This section provides general information about basic concepts which could be useful for understanding how the program works.
Backup and recovery
Backup refers to the making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to recover the original after a data loss event.
Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery). The second is to recover small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.
Acronis True Image Home 2012 does both by creating disk (or partition) images and file-level backups respectively.
Backup versions
Backup versions are the file or files created during each backup operation. If you do not use consolidation feature, the amount of versions created is always equal to the amount of times the backup is executed or to the amount of stored points in time.
So, a version represents a point in time to which the system or data can be restored. To put it another way, backup versions represent full, incremental and differential backups - see Full, incremental and differential backups.
The backup versions are similar to file versions. The file versions concept is familiar to those who use a Windows Vista and Windows 7 feature called "Previous versions of files". This feature allows you to restore a file as it existed on a particular date and time. A backup version allows you to recover your data in a similar way.
This could be useful when trying to find damaged or deleted files. Simply browse through the backup versions in the Acronis Backup Explorer until you find the backup version containing the required files. Additionally, you can recover different saved versions of the found files.
There is one more type of incremental backup version. If you mount a partition in the read-write mode, the program assumes that the mounted image will be modified and creates an incremental version to capture the changes. This type of incremental version has somewhat different properties. For example, it cannot be consolidated.
Disk cloning
This operation migrates or copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another disk drive. This may be necessary, for example, when installing a larger capacity disk. The result is two identical drives with the same file structure. The "Disk Clone" tool effectively copies all of the contents of one hard disk drive onto another hard disk drive. The operation allows you to transfer all the information (including the operating system and installed programs) from one hard disk drive to another without having to reinstall and reconfigure all of your software.
Acronis True Image Home 2012 does not provide for cloning a single partition. You can only clone the entire drive.
You can also transfer all the information from your hard disk drive to another one by backing up the entire old hard disk and then recovering the backup to the new disk.
Backup file format
Acronis True Image Home 2012 usually saves backup data in the proprietary tib format using compression. This reduces the amount of needed storage space.
When creating a tib file, the program calculates checksum values for data blocks and adds these values to the data being backed up. These checksum values allow for the verification of data integrity.
The data from tib file backups can be recovered only through the Acronis True Image Home 2012 program. This may be done in Windows or in the recovery environment.
However, Acronis True Image Home 2012 is also able to save data in the well-known zip format. This allows you to retrieve files from backups anywhere without using Acronis True Image Home 2012.
The most widely used operating systems Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, have built-in support for the zip file format.
Acronis Nonstop Backup uses a special hidden storage for data and metadata. The backed up data is compressed and split into files of about 1 GB. These files also have a proprietary format and the data they contain can be recovered only with the help of Acronis True Image Home 2012.
Backup validation
The backup validation feature allows you to confirm that your data can be recovered. As mentioned above, the program adds checksum values to the data blocks being backed up. During backup validation, Acronis True Image Home 2012 opens the backup file, recalculates the checksum values and compares those values with the stored ones. If all compared values match, the backup file is not corrupted and there is a high probability that the backup can be successfully used for data recovery.
Consolidation
Consolidation allows you to delete backups which you no longer need from a backup chain.
A chain to be consolidated can consist of a full backup and one or more incremental backups.
If necessary, you can delete the base full backup from the chain. The program will create a new full backup in place of the oldest remaining backup. Consolidation keeps whichever backups you choose and deletes any backups that are not selected.
Because consolidation may require significant time and system resources (including disk space), we recommend using it sparingly. In many cases, starting a new backup chain and then deleting the old one will be a better choice.
Acronis Nonstop Backup uses a different consolidation mechanism. The program consolidates the metadata it uses for managing the backed up data. Because the metadata information volume is significantly less than the backed up data volume, consolidation requires much less time and system resources.
Disaster recovery
Recovering from a disaster usually requires a rescue media and a backup of the system partition.
Acronis True Image Home 2012 provides for recovery from a disaster caused by system data corruption, viruses, malware, or other causes.
If the operating system fails to boot, Acronis True Image Home 2012 will recover the system partition. The boxed product comes with a rescue CD. Other legal owners of the program can create a rescue media by using the Media Builder tool.
Scheduling
For your backups to be really helpful, they must be as "up-to-date" as possible. This means that you should run backups on a regular basis, say once a day. Although creating an Acronis True Image Home 2012 backup is quite easy, on occasion, you may forget to do a backup.
With the scheduler, you do not have to remember. You can schedule automatic backups ahead of time. Your data will be backed up as long as there is sufficient storage space.
Understanding these terms and concepts will be helpful when using the program's features.