ATI Home 2012 and me

[Welshjim]

"He only has one partition on the drive for OS and Data. That's why the backups are so huge"
Yes, but buf says his backup, all of a sudden, is 200GB, whereas it used to be about 100GB.
That is why I asked "How big are the partitions you are backing up?"
Maybe buf is now setting ATI to also create a System Image in addition to just backing up data.

[fink]

Buf..

Without me going back through this whole thread to re-re-read it all can you describe which partition your operating system is currently on (presumably C:\ ) and to which partition you are putting the backups on?

If you're putting the backups on C: as well then you're backing up the big backup files along with everything else which would explain why it doubled in size (and the next image would double again). Also putting the image backup file on C: would mean it's not useable as a full image backup since that would have to be on a separate drive/partition to be used in that way.

When you use a backup image to restore a drive that drive is first deleted then the image is used to replace all the data that was there but if that image is on the drive that needs to be deleted first then that image will also be deleted and won't exist for the next step. Hope that's clear.

[Train]

Where did you save that backup?

Seems this just the opposite of what Ghost did to you years ago when it made a backup partition and we spent about a week getting that straightened out.

[fink]

It might save a bit of time if you do a system wide file search for TrueImage's backup .tib files ( use *.tib as the search string) and let us know where it/they are found.

[buf]

I presently have just one partition and that is the C: drive. And I have a snagit copy of the *.tib search of the C: drive on my desktop but I can't remember how I can post it to be seen. I do not recall ever saving a backup to the C: drive because I have read of the consequences.

[fink]

Easiest way would be to go to the advanced post window and attach the picture to your next post (click manage attachments and upload the pic)

[buf]

Thanks fink and now I'll try my skill(luck).

[Welshjim]

buf--With all respect, I have lost track of your question in this thread.
Your screenshot shows five apparently successful backups--all located on the C:\ drive.
I suspect only the last one (9/25/2012) on Desktop was made using TI2012. And maybe the earlier backups are from PC's other than your present one.
I remember that in earlier years TI backups made with one version of TI could not be opened using subsequent versions of TI.

[jdc2000]

If you are imaging or backing up the entire C: drive, then those backup files on the C: drive are getting backed up or included in each new image or backup also, so it each new backup is larger in size. TI has an option to exclude certain files or file types from the image, so you could set it to exclude .tib files. However, an image or backup of the C: drive isn't much use if you store it on the C: drive. When the C: drive fails, your backup is also gone. Backups of the C: drive should be stored on a different drive and/or on DVDs, with one copy off-site (in case your house burns down or the computer is stolen).

[fink]

Like jdc2000 says, and I mentioned earlier you're putting the backups on the main C drive which renders them pretty much totally useless as a drive image backup. There's about 150 Gigs of backups there which is why you've got so much space being increasingly taken up (as you backup the backups of the backups etc).

If this were my computer I'd make a new backup now on either a set of DVD's or ideally on an external drive before I created a new partition on the main drive just in case the partition creation runs into problems and you lose everything. Not extremely likely but doing things like creating a new partition has a slightly higher risk of catastrophic failure than the average computer maintenance task.

And importantly the backup should exclude all the .tib files as suggested so it will be a more useful and much much smaller file to deal with.

It would be better and possibly quicker to create a partition without all those backups on the drive because there would be more available empty space to deal with. Depending on how large the hard drive is you might want to consider deleting some of those backups.. maybe the oldest ones. Then you can move the newer ones or better yet just the last one, to the new partition once it's completed.

Keeping in mind that if you ever need to use the most recent images it/they contain all the older images as well which also makes them much larger than necessary and if you had to use one you'd be putting all the old images back on the C drive. This whole thing is really unwieldy and should be sorted out to simplify your drives and backups.

Again, if it were my computer once I had a new partition and moved the latest backup onto it as a sort of fail-safe I'd make a second brand new backup directly onto the new partition, verify that it's ok and then unless there's something on the old backup you want to keep that's not on the newest backup I'd delete it once I confirmed everything was running ok for a couple of weeks.

[buf]

After having used Acronis for several years, I am just about at the end of my using it. I have read so much about the 2010 Home, Build 7061 and yet feel at an impasse. What I formerly understood quiet well (or so I thought) and have had to use my backups to restore my computer several times over the years now seems so distant. Confusion has set in and now limits my ability to work with Acronis. I once read Nick's (SS) remarks about the free MS Windows 7 app. and I may just try that unless others of you have had negative results with it.
I really do appreciate your several inputs. I realize I do still need to rid my installed hard drive of those stored backups to get back my volume.
Hope all of you have enjoyed your Thanksgiving day.

[fink]

The built in Win 7 backup utility seems to work just fine. It's a bit limiting in that in only creates one backup at a time and then overwrites it automatically next time so keeping more than one backup, as I always do, requires moving the first backup to a new folder so that it doesn't get deleted. Also, it doesn't compress the files which isn't a huge deal unless you have limited space to store it/them.

You'll still need to create it/them on another partition or drive to be able to use them as a proper disk image replacement though and you should create a Windows 7 system repair disk to be able to use the disk image in case of catastrophic failure.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...sc-create.html

[buf]

Like a guardian angel, fink is always there. Thanks again for another post fink and for the info. Now with the ISO of Windows 7, I can install and use Windows 7 and create the Repair you speak of, I guess.(Could do that now--right?) The ISO is like an install CD of win 7; right? The only reason I ever created full backups was because I needed to always have the OS installed because I had no Win 7 disk.
It appears from a quick read of your reply that I will need to do pretty much of what was originally asked of me to prepare my machine. It seems that the more I read/study Acronis then thicker it becomes. Maybe I will just have windows run a backup just in case I have to fall back on it and hope Acronis will sink in after a few days bread from it.

[fink]

The basic premise and function of Acronis TI and Windows backup is the same. The important part is to create the backup on a drive that isn't the same drive you are backing up.

I just did a reinstall of my OS on my older laptop earlier today and reinstalled TI 2010. The first time I ran it it defaulted the backup location to my C drive which is not where I wanted it at all. I had to manually aim it to my external drive as the backup location. I suspect that's where the problems started with your backups.

Win 7 image backups will warn you if you try to backup to the same partition that the OS is on (or at least it should) so in that respect it's smarter than TI.

[buf]

I very strongly agree with you fink. I have known for a long long time that the warning about saving your backup to the same C: is a no no and believe I have always followed that advice but then I have to wonder how I succeeded in saving 5 backups to C:. Other than not having those backups on my C: perhaps I should just delete them, reclaim my volume on the C: and run the risk of not needing either of them before I can make an acceptable backup. On the other hand, perhaps I can delete the oldest 4 backups, make a good backup and then delete the newest backup(97GB). Wish I knew what those backups contain and it would be interesting to know.