Acronis Configuration Question

[Vicenarian]

Background Information:
Computer with ~250GB of data, 1TB external drive for backups. Acronis True Image 2013

Configuration:

Incremental backup
Create a full version after every 6 versions
Store no more than 4 recent version chains
Backup is schedule to run once daily

Does anybody see any problems with this configuration? My main concern is that I will run out of backup space eventually, but I'm hoping that the 4 recent version chain setting should help with that. Also I'm running a backup validation weekly, is that wise?

 

[glricht]

Background Information:
Computer with ~250GB of data, 1TB external drive for backups. Acronis True Image 2013

Configuration:

Incremental backup
Create a full version after every 6 versions
Store no more than 4 recent version chains
Backup is schedule to run once daily

Does anybody see any problems with this configuration? My main concern is that I will run out of backup space eventually, but I'm hoping that the 4 recent version chain setting should help with that. Also I'm running a backup validation weekly, is that wise?

I've been using ATI for many years, including 2013. I don't think a 1TB ext HD is going to be large enough for what you want to do.

Using my backup sizes as a guide, my guess is that each full backup will use 220GB (normal compression of 250GB), plus approx 1-2GB for each incremental backup. Each version chain (1 full, 6 incremental) will be approx 230GB.

Therefore, you'll need approx 920GB of backup storage to store 4 version chains. Pretty tight for a 1TB ext drive.

Give it a try and see how it goes, but I suspect you'll want a 1.5TB or 2TB ext drive.

 

[Vicenarian]

Thanks for your reply glricht. I might just have to lower the number of retained version chains to 3 for the time being.

Another (related) question, as I'm considering just doing full images every day (this is for a desktop system with a USB 3.0 external backup drive). Approximately how long do you think it would take to do a full image backup to the external drive? I'm guessing maybe 3 hours?

My other main concern with doing full image backups each day/night is that it might (prematurely) wear out the computers drive, and/or the backup drive...but I don't really know if it makes much of a difference.

 

[glricht]

I suspect wear & tear on the drives based on backup-types will be negligible.

I use ATI all the time to image customer PCs to an ext USB HD. For a 60-80GB HD, I plan on approx 2-4 hours depending on the speed of the customer's HD. But this is with USB 2.0 as I don't have USB 3.0.

Prove me wrong (please!), but I think a full backup of 250GB is going to take more than 3 hours.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

I would recommend using 2 1TB drives and alternating so that if one fails you have a backup.

 

[altrenda]

I would recommend using 2 1TB drives and alternating so that if one fails you have a backup.

Is that better than having 1 drive back up the other?