HOW DO I BACK UP ONLY MY ACRONIS SETTINGS?

Peg, you could try using the option at the bottom of the main Settings page in the ATI GUI which allows you to export your backup task configuration to a zip file that can be imported back again later if needed.

The method I use when doing a planned restore is to create a stand-alone backup using the Acronis Rescue Media to use for the restore but this won't be an option if you are restoring because of a disk or OS failure!  It works fine when migrating to a new disk drive!

The actual files & folders would be those contained in the C:\ProgramData\Acronis folder structure but there will be other data that is held in the Windows Registry too and perhaps other places!

Peg, what settings are you wanting to restore? Depending on that, you may be able to simply create a regular backup of the data folder Steve mentions, C:\ProgramData\Acronis, and additionally an export of the Acronis registry keys to a .reg file.

To restore anything, you'd want to be safe and completely shut down any Acronis tasks and services. I doubt you'd need to do a wholesale restore of all the data though.

Thanks, guys, for your informative answers. I never knew that feature existed!

Question: When it comes time to "restore" it (Import Settings from File), should I unzip the file first, or will it get the folders from the zip?

What I've been previusly backing up is:

Program Files\Acronis
ProgramData\Acronis
ProgramData\Acronis Mobile Backup Data (not sure what this is!)
Users\Peg\Appdata Roaming\Acronis

But restoring the above has NEVER brought back my TrueImage Settings. I want all my scheduled backups to be just as they were. So can I assume that the "Save Settings to File" zip is going to restore more than just the above folders?

And, Bruno, I have no idea how to do an "export of the Acronis registry keys to a .reg file". When I went into the Registry, there were quite a few items associated with Acronis -- and bunches related to TrueImage. Would I just want to save the ones under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT? All I really want to do is save my backup schedules. Is any of that info actually saved in the Registry?

Peg,

Get the ATI 2021 User Guide. Section 12.11 on page 180 describes how to backup and restore your setting from within the application.

What happens after a restoration may depend on what has run in the backup tasks since the backup you are restoring was taken. What specific True Image settings are of concern? Are they new backup tasks? changed backup tasks? Are you looking for updated activity? You may need to try it out and see what comes up. How often are you updating backup schedules after running a system drive backup?

The imported settings will not show updated Activity. It may be necessary to Add Existing Backup to resynchronize ATI with the current state of backups. Without knowing more about what you may want to restore, I dare not get into too much detail about overwriting folders.

Don't worry about the registry for now. If you're not backup up mobile phones, don't worry about the Mobile Backup Data folder. Basically, the scripts are in ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts. The database with the backup activity is in ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database. The scripts may be the only thing you need, and that's handled by the program as described in the user guide.

Bruno, thank you SO MUCH for that ATI 2021 USER GUIDE!! I think it's going to help me a lot in mastering ATI!

Again, ALL I'm trying to do is restore all my current (before the restore) backup tasks (Schedule, Scheme, etc.). All my backup locations are on a separate Drives, so the locations aren't affected when I do a System Restore. As you can see in my above list of the four folders I'm backing up, it includes ProgramData\Acronis, which would include everything you just mentioned. It doesn't seem to work. Restoring the ATI folders AFTER doing the System Restore doesn't seem to maintain my latest backups. :(

I don't know why it's this difficult. I would think a lot of people would have this problem when doing a restore. But then again, I'm hoping that doing the Acronis Backup Settings Transfer WILL do what I want. I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet.

Sorry for being such a pest!

-Peg

Not to worry... you are not being a pest, Peg.

I am assuming, from what you have said, that you are doing a Disk backup of your system drive on a periodic basis, and more often doing a File backup of the Acronis folders. Is that correct? I think all the settings you'd be concerned with are in ProgramData\Acronis, so the other three folders should be of no concern.

Trying to do a File restore of the Acronis folders from within Acronis on a running Windows system is probably not such a good idea.

How often are you actually changing settings on your backup tasks? Is this really more often than backing up the system drive? I almost never change the settings.

It's not so much changing the settings on my backup tasks, Bruno, (although I do occasionally change them). It's that most of my settings overwrite the previous backup. So when I do a System Restore, ATI immediately thinks it hasn't done a backup in a while and immediately lights up like a Christmas tree trying to overwrite every backup I have, starting a backup and queuing the rest! I need some of those backups, and don't want them all randomly overwritten because ATI doesn't know what day it is.

I try to jump immediately and tell them all to stop, but I have about 10-12 backups that I run regularly, some daily and some once a month. It's a pain in the you-know-what to scramble to stop them all. Then I'll have to restart them all when it's time for my regular backups.

Does that make sense?

Peg

Peg, yes it does make sense.

I am assuming, by the way, that when you say System Restore you are not referring to a Windows System Restore, but rather a complete recovery of a C: drive Disk/Partition backup. I will use the term recover instead of restore.

First, there is a good discussion of this issue on this prior thread...
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/backups-confused-after-system-restore-possible-solution

Information about backups is stored in three locations (at least):
1. The backups themselves (.tibx or .tib files)
2. The script files located in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts
3. The activity databases stored in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database. It is actually possible to completely delete this folder in which case True Image will recreate it. The result will be that the Activity tab for your backup tasks will be empty. But the backups can continue. I am not suggesting you delete it... there is a proper way process for that.

When you recover the system, the backup files themselves are not changed but the other locations are reverted back to where they were when you did the backup. From your description, I am guessing that as soon as the system boots up after the recovery it is immediately trying to run every backup.

So what to do? First, for each backup task there is an option located on the Schedule tab under Advanced settings, Run missed operations at the system startup with delay (in minutes). This option is checked by default and since the Advanced settings are are not expanded by default it is easy to miss. I suggest unchecking the option for all your backup tasks. Hopefully that will stop the "Christmas tree" effect.

You don't mention where your backups are located. Are they on internal or external drives? If at all possible, be sure these drives are offline when you run the recovery.

The safest option would be to heed the advice in the above referenced thread. Run system drive backups more often.

Now for some conjecture... it may be possible to recover the updated information after the system recovery. Assuming nothing major but simply normal backups have been run, perhaps just recovering C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome would be sufficient. To do that safely, I would think you should stop all Acronis True Image services first. Now if everything is stopped you may not be able to run the recovery, so perhaps recover the folder to another location after which you could stop the services and then copy it over.

Let me also suggest you get the MVP Assistant (link below in my signature). From the Settings page True Image Configuration tab you can download the Acronis Scheduler Manager. Once that is available, look at the True Image Configuration page and you will be able to see all your backup tasks, their scripts and the Scheduler Manager information. On a system recovery, you could see how things may change if you dare to try my conjectured option. It is untested by me.

Hopefully some of this will help.