1. Acronis True Image Backup (BU) Using Rotating USB

Acronis Backup (BU) Using Rotating USB Drives.docx Page 1 of 29 10/28/18 12:13:00

1. Acronis True Image Backup (BU) Using Rotating USB Drives

1.1 Overview

Requirement: Backup a laptop system (Windows 10 x64) and data to rotating USB attached drives.

As part of the requirement two Bitlocker encrypted backup drives will be utilized and hold the backups

generated. While one backup drive is on-site the other drive will be off-site.

NOTE: Every time an encrypted drive is reconnected to a PC it will be necessary to unlock the drive

using the Bitlocker password unless you have used the advanced options which are described below.

For better security the Bitlocker password should NOT be the same as your PC logon password.

1.2 Unlocking Bitlocker Drive

In your file manager, right-click on the drive and select “Unlock Drive”

Enter the Bitlocker password

Note: It is possible to automatically unlock the USB Bitlocker drive on a PC. In the above image, click

on “More Options”


Check the box for “Automatically unlock on this PC” and then click the “Unlock” button. In the

future when you connect the drive to the PC you will have direct access to the drive without entering

the Bitlocker password.

1.2.1 Store all passwords in safe location

I use the free application Keepass to store all of my passwords, see

https://keepass.info/download.html.

1.3 Hardware required

Two USB backup drives, I used two 4TB drives to ensure I had enough space to keep several

versions.

Both drives are using BitLocker to secure the contents of the True Image TIB (backup) files and other

data on the drives.

See the section below, “BitLocker”

1.4 Option 1

1.4.1 Create two BAT files to use with Acronis True Image

NOTE: This method uses the Post/Pre Advanced option in the task setup within True Image. There is

one condition, e.g. one USB drive attached, that will create a false failure for the drive that is not

attached. I was not able to find a work around for this. When either of the USB drives are not attached

the task for that drive will attempt to run and fail. However the backup for the attached drive will run.

NOTE: Option 2 (see below) does NOT create the false failure, for this reason I used Option 2.

NOTE: There WILL BE some minor additional changes you will make to the following.

The REM lines are not necessary, I removed the REM for testing the batch files.

I used “Odd” and “Even” just to identify if the drive was for the odd week or the even week of the year.

https://keepass.info/download.html


Thanks to Steve Smith, Acronis MVP for the original contents of BAT file. I have slightly modified it for

my use.

Create two batch files (ATI-EvenBU.bat, ATI-OddBU.bat) with the following contents on a local drive.

The drive MUST be accessible at all times. I placed the files on the boot drive at the root level.

1.4.1.1 Even Batch file

echo off

Title BAT file to test presence for ODD or EVEN BU drive

REM echo now test to see if the Even BU drive is connected

REM pause

if not exist Y:\Y-Even-BU-Drive.txt (

REM The IF test did succeed thus the drive is NOT connected

Rem echo The drive is NOT connected

rem pause

exit /b 1

)

1.4.1.2 Odd Batch file

echo off

Title BAT file to test presence for ODD or EVEN BU drive

REM echo now test to see if the Even BU drive is connected

REM pause

if not exist Z:\Z-Odd-BU-Drive.txt (

REM The IF test did succeed thus the drive is NOT connected

rem echo The drive is NOT connected

rem pause

exit /b 1


)

REM echo The drive is connected

REM Pause

1.4.2 Configure the USB drives

There are several necessary steps to properly setup your drives.

1. Format the drives, use NTFS as the format option.

2. Determine what drive letters you want assigned to the two drives. I used X & Y to help ensure

there would be no conflicts with other drives.

3. Determine what labels you want assigned to each drive. Because I have a large number of

drives (a total of 11 internal drives) on my desktop I used what I call meaningful labels such

as WD-X-EVEN-4TB and WD-Y-ODD-4TB. This is what I call a meaningful drive label.

3.1. WD-X-EVEN-4TB, WD = Western Digital, the manufactory of the drive

3.2. WD-X-EVEN-4TB, X or Y, the Drive letter

3.3. WD-X-EVEN-4TB, Odd/Even to identify the odd/even week of the year

3.4. WD-X-EVEN-4TB, 4TB = the size of the drive

4. Create two empty text files and place them on the appropriate drives. These will be used by the

two batch files (ATI-EvenBU.bat, ATI-OddBU.bat) files to determine if the Even/Odd drive is

connected.

4.1. Z-Odd-BU-Drive.txt

4.2. Y-Even-BU-Drive.txt

1.4.3 Acronis True Image Task

It will be necessary to create two Acronis True Image backup tasks, e.g. one for the ODD week and

one for the EVEN week. To ensure that they are near identical, create and test the first task. When

you are confident that all is working correctly in ATI select the first task, clone the settings and make

the necessary changes for the 2nd task, more on this later.

1.4.3.1 ATI ODD task

The actual names of the task can be whatever you desire as long it is meaningful to you. I used

MT-Odd-Z ATI-OddBU.bat and

MT-Even-Y ATI-EvenBU.bat

1. Open ATI

2. Click BACKUP in the left NAV pane

3. At the bottom left side click on “Add backup”

4. Enter the name of the task (I used “MT-Odd-Z ATI-OddBU.bat ”)


5. Ensure the source is correct (I selected Entire PC, on this PC I only have one drive with one

partition.)

6. Ensured the destination is correct (I used “Z:\BU\Acronis\”)

7. In the ATI main window click the “Options” button

8. Schedule tab

a. Enter the time you desire the backup to run. (I needed daily backups)

9. Backup scheme

a. Backup scheme – I used a scheme that was previously defined.

b. Backup method – I used full because:

i. The total size was reasonably small. If it becomes large then I might use

incremental.

ii. This is a mission critical system and the data is as important as the OS.

c. Automatic cleanup has been turned on and I will keep 10 recent versions.

10. Notifications


a. Check “Show notification message on insufficient free disk space”

b. Determine how much free space you need, I set the value to 50 GB. Currently, this is

enough room for one backup for me.

c. To: email-addresses, I entered multiple email addresses

d. Subject: %COMPUTER_NAME% Odd Drive %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True

Image (NOTE: I changed the default message to what is more meaningful for me.)

e. Server: smtp.gmail.com (These settings are for gmail)

i. Encryption: TLS

ii. Port: 587

iii. Check SMTP authentication

iv. Email-address

v. Enter your password

f. Click “Send test message” to ensure all settings are correct.

11. The following image shows the subject of emails received during my test. When everything is

implemented similar emails will be received each time ATI runs. This makes it much easier to

identify problems, especially if you have multiple systems.

12. Exclusions – I accepted the defaults

13. Advanced Pre/Post commands


14. Click the EDIT button

a. Click the browse button

b. Find your batch file, when you select the appropriate file and click the Open button ATI

will put the correct information in the Command line and

c. The Working Directory line

d. Ensure the appropriate USB drive is connected and click the “Test command” button

and confirm you have success.

e. Click the OK button

f. Ensure the Pre-command looks something like the following image.

15. Advanced “Validation” once a week at 0151 hours.


16. Click the OK button

17. Click the “Back up now” button and ensure the task runs correctly.

1.4.3.2 ATI EVEN task

1. Open ATI

2. Right-click on the ODD task and select “Clone settings”


3. Right-click on the cloned task entry and select “Rename”, rename the task to “MT-Even-Y ATI-

EvenBU.bat .

4. Connect the 2nd backup drive

5. Remove the 1st backup drive (the Odd Z drive).

6. Select the “MT-Even-Y ATI-EvenBU.bat ” task.

7. Change the destination of the backup from “Z:\BU\Acronis” to “Y:\BU\Acronis”

8. In ATI click the “Back up now” button. You should now see ATI running. This will create the ATI

.tis file in the C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts folder.

9. Confirm that the backup was successful

1.4.4 Test the Two ATI tasks

1.4.4.1 Test with One drive removed

In the batch file if the backup drive is not connected the line “exit /b 1” will execute, thus the batch

function will exit and issue a return code of 1. Currently ATI will except this as a failure and abort the

backup operation. Hopefully Acronis will enhance True Image where it will abort the backup operation

and not consider it a failure under certain conditions.

1.4.4.2 Test with both drives removed

Currently the two batch files do not test for both drives removed. In this situation both task will fail

when they attempt to run.


1.5 Option 2 Create one batch file and use the Windows Task Scheduler

By using one batch file and the Windows Task Scheduler you can test for either drive and if neither is

attached an email will be sent stating such. This would be a valid failure.

NOTE: This procedure does NOT produce the false failure that Option 1 does. This is the procedure I

used.

1.5.1 Batch File Example for Option 2

NOTE: In my test system the laptop harddrive had two partitions (1) “C” which was the boot, and (2)

“E” which was for the data. All of the ATI files I created were placed at the root of the “E” partition.

On the production system the laptop harddrive had only one partition and all of the ATI files I created

were placed in a folder (ATI) of the “C” drive, e.g. C:\ATI.

For the filename I used “BackupToCorrectDrive.BAT”

echo off

REM First let’s test to see if one BU drive is attached.

set BU-Drive-Attached=false

REM Is the 1st drive attached

if exist Z:\Z-Odd-BU-Drive.txt set BU-Drive-Attached=true

REM is the 2nd drive attached

if exist Y:\Y-Even-BU-Drive.txt set BU-Drive-Attached=true

if "%BU-Drive-Attached%" == "true" (

goto RunBU

)

REM If you got here then NO BU drive is attached and you need to send an email

REM stating such. This is a true failure.

E:\sendEmail.exe -f [email protected] -t [email protected] -s smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu

[email protected] -xp gmail-password -o tls=auto -u "MT-LT Backup failed No BU Drive

Attached" -m "No backup was created because No USB Backup Drive Attached"

REM Exit and return error code of 1

exit /b 1

:RunBU

REM If you got here then one of the BU drives is attached


set ATI="C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe"

%ATI%

timeout /t 30

REM It is necessary for you to determine the True Image Script being used, you will find them

REM at C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts

set ODD=803296A5-7923-4AB2-92D0-1312BE1218C8

set EVEN=3C6E4E55-9429-4F13-B411-AF1CFDEB4EFD

if exist Z:\Z-Odd-BU-Drive.txt goto OddBU

if exist Y:\Y-Even-BU-Drive.txt goto EvenBU

goto cleanup

:OddBU

rem echo Odd backup

Echo "ATI working" > e:\ATIworking.txt

REM Create a text file when True Image starts, this will be deleted later

%ATI% /script:%ODD%

:repeat-odd

If exist E:\ATIworking.txt goto loop-odd

goto cleanup

:loop-odd

timeout /t 180

REM This will force the BATCH file to loop until True Image has completed the BU

goto repeat-odd

:EvenBU

rem echo Even backup

Echo "ATI working" > e:\ATIworking.txt


%ATI% /script:%EVEN%

:repeat-even

If exist E:\ATIworking.txt goto loop-even

goto cleanup

:loop-even

timeout /t 180

goto repeat-even

:cleanup

REM True Image has completed thus we now need to cleanup

rem echo Now cleanup

rem The following will close True Image

WMIC PROCESS WHERE Name="trueimage.exe" CALL Terminate

rem pause

exit

1.5.1.1 SendEmail from Batch

Download SendEmail: http://caspian.dotconf.net/menu/Software/SendEmail/

Syntax: Drive:\pathto\sendEmail.exe -f [email protected] -t [email protected] -s

smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu gmail_username -xp gmail_password -o tls=auto -u "Subject" -m "Body"

http://caspian.dotconf.net/menu/Software/SendEmail/


Written by: Brandon Zehm <[email protected]>

http://caspian.dotconf.net/

http://www.tsheets.com/

NOTE: It is possible for you to create a procedure to send an email but it would be time consuming

and is subject to errors. You can implement SendEmail in less than five minutes.

1.5.1.1.1 How do I install it?

Simply download, extract, and run "sendEmail" from a command prompt on in a batch file (I executed

SendEmail within the batch file, see below, it will give a usage summary. It is written in Perl, so no

compilation needed. On a unix system if your perl binary is not installed at /usr/bin/perl you may need

http://caspian.dotconf.net/

http://www.tsheets.com/


to edit the first line of the script. If you're running a Microsoft OS you may need to put a .pl extension

on sendEmail so Windows will know to associate it with perl.

Place a copy of SendEmail.exe at the same location you placed the ATI-EvenBU.bat and ATI-

OddBU.bat. On my test laptop this was the root of the E partition, on the production system it was the

C:\ATI folder.

1.5.1.1.2 TLS Support

Starting with sendEmail v1.54, TLS support is included! To enable TLS support simply install the

Net::SSLeay and IO::Socket::SSL perl modules. The following new command line parameters are

now available:

-o tls=auto This is the default, TLS will be used if possible.

-o tls=yes Use this to require TLS for message delivery.

-o tls=no Use this to disable TLS support.

If TLS is giving strange errors, try upgrading the Net::SSLeay and IO::Socket::SSL perl modules.

Please do NOT report TLS bugs unless you have already done this! If you're running up-to-date

versions of these modules and you are getting TLS errors, your detailed bug report will be

appreciated. Yes, you can finally use SendEmail to send messages to your GMail account :)

1.5.1.1.3 SendEmail

NOTE: Option 2 utilizes “SendEmail” to send an email if no USB drive is attached when ATI attempts

to run.

SendEmail is a lightweight, completely command line based, SMTP email agent. If you have the need

to send email from the command line, this tool is perfect. It was designed to be used in batch scripts,

Perl programs, and web sites, but it is also quite useful in many other contexts. SendEmail is written

in Perl and is unique in that it requires NO SPECIAL MODULES. It has an intuitive and flexible set of

command-line options, making it very easy to learn and use.

1.5.2 ATI-WorkingFinished.bat

This is a very simple two line batch file that will delete the “ATIworking.txt” file created by the

above batch file. It is executed by the ATI Task Post command, see the following image.

echo off

del e:\ATIworking.txt


1.5.3 True Image Task

NOTE: There are slight differences for the Acronis True Image (ATI) task depending on which option

(e.g. option one or option two) you use. I suggest Option two.

Option 1 Option 2

Create two ATI task

Even-Y ATI

Odd-Z ATI

Create two ATI task

Even-Y BackUpToCorrectDrive

Odd-Z BackUpToCorrectDrive

Schedule controlled by ATI, Daily Schedule controlled by Windows Task Scheduler, Daily

Backup scheme – I used full, store no more than 7

Backup scheme – I used full, store no more than 7

Notifications – Sent to multiple users

Subject: %COMPUTER_NAME% Even Drive %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True Image

Or

%COMPUTER_NAME% Odd Drive %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True Image

Notifications – Sent to multiple users

Subject: %COMPUTER_NAME% Even Drive BTCD %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True Image

Or

%COMPUTER_NAME% Odd Drive BTCD %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True Image

Advanced, Pre-command

E:\ATI-EvenBU.bat

Advanced, Post-command

E:\ATI-WorkingFinished.bat


Option 1 Option 2

SendEmail (free utility, I suggest making a donation) is used to send an email if no USB drive is attached when ATI attempts to run.

Batch file must contain statement to close ATI when it completes the backup.

WMIC PROCESS WHERE Name="trueimage.exe" CALL Terminate

Utilizes ATI-WorkingFinished.bat

Just as Option 1 it will be necessary for you to create two ATI task. I used the following names.

MT-Odd-Z BackupToCorrectDrive

MT-Even-Y BackupToCorrectDrive

1.5.3.1 ATI Odd Task

18. Open ATI

19. Click BACKUP in the left NAV pane

20. At the bottom left side click on “Add backup”

21. Enter the name of the task (I used “MT-Odd-Z BackupToCorrectDrive”)

22. Ensure the source is correct (I selected Entire PC, on this PC I only have one drive with one

partition.)

23. Ensured the destination is correct (I used “Z:\BU\Acronis\”)

24. In the ATI main window click the “Options” button


25. Schedule tab NOTE: there will be NO ATI schedule for this task, you will use the Windows

Task Scheduler, therefore select the option “Do not schedule”.

26. Backup scheme

a. Backup scheme – I used a scheme that was previously defined.

b. Backup method – I used full because:

i. The total size was reasonably small. If it becomes large then I might use

incremental.

ii. This is a mission critical system and the data is as important as the OS.

c. Automatic cleanup has been turned on and I will keep 10 recent versions.


27. Notifications

a. Check “Show notification message on insufficient free disk space”

b. Determine how much free space you need, I set the value to 50 GB. Currently, this is

enough room for one backup for me.

c. To: email-addresses, I entered multiple email addresses

d. Subject: %COMPUTER_NAME% Odd BTCD %OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis

True Image (NOTE: I changed the default message to what is more meaningful for me.)

e. Server: smtp.gmail.com (These settings are for gmail)

i. Encryption: TLS

ii. Port: 587

iii. Check SMTP authentication

iv. Email-address

v. Enter your password

f. Click “Send test message” to ensure all settings are correct.

28. The following image shows the subject of emails received during my test from various

systems. When everything is implemented similar emails will be received each time ATI runs.

This makes it much easier to identify problems, especially if you have multiple systems.

29. Exclusions – I accepted the defaults


30. Advanced Pre/Post commands

31. Click the EDIT button

a. Click the browse button

b. Find your batch file, when you select the appropriate file and click the Open button ATI

will put the correct information in the Command line and

c. The Working Directory line

d. Ensure the appropriate USB drive is connected and click the “Test command” button

and confirm you have success.

e. Click the OK button

f. Ensure the Post-command looks something like the following image.


32. Advanced “Validation” once a week at 0151 hours.

33. Click the OK button

34. Click the “Back up now” button and ensure the task runs correctly.


1.5.3.2 ATI EVEN task

1. Open ATI

2. Right-click on the ODD task and select “Clone settings”

3. Right-click on the cloned task entry and select “Rename”, rename the task to “MT-Even-Y

BackupToCorrectDrive

4. Connect the 2nd backup drive

5. Remove the 1st backup drive (the Odd Z drive).

6. Select the “MT-Even-Y BackupToCorrectDrive” task.

7. Change the destination of the backup from “Z:\BU\Acronis” to “Y:\BU\Acronis”

8. Change the notification subject in the task to “%COMPUTER_NAME% Even BTCD

%OPERATION_STATUS% Acronis True Image”.

9. In ATI click the “Back up now” button. You should now see ATI running. This will create the ATI

.tis file in the C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts folder.

10. Confirm that the backup was successful


1.5.4 Windows Task Scheduler

1. Click the lower-left Start button

2. Enter task in the empty box and select Task Schedule from the results.

3. In the Task Scheduler window right-click on “Task Scheduler Library” and select “Create

Basic Task”


4. Under Create Basic Task, type in the name you like (I used “Acronis BU to Rotating Drives”),

select “Run whether user is logged on or not”, check “Run with highest privileges” and

click Next.

5. Click on the Trigger tab

5.1. Click on “New”

5.2. Ensure “Begin the task” is set to “On a schedule”

5.3. Trigger select the option you like, I selected “Daily”

5.4. Select the start date and time you want the task to run.

5.5. Accept default value of 1 for days

5.6. Check “Stop task if it runs longer than” and enter a value that you know is long

enough for your backup.

5.7. Check “Enable”

5.8. Click “OK”


6. Select the “Actions” tab

6.1. Click the “New” button

6.2. Ensure “Action” is “Start a program”

6.3. Click the “Browse” button

6.4. Find the “BackupToCorrectDrive.bat”, select it and click the “Open” button.

6.5. Click the “OK” button

7. Select the “Conditions” tab, in the “Power” section

7.1. Check the box “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power”

7.2. Check the box “Stop if the computer switches to battery power

7.3. Check the box “Wake the computer to run this task”


8. Select the Settings tab

8.1. Check the box “Allow task to be run on demand”

8.2. Check the box “Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed”

8.3. Check the box “If the task fails, restart every” pick the best value for you.

8.4. Pick a value for “Attempt to restart up to” that is best for you.

8.5. Check the box “Stop the task if it runs longer than”, pick the best value for you.

8.6. Check the box “If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop”

8.7. Ensure the selection at the bottom of the window is “Do not start a new instance”

9. Note the “History” tab states that the history is disabled. This will be resolved shortly.

10. Click the “OK” button


11. Enter your system password, click the “OK” button

12. In the main Task Scheduler window note that the task we just created the History is disabled.

13. On the right side of the Task Scheduler window in the Actions section click “Enable All

Tasks History” The history will be helpful if something wrong. Not sure why this isn't on by

default, but it isn't.


14. I suggest that you now test the task you just created by clicking Run in the Selected Item

section. Optionally you can set the time to the current time plus 2 minutes and then wait for

the task to execute.

15. Close the Task Scheduler window.

1.6 BitLocker

BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature that integrates with the operating system

and addresses the threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, or inappropriately

decommissioned computers. Both options do not provide the pre-startup system integrity verification

offered by BitLocker with a TPM chip.

TPM is a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) which is a specialized chip on an endpoint device that

stores RSA encryption keys specific to the host system for hardware authentication. Each TPM chip

contains an RSA key pair called the Endorsement Key (EK). The pair is maintained inside the chip

and cannot be accessed by software.

In my setup, my test system did NOT have the TPM chip whereas the production system did have a

TPM chip. Both system required that the BitLocker password be entered to utilize the BitLocker

encrypted harddrive.

1.6.1 Find my BitLocker recovery key

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026181/windows-10-find-my-bitlocker-recovery-key

Places to look for your BitLocker key:

On a printout you saved. Look in places you keep important papers.

Saved on a USB flash drive. Plug the USB flash drive in to your locked PC and follow

the instructions. If you saved the key as a text file on the flash drive, use a different

computer to read the text file.

In your Microsoft account. To get your recovery key, go to BitLocker Recovery Keys.

In your Azure Active Directory account. For work PCs where you sign in with an

Azure Active Directory account, to get your recovery key, see the device info for your

Microsoft Azure account.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026181/windows-10-find-my-bitlocker-recovery-key

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=237614

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=857635


Or ask someone for help:

Ask someone with administrator privileges on the same PC to unlock it with their key.

If your PC is connected to a domain (usually a work or school computer), ask a system

administrator for your recovery key.

If you still can't get in, you'll need to reset your PC. Learn how.

If you want to make a backup of your BitLocker recovery key: Select the Start button,

type BitLocker, select Manage BitLocker from the list of results, select Back up your

recovery key, and follow the prompts for your preferred backup method.

1.6.2 Recovery Key Example

After you have applied BitLocker to a drive you can save a copy of the recovery key to a USB

thumbdrive. An example of the recovery file (BitLocker Recovery Key F17B36B1-D738-4417-885A-

BCC559D4D8FD.TXT) is in the following image.

1.6.3 Recovery Key File Contents

Following is an example of the Recovery Key File contents.

https://support.microsoft.com/help/12415/


Documents

1. Acronis True Image Backup (BU) Using Rotating USB