A little confused with Acronis True Image 11 Home

[djminus1]

Hey, I was wondering if someone can help me.

I just purchased Acronis True Image Home 11 to do various backups on my DAW (digital audio workstation). I have a dedicated 500GB internal SATA drive used for all of my project files, sounds, music, documents, pictures, etc. All of my applications are on my system drive which is a 250GB internal SATA. The reason I did this was to make reformats of Windows easier since all of my data is on a seperate disk and all I would have to do is reload the applications to the system drive.

So this is what I want to do for now in terms of backups. I have a thrid drive connected via USB (500GB Maxtor) which will be my backup drive. I want to back up my internal 500GB drive to the external USB 500GB. I think I want to do a weekly full backup plus a nightly incremental. I have some questions on how this works. I am finding the Acronis documentation a little difficult to understand for a noob.

When I do my weekly full backup, with that backup file replace the old full backup, or will it create a new one? The same question goes for the incrementals. When I do a new full backup, with the following incrementals replace the old incrementals from the previous full backup? I think I just need an overview on how to set up this backup architecture from step one.

Also, when I did my initial full backup, the Acronis screen still said there had been no backups created.

Thanks in advance.

[glc]

Use image-based backup, not file-based backup. Create a full image, then set it for incrementals or differentials - I prefer differentials for easier emergency restores. Neither process will replace existing backups so you have to periodically go in and delete old ones.

[djminus1]

I also noticed that you can set up Backup locations and put storage thresholds on the locations.

So....

I am thinking that I set up that entire USB Drive as a backup location. Then set the storage threshold to its maximum usable capacity. I think once it hits the maximum capacity, it starts deleting the oldest backups...correct? Would this be a good way to do it?

Do I need (or should) be doing fulls once a week once I set up incrementals/differentials?

[glc]

I'm not familiar with storage thresholds - my Acronis experience is limited to version 9 and earlier.

Here is what I'd recommend - do a full, then use daily differentials. Keep an eye on the remaining space on the external drive, when it gets close to full, wipe it and start a new cycle.

This way, if you have a total crash, you can restore to present by booting with the CD and doing only 2 restores - the latest full and the latest differential. As with any other Acronis image, if you need to restore specific files, you can mount and explore any image, be it full, incremental, or differential.

[djminus1]

Thanks alot.

I think I am finding out that the "Backup Locations" feature I mentioned is a really great feature and was probably implemented in v10 or v11.

When you create a "Backup Location", you essentially create a backup folder that Acronis controls and automatically manages. You can set different kinds of thresholds that will help you to eliminate old backups easily. I created one of these "Backup Locations" on my external drive. Here were the thresholds I used...

Size Threshold: 250GB
Max No. of Backups: 100
Backups no older than: 180 Days

If Acronis tries to make a backup and one or more of these thresholds will be hit, Acronis will either consolidate or delete the oldest backups. You can also increase the thresholds or decrease as needed. My full backups are about 50GB right now so 250 is good for the threshold but as it grows, I will increase.

I am also using a setting in the task manager that I believe is new. It allows you to create 1 task that does differential backups and automatically creates a full backup once you hit a set number of differentials. I have it set to create a new full once I do 6 differentials. Therefore I would meet my once-a-week full backup target.

Just thought I would share.

[glc]

Excellent!

[djminus1]

One more question...

I set up the differential to kick off at 3:00 a.m. in the task manager. It never started last night. Acronis has almost 0 support and their website was no help.

I am wondering if it is a password issue with users on my PC. We don't have passwords, so I left that field blank in the task creation wizard. My user id is automatically set to KEVINWINXP\Kevin.

KEVINWINXP=Computer Name
Kevin=Username with admin privleges

What could be causing me to miss the backups? If I start the task manually, it runs great.

[glc]

Scheduling tasks requires a password. I'd create a new account with a password and give it admin privileges, or add a password to your account.