something like this

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageHomeService.exe" /script: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts\89398388-922E-4188-8B0F-8CD12DC4F841.tib.tis"

 

I am using "Idle" as Acronis uses it in its scheduler and as Microsoft uses it in the Microsoft scheduler. That is, there has been no activity by the user from the keyboard or the mouse for a specified period of time. There is no specific definition that I have been able to find except that when I schedule the monitor to show the screen saver, after say 10 minutes of no input activity, when the screen saver starts the machine is in idle and I can wake it by moving the mouse or keying anything from the keyboard.

 

When Acronis uses the term "idle" it simply means that Acronis is not active in any backup mode. It does not refer to the computer. So, schedule the acronis backup at anytime you wish.