What is data archiving?

Data archiving is a tool that allows you to move your big or rarely used files to Acronis Cloud, NAS, an external hard drive, or a USB flash drive. Every time you run this tool, it analyzes the data in the selected folder and suggests uploading the found files to Acronis Cloud or moving them to local storage. You can select the files and folders that you want to archive. After moving to an archive, the local copies of these files will be deleted. The links to the files are stored in a special location called Acronis Drive. You can access the location as an ordinary folder in File Explorer. Double-clicking a file link will open the file as if it was stored in the local folder. If the file is archived to Acronis Cloud, it will be downloaded back to your computer, first. You can also access and manage it right in Acronis Cloud.

Data archiving has the following main features:

• Free storage space saving

  As a rule, storage space of modern high-capacity hard drives is mostly occupied by user data, such as photographs and documents, and not by the operating system or applications. Since most of the data is used occasionally, there is no need to keep them on a local drive. Data archiving helps you free up storage space for frequently used files.

• Cloud archiving and local archiving

  You can choose a destination type for your archive: Acronis Cloud or local storage, such as an internal hard drive, external hard drive, NAS, or a USB flash drive. Every time you choose Acronis Cloud as a destination, the selected data is stored in the same cloud archive. Local archives are independent from each other and may have different names, destinations, encryption settings, and so on, though you can select an existing archive as a destination instead of creating a new one. The number of local archives is not limited.

• Easy access of cloud archive from any device

  When you archive your files to Acronis Cloud, you can access them with Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, Acronis Mobile, or Acronis Cloud from any device running Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, including tablets and smartphones.

• Data protection in the cloud archive

  Your data stored in Acronis Cloud is protected from corruption or disaster. For example, in case of your local hard drive failure, you can download your files to your new hard drive. Moreover, your data is stored in encrypted state. You can be sure that no one except you can access your data.

• File sharing

  When your files are uploaded to Acronis Cloud, you can create public links to share the files with your friends or to post them to forums and social networks.

• File versions

  For the files that have been changed and uploaded to Acronis Cloud several times, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office keeps all the modifications in different file versions. You can choose a previous file version and download it to your device.