By Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
Copyrighted June 2008
By following our recommendations in the Perfect Backup Approach tutorial (www.ugr7.com), your hard drive is protected from a total hard drive crash to just a file or two becoming corrupted. However, the weakest link in this backup system is remembering to do your backups on a regular basis. The recently released Acronis True Image 11 Home edition has solved this problem with new features to let you quickly set your system to do automatic backups on a regular basis. Earlier releases of True Image could do some scheduling of backups, but a lot of function was missing that would permit you to do the complete job. Now, you can just set your backup system and forget it. Your backups will occur automatically without your worrying about them. This article will guide you through the steps of setting up automatic backups with True Image 11, so that you can do it on your system. We will show as our example the backup approach from the Perfect Backup Approach tutorial. This will help you get your system setup to do automatic backups that follow that approach. The Perfect Backup Approach recommends that you backup your main hard drives to an external hard drive attached to your computer. To keep your backup images organized, we recommend that you set up separate backup folders on your external hard drive for each partition and each hard drive on your computers that you are backing up. The Approach also recommends that you create a monthly full backup image of your entire main hard drive and then weekly incremental backup images of your entire main hard drive. So, that is what we will show you how to do automatically using True Image 11.
Setting up automatic backups is a simple two-step operation. The first step is to specify a backup location where you will store your backup images. The second step is to schedule a backup task to save the backups automatically into your backup location.
Creating Backup Locations: Acronis True Image 11 Home edition now has function to define an intelligent backup location on your external hard drive that will manage the backup space you have provided. You need to create this special Backup Location before you start to schedule automatic backups to that location. You will define a backup location for each folder you created on your external hard drive to hold your backup images. So, this is the first step in the two-step process of creating automatic backups of your computer system.
To create a backup location in True Image, bring up the main True Image screen and click on the “Management Tools" option near the bottom of the main True Image screen. On the next screen you see, click on “Manage Backup Locations and Archives” to bring up the main Backup Locations screen. Then click on the Create Backup Location option under Backup Locations on the left side of this screen. This will start the Create Backup Location wizard.
Here are the steps to follow with the Create Backup Location wizard:
Create Scheduled Task: The second step in the process of setting up automatic backups on your computer is to create a scheduled task for each of your backup folders that you defined as a backup location in the prior step. To schedule a backup task to automatically run on your computer, click on the Management Tools option on the main True Image screen. Then click on the Manage Tasks option on the screen that appears. This will bring up the Scheduled Task screen.
Here you will see a list of all of the tasks that you have scheduled already. It also gives you a set of buttons to create, run, edit, or delete tasks. At this point, we want to create a new task to schedule it to run automatically, so click on the Create button near the top of the Scheduled Task screen. This brings up the Scheduled Task main screen. Click on the Create New Task under the Task heading on the left side of this screen. This will start the Schedule Task Wizard to guide you in creating a new scheduled task.
Here are the steps to follow with the Scheduled Task Wizard:
Once this is done, you can sit back and True Image will manage your backups for you. You don’t need to worry about forgetting to do backups again.
I hope this information helps you take advantage of this exciting new feature in Acronis True Image 11 Home edition. Just setup your backup locations and tasks and forget them. That’s the perfect way not to forget to backup your system on a regular basis. If you have questions about this article or the use of your True Image software, please send a note to gene@ugr7.com and I will try to assist you.
User Group Relations
Copyrighted June 2008
By following our recommendations in the Perfect Backup Approach tutorial (www.ugr7.com), your hard drive is protected from a total hard drive crash to just a file or two becoming corrupted. However, the weakest link in this backup system is remembering to do your backups on a regular basis. The recently released Acronis True Image 11 Home edition has solved this problem with new features to let you quickly set your system to do automatic backups on a regular basis. Earlier releases of True Image could do some scheduling of backups, but a lot of function was missing that would permit you to do the complete job. Now, you can just set your backup system and forget it. Your backups will occur automatically without your worrying about them. This article will guide you through the steps of setting up automatic backups with True Image 11, so that you can do it on your system. We will show as our example the backup approach from the Perfect Backup Approach tutorial. This will help you get your system setup to do automatic backups that follow that approach. The Perfect Backup Approach recommends that you backup your main hard drives to an external hard drive attached to your computer. To keep your backup images organized, we recommend that you set up separate backup folders on your external hard drive for each partition and each hard drive on your computers that you are backing up. The Approach also recommends that you create a monthly full backup image of your entire main hard drive and then weekly incremental backup images of your entire main hard drive. So, that is what we will show you how to do automatically using True Image 11.
Setting up automatic backups is a simple two-step operation. The first step is to specify a backup location where you will store your backup images. The second step is to schedule a backup task to save the backups automatically into your backup location.
Creating Backup Locations: Acronis True Image 11 Home edition now has function to define an intelligent backup location on your external hard drive that will manage the backup space you have provided. You need to create this special Backup Location before you start to schedule automatic backups to that location. You will define a backup location for each folder you created on your external hard drive to hold your backup images. So, this is the first step in the two-step process of creating automatic backups of your computer system.
To create a backup location in True Image, bring up the main True Image screen and click on the “Management Tools" option near the bottom of the main True Image screen. On the next screen you see, click on “Manage Backup Locations and Archives” to bring up the main Backup Locations screen. Then click on the Create Backup Location option under Backup Locations on the left side of this screen. This will start the Create Backup Location wizard.
Here are the steps to follow with the Create Backup Location wizard:
- The first screen of the wizard gives you a brief overview of the purpose of this wizard. Read it and click on Next to continue.
- On the next Backup Location Properties screen, you need to find and click on one of the backup folders you have created on your external hard drive for one of your partitions and then click on Next to continue.
- The next screen in the wizard is the Backup Rules screen. Here you will define how True Image will manage the space in this backup location. You can define the maximum size properties and the maximum length of time property on this screen.
These three limits are used together to determine when to start to delete older images files from your backup location. If any of the three limits is exceeded, then that is enough to get True Image to start to erase old image files from that backup location. If you are really interested in only one of the three settings to manage when older images are erased, then set the other two high so that they will never be reached. Then only the one limit will be used to clean off your old images. When you have selected these three limits, click on Next to continue.
The final screen in this wizard is to check to make sure you have entered in the right folder for your backup location and the right limits to work with. Carefully read this list and if everything is correct, click on Proceed to complete the function of Creating a Backup Location. In a few seconds, you will get a message saying Operation Succeeded. That’s all there is to creating a backup location for one of your folders. Now repeat this operation for any other folders you have on your external hard drive.
Create Scheduled Task: The second step in the process of setting up automatic backups on your computer is to create a scheduled task for each of your backup folders that you defined as a backup location in the prior step. To schedule a backup task to automatically run on your computer, click on the Management Tools option on the main True Image screen. Then click on the Manage Tasks option on the screen that appears. This will bring up the Scheduled Task screen.
Here you will see a list of all of the tasks that you have scheduled already. It also gives you a set of buttons to create, run, edit, or delete tasks. At this point, we want to create a new task to schedule it to run automatically, so click on the Create button near the top of the Scheduled Task screen. This brings up the Scheduled Task main screen. Click on the Create New Task under the Task heading on the left side of this screen. This will start the Schedule Task Wizard to guide you in creating a new scheduled task.
Here are the steps to follow with the Scheduled Task Wizard:
- Read the overview of this wizard and click on Next to continue.
- On the Task Type Selection click on Back up to schedule a backup task. I recommend that you always Validate your backups as you create them, so they do not need to be scheduled separately.
- On the Select Backup Type window, click on the My Computer item to place a green dot in the circle next to it. This will do a backup of your hard drive partitions as recommended in the Perfect Backup Approach. Click on Next to continue.
- On the Data to Back Up Selection window, click on Disks and partitions. This will backup the entire contents of your hard drive or individual partitions on the hard drive. The System State option would only backup Operating System and not all of your individual files.
- On the Partitions Selection window, click on the partition that you want to backup to this location. Make sure it is the only box checked. I recommend that you backup each partition separately and to its own location folder. Doing each partition separately will give you more flexibility in how you do your backups. Do NOT check the Create an image using the sector-by-sector approach. When you have selected the partition to backup, click on Next to continue.
- On the Source Files Exclusion window, do not click on any of the options, but leave them all blank. Click on Next to continue. You may get an Information screen at this point which you can read and then click on OK to continue. You may want to click on the Do not show this message again box to avoid reading these comments each time you schedule a backup.
- The next screen is the Backup Archive Location screen where you indicate what folder (Location) to save your backup image in. This can be a bit tricky, since you will find the folder you want in two places on the list – one under Backup Locations and the other under My Computer. It is very important that you select the Backup Location listing for this step. Click on the plus next to the Backup Locations item and then click on the Location folder under this heading that you want to save your backup images in. If you do not see the folder you want, you will have to go back to the earlier step and again create a backup location. Do not enter in a file name in the Folder field but highlight the appropriate Backup Location and click on Next to continue.
- On the Backup Policy screen, you will tell True Image the type and frequency of backup images that you want to create. The Create Full Backups option only creates full backup image. The Create Incremental Backup option creates a full backup image and then incremental backup images. The Create Differential Backup option creates a full backup image and then differential backup images. The Perfect Backup Approach recommends doing incremental backup image, so click on that option to select it. If that is all you do, then True Image will create one full backup image and forever afterwards create incremental backup images. All of these images must be used together to restore your hard drive. If any of the incremental images becomes corrupt, you will not be able to restore that incremental image or any that follow it. So, doing many incremental images can be a bit risky. That is why I recommend that you restart with a new full backup image after doing a limited number of incremental backup images. I recommend creating no more than 10-12 incremental image before you do a new full backup image to be safe. So, you need to check the box next to Create a New Full Backup After X Incremental Images. Then in the number field, select four (4) incremental backups. That will give you four weekly backups each month as recommended in the Perfect Backup Approach. Click on Next to continue.
- On the Archive Protection screen you can select a password that your backup images in this location will be protected with. You will need to remember this password in order to retrieve individual files from these images or to restore the entire image to a hard drive. If you have concerns about the safety of your backup images on your external hard drive, then give a password at this point in time. Just don’t forget the password or you will not be able to use the backup later. Since I keep my external hard drive pretty secure, I seldom give my images a password, but that is your choice. Click on Next to continue.
- On the Choose Backup Options screen, you can select to use the default backup options that you setup earlier if you follow the Perfect Backup Approach. If you want to do some special option for this particular backup, then select to set the options manually and you will be given the chance to set an option for this backup that is different than your default options. I will assume that you will use the default options, so select that item and then click on Next to continue.
- The Archive Comment screen lets you attach a descriptive comment about this backup image to the backup. I seldom use this option, so I just leave this box blank. When you have entered any comments you wish to make, click on Next to continue.
- On the Task Running Scheduling screen, you should select when you want this automatic backup to occur. In the Perfect Backup Approach, it is recommended that you do weekly backups (full backup monthly and then weekly incremental backups), so select Weekly and click on Next to continue.
- On the Weekly Execution of Task screen, you tell True Image when to do your backups and what day to do them on.
- First, select the time that you want to do backups. I usually do my backups in the middle of the night when I probably will not be using my computer. I have other things scheduled in the middle of the night, such as virus scans, etc., so I try to space out my scheduled activities so that they all don’t occur at the same time. Select a time to do your backups and make sure you indicate AM or PM with the time. I would also check the box below to handle your backups if the computer is turned off at the time you selected.
- Next, pick the day of the week that you want to do your backups. Whatever day is convenient for you is fine. Just remember to leave the computer on that night, if you do your backups in the middle of the night, like I do.
- On the Credentials screen, you can indicate which user on your computer should be the owner of this task. If you only have one user on your computer, then the choice is easy. If you have more than one, then that user should be indicated. You can password protect this user if you want to. I only have a couple of trusted users on my computer, so I don’t password protect this option, leaving the passwords blank. Click on Next to continue.
- When you reach the final screen of the Schedule Task wizard, read down the various options that you have selected to make sure they are correct. If you see one that needs to be corrected, click on the Back button to go back to the screen where that option was entered and correct it. If everything looks correct, click on the Finish button to post this automatic task to your list of scheduled True Image tasks. That’s all there is to setting up an automatic scheduled backup task on your system. Now, setup a similar task for each of the backup locations you have on your external hard drive. That will complete the process of setting up your backups to run automatically.
Click on Next to continue.
Once this is done, you can sit back and True Image will manage your backups for you. You don’t need to worry about forgetting to do backups again.
I hope this information helps you take advantage of this exciting new feature in Acronis True Image 11 Home edition. Just setup your backup locations and tasks and forget them. That’s the perfect way not to forget to backup your system on a regular basis. If you have questions about this article or the use of your True Image software, please send a note to gene@ugr7.com and I will try to assist you.