User's Manual
Table Of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 1.1 What is Acronis® True Image™?
- 1.2 New in this version
- 1.3 Backups created in Acronis True Image 2020 or later
- 1.4 System requirements and supported media
- 1.5 Installing Acronis True Image 2021
- 1.6 Activating Acronis True Image 2021
- 1.7 Trial version information
- 1.8 Upgrading Acronis True Image 2021
- 1.9 Technical Support
- 2 Getting started
- 3 Basic concepts
- 3.1 Basic concepts
- 3.2 The difference between file backups and disk/partition images
- 3.3 Full, incremental and differential backups
- 3.4 Deciding where to store your backups
- 3.5 Using Acronis Nonstop Backup
- 3.6 Backup file naming
- 3.7 Integration with Windows
- 3.8 Wizards
- 3.9 FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning
- 4 Backing up data
- 4.1 Backing up disks and partitions
- 4.2 Backing up files and folders
- 4.3 Backing up mobile devices
- 4.4 Backing up Office 365 data
- 4.5 Backup options
- 4.5.1 Scheduling
- 4.5.2 Backup schemes
- 4.5.3 Notifications for backup operation
- 4.5.4 Excluding items from backup
- 4.5.5 Image creation mode
- 4.5.6 Backup protection
- 4.5.7 Pre/Post commands for backup
- 4.5.8 Backup splitting
- 4.5.9 Backup validation option
- 4.5.10 Backup reserve copy
- 4.5.11 Removable media settings
- 4.5.12 Error handling
- 4.5.13 File-level security settings for backup
- 4.5.14 Computer shutdown
- 4.5.15 Online backup protection
- 4.5.16 Performance of backup operation
- 4.5.17 Selecting a data center for backup
- 4.5.18 Laptop power settings
- 4.5.19 Wi-Fi networks for backup to Acronis Cloud
- 4.6 Operations with backups
- 4.6.1 Backup operations menu
- 4.6.2 Backup activity and statistics
- 4.6.3 Sorting backups in the list
- 4.6.4 Replicating backups to Acronis Cloud
- 4.6.5 Validating backups
- 4.6.6 Backup to various places
- 4.6.7 Adding an existing backup to the list
- 4.6.8 Notarized backup
- 4.6.9 Cleaning up backups, backup versions, and replicas
- 4.6.10 Cleaning up space on Acronis Cloud
- 4.6.11 Removing data from Acronis Cloud
- 5 Recovering data
- 5.1 Recovering disks and partitions
- 5.2 Recovering files and folders
- 5.3 Searching backup content
- 5.4 Recovering Office 365 data
- 5.5 Recovery options
- 6 Archiving data
- 7 Sharing data
- 8 Protecting family data
- 9 Antivirus and antimalware protection
- 10 Vulnerability assessment
- 11 Synchronizing data
- 12 Disk cloning and migration
- 13 Tools
- 13.1 Acronis Media Builder
- 13.2 Making sure that your bootable media can be used when needed
- 13.3 Acronis Startup Recovery Manager
- 13.4 Try&Decide
- 13.5 Acronis Secure Zone
- 13.6 Adding a new hard disk
- 13.7 Security and Privacy Tools
- 13.8 Mounting an image
- 13.9 Unmounting an image
- 13.10 Working with .vhd(x) files
- 13.11 Importing and exporting backup settings
- 13.12 Acronis Universal Restore
- 14 Troubleshooting
- 15 Glossary of Terms
- Acronis Active Protection
- Acronis Drive
- Acronis Notary
- Acronis Secure Zone
- Acronis Startup Recovery Manager
- Archive
- Archiving operation
- Backup
- Backup operation
- Backup settings
- Backup version
- Backup version chain
- Bootable media
- Data synchronization
- Differential backup
- Differential backup version
- Disk backup (Image)
- Full backup
- Full backup version
- Image
- Incremental backup
- Incremental backup version
- Mobile backup
- Nonstop backup
- Nonstop protection
- Notarization
- Notarized backup
- Notarized file
- Online backup
- Recovery
- Suspicious process
- Sync
- Validation
- Version of synced file
30 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2003-2020
3 Basic concepts
In this section
Basic concepts ................................................................................................................... 30
The difference between file backups and disk/partition images ..................................... 31
Full, incremental and differential backups ....................................................................... 33
Deciding where to store your backups ............................................................................. 35
Using Acronis Nonstop Backup ......................................................................................... 38
Backup file naming ............................................................................................................ 41
Integration with Windows ................................................................................................ 42
Wizards.............................................................................................................................. 43
FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning ......................................................................... 43
3.1 Basic concepts
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:
To recover an operating system when it is corrupted or cannot start (called disaster recovery).
Refer to Protecting your system (p. 17) for more details about protecting your computer from a
disaster.
To recover specific files and folders after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.
Acronis True Image 2021 does both by creating disk (or partition) images and file-level backups
respectively.
Recovery methods:
Full recovery can be performed to the original location or to a new one.
When the original location is selected, the data in the location is completely overwritten with the
data from the backup. In case of a new location, the data is just copied to the new location from
the backup.
Incremental recovery is performed only to the original location and only from a cloud backup.
Before the recovery starts, the files in the original location are compared with the files in the
backup by file attributes, such as file size and date of last modification. Those files that do not
match are marked for recovery, the remaining files will be skipped during recovery. In that way,
as opposed to the full recovery, Acronis True Image recovers only changed files. This method
significantly reduces the recovery time and saves Internet traffic while recovering from Acronis
Cloud.
Backup versions
Backup versions are the file or files created during each backup operation. The number of versions
created is equal to the number of times the backup is executed. So, a version represents a point in
time to which the system or data can be restored.