User Guide

You can skip the Plan's (Task) credentials step. Every time you start the task, the task will run under

the credentials with which you are currently logged on. Any person that has administrative privileges

on the machine can also start the task. The task will run under this person's credentials.

The task will always run under the same credentials, regardless of the user who actually starts the

task, if you specify the task credentials explicitly. To do so, on the plan (task) creation page:

1. Select the Advanced view check box.

2. Select General -> Plan's (Task) credentials -> Change.

3. Enter the credentials under which the plan (task) will run.

Scheduled or postponed start

The plan (task) credentials are mandatory. If you skip the credentials step, you will be asked for

credentials after finishing the plan (task) creation.

Why does the program compel me to specify credentials?

A scheduled or postponed task has to run anyway, regardless if any user is logged on or not (for

example, the system is at the Windows "Welcome" screen) or a user other than the task owner is

logged on. It is sufficient that the machine be on (that is, not in standby or hibernate) at the

scheduled task start time. That's why the Acronis scheduler needs the explicitly specified credentials

to be able to start the task.

2.4 Full, incremental and differential backups

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 provides the capability to use popular backup schemes, such as

Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi, as well as to create custom backup schemes. All backup

schemes are based on full, incremental and differential backup methods. The term "scheme" in fact

denotes the algorithm of applying these methods plus the algorithm of the archive cleanup.

Comparing backup methods with each other does not make much sense because the methods work

as a team in a backup scheme. Each method should play its specific role according to its advantages.

A competent backup scheme will benefit from the advantages of all backup methods and lessen the

influence of all the methods’ shortcomings. For example, weekly differential backup facilitates

archive cleanup because it can be easily deleted along with the weekly set of daily incremental

backups depending on it.

Backing up with the full, incremental or differential backup method results in a backup (p. 361) of the

corresponding type.

Full backup

A full backup stores all data selected for backup. A full backup underlies any archive and forms the

base for incremental and differential backups. An archive can contain multiple full backups or consist

of only full backups. A full backup is self-sufficient - you do not need access to any other backup to

recover data from a full backup.

It is widely accepted that a full backup is the slowest to do but the fastest to restore. With Acronis

technologies, recovery from an incremental backup may be not slower than recovery from a full one.

A full backup is most useful when:

 you need to roll back the system to its initial state

 this initial state does not change often, so there is no need for regular backup.