Full back up scheme

Tutorial
Steven Hensley
Beginner
Posts: 1
Comments: 0

I have been using Acronis True Image to back up my C: drive for several years now. I had the occasion to successfully restore my C: drive just a few weeks ago. However, something changed in my backup scheme and now I am getting a "disk full" error message. I have an existing backup designated as "DESKTOP_1POST 1_FULL_b133_s1_v1.TIB" which only takes up 140.5 GB and leaves 145 GB free. So I should be able to add another 140 GB backup to the same external drive. Nevertheless, about halfway through the backup, I get the "disk full" message. I can't remember how I set up the original backup scheme so that I could get two backups on the same 279 GB external drive. Can someone help me figure out how to restore my backup scheme to accomplish this?

Mon, 03/06/2023 - 01:00
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Steve Smith
Legend
Posts: 110
Comments: 29184
mvp

Steven, welcome to these public User Forums.

Please see the following explanation of how automatic cleanup works for Acronis.

Automatic cleanup

There can be lots of confusion around the topic of automatic cleanup which can be better understood if some basic concepts are known!

First:  automatic cleanup only works on complete(d) versions / version chains.  Do not expect individual elements of version chains to be cleaned up, such as incremental or differential files!

Second: automatic cleanup only runs after a new Full backup for the next version / version chain has been created successfully.  This means that there must be sufficient free space available on the storage drive / location to hold a new Full backup image file!

Third: counting of days does not start until after a new Full backup file has been created when using the option to ‘Delete versions / version chains older than X days.’  It does not start for the active backup version / version chain before that point!

Fourth: the simplest & easiest automatic cleanup option to use & understand is to ‘Store no more than X recent versions / version chains.’  The criteria here means that if you set X = 2, then when the X+1 (3rd) version / version chain is created successfully with a new Full backup file, then the oldest version / version chain will be deleted by automatic cleanup.

Example:

Incremental backup task, using Full plus 5 Incremental backups before next new Full backup.

Task scheduled to run daily with automatic cleanup set to ‘Store no more than 2 version chains.’

Day 1 – Full backup created.

Days 2 – 6 Incremental backups created.

Day 7 – Next new Full backup created. 

Days 8 – 12 Incremental backups created.

Day 13 – Next new Full backup created.  Automatic cleanup deletes files created on days 1 – 6.

If the same task used ‘Delete version chains older than 7 days’, then those 7 days wouldn’t start counting until day 7 for the first set of files (version chain 1) and not until day 13 for the second set etc.  So automatic cleanup wouldn’t delete the oldest chain until day 14 in the above example.

Mon, 03/06/2023 - 11:24

Acronis Links  :  Acronis Scheduler Manager  :  Acronis VSS Doctor  :  Backup Archive Compatibility  :  Cleanup Tool (All versions) : Cloning Disks  :  Contact Acronis Support  :  Difference between Backup and Disk Clone : Repair program / settings

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