Acronis Backup: Backing Up to Removable Devices with Regular Drive Swaps
During the backup creation, the corresponding metadata (structural information about the containers of the backed up data) are collected and saved along with the backed up data itself. The accurate metadata is essential for correct subsequent backup processing within a single backup plan, since each backup in the chain is dependent on the previously created backups. If the target medium storing the full backup is replaced, it is not possible to create subsequent incremental or differential backups. Still, you can set up full backups to swapped drives.
To set up backup to removable drives (USB or RDX drives), do the following.
- Make sure, all the removable drives you will use as backup destination have the same drive letter assigned to them. This is important, as you need to specify a single location in the backup plan while physically you will be switching drives. See this article, if you need help with assigning drive letters.
- In backup console, click Backup .
- In Where to back up , select Local folders , and then select your drive. Click Done .
(!) Make sure that all drives that you intend to use get assigned the same letter, otherwise the backup will fail.
- Set up cleanup in backup destination:if you want only one backup to be stored on each drive use the following settings:
- In How long to keep , section select By number of backups and specify " 0 ". In " Start cleanup setting choose Before backup .
- Save and apply backup plan by clicking Apply .
This solution applies both to version 11 and version 12 backup formats.
Information for users upgrading from Acronis Backup 11.7/11.5
In Acronis Backup 11.7/11.5 Simplified archive naming option ("Name backup files using the archive name rather than auto-generated names") was available. This option is discontinued in Acronis Backup 12/12.5. During upgrade backup plans using this option are disabled. Modify these plans according to the information above.