Case: You want to protect all data on your computer with two full versions and you want to update the backup once a month. Let’s see how you can do it by using a custom backup scheme.
Make sure Entire PC is selected as the backup source.
Click Options, open the Schedule tab, click Monthly, and then specify a day of the month (for example, the 20-th). This will result in a backup version being created on a monthly basis, on the day you specify. Then, specify a start time for the backup operation.
Open the Backup scheme tab, and then choose Custom scheme instead of Incremental scheme.
In the Backup method box, select Full from the drop-down list.
To limit the number of versions, click Store no more than [n] recent versions, and type or select "2", and click OK.
In this case, the program will create a new full version every month, on the 20-th day. After creating the third version, the oldest version will be automatically deleted.
Check that all settings are correct and click Back up now. If you want your first backup to be run only at the time you specified in the Scheduler, click the down arrow to the right of the Back up now button and select Later in the drop-down list.
2. File backup “Daily incremental version + weekly full version”
Case: You have files and/or folders you work with every day. You need to save your daily work results and want to be able to recover data state to any date for the last three weeks. Let’s see how you can do this using a custom backup scheme.
Start configuring a file backup. Refer to Backing up files and folders for details.
Click Options, open the Schedule tab, click Daily, and then specify a start time for the backup operation. For example, if you finish your everyday work at 8 PM, specify this time or a little later (8.05 PM) as the start time.
Open the Backup scheme tab, and then choose Custom scheme instead of Incremental scheme.
In the Backup method box, select Incremental from the drop-down list.
Click Create a full version after every [n] incremental versions, and type or select "6".
In that case, the program will first create the initial full backup version (no matter how you set up a backup process, the first backup version will always be the full one), and then six incremental versions day by day. Then, it will create one full version and six incremental versions again and so on. So every new full version will be created in exactly a week's time.
To limit the storage time for the versions, click Turn on automatic cleanup.
Click Delete version chains older than [n] days, type or select "21", and click OK.
Check that all settings are correct and click Back up now. If you want your first backup to run only at the time you specified in the Scheduler, click the down arrow to the right of the Back up now button and select Later in the drop-down list.
3. Disk backup “Full version every 2 months + differential version twice a month”
Case: You need to back up your system partition twice a month and create a new full backup version every two months. In addition, you want to use no more than 100 GB of disk space to store the backup versions. Let’s see how you can do it using a custom backup scheme.
Select your system partition (usually C:) as the backup source.
Click Options, open the Schedule tab, click Monthly, and then specify, for example, the 1st and 15th days of the month. This will result in a backup version in about every two weeks. Then, specify a start time for the backup operation.
Open the Backup scheme tab, and then choose Custom scheme instead of Incremental scheme.
In the Backup method box, select Differential from the drop-down list.
Click Create a full version after every [n] differential versions, and type or select "3".
In that case the program will first create the initial full backup version (no matter how you set up a backup process, the first backup version will always be the full one), and then three differential versions, each one in about two weeks. Then again a full version and three differential versions and so on. So every new full version will be created in two months.
To limit storage space for the versions, click Turn on automatic cleanup.
Click Keep size of the backup no more than [defined size], type or select "100" "GB", and click OK.
When the total backup size exceeds 100 GB, Acronis True Image 2018 will clean up the existing backup versions to make the remaining versions satisfy the size limit. The program will delete the oldest backup chain consisting of a full backup version and three differential backup versions.
Check that all settings are correct and click Back up now. If you want your first backup to be run only at the time you specified in the Scheduler, click the down arrow to the right of the Back up now button and select Later in the drop-down list.