Utterly confusing error message box on start up

[Shraddhan]

I started up TI9.0 build 3567 in order to merely find out its build number. Nothing else. I opened a can of worms. I was immediately confronted with the following message:

"C0064006C: Incremental backup is not possible. The file you have chosen is not the Acronis True Image backup, or the file is corrupted..." etc.

The point is, I did NOT choose any file! I merely started the program.

Earlier today, I added a partition in previously unused hard disk space, and installed the Vista operating system there. My backups used to be made to an external USB drive with label M. The new partition now has this label, and the USB drive is now labelled N. Could this be the reason for this message?

But why should the message appear anyway, seeing that I did not even select a task? The message text continues:

"Do you wish to proceed with the current file name? If you click OK, the chosen file will be overwritten and the full backup will be created." - but I didn't want to do anything in the first place, and there is no chosen file that I know of. Moreover, the message box does not have a button labelled OK.

The last paragraph reads:
"Otherwise, if you want to create an incremental backup, click Cancel and choose the valid archive file name..." - no, I do not want to create an incremental backup either. And there is no button labelled Cancel.

So I clicked on No and looked at the task log. Apparently TI had earlier started up a scheduled backup to the partition with letter M, which is now the Vista partition. So:

(1) Why didn't it simply start to create a new backup on this partition? From time to time I update the generations of the backup files. When I do this, TI finds no existing backup and does a full backup, without comment. Is the problem due to a missing destination folder, rather than an empty one?

(2) Why was there no warning from TI that it had failed? I have a backup done evey day, and I assume that they run properly. I don't want to have to check the logs every day just to find out if there was a problem. (If TI emailed me to tell me to check the logs, that would be fine. I could implement a program to do this, run automatically at the end of the backup, if only I knew how to detect that TI had failed.)

(3) And of course I can not edit the task because it now has an invalid destination path, and tasks with invalid destination paths can NOT be edited, in spite of the advice to do so - or has this been fixed by now?

Shraddhan

[Acronis Support]

Hello Shraddhan,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

-{ Quote: "Earlier today, I added a partition in previously unused hard disk space, and installed the Vista operating system there. My backups used to be made to an external USB drive with label M. The new partition now has this label, and the USB drive is now labelled N. Could this be the reason for this message?" }-
Yes, as far as I understand, the original full image archive was stored in the external USB drive with the M: drive letter, then the drive letter of this drive has changed to N, please correct me I'm not right. If so then the reason of the error message is that Acronis True Image was not able to found the chain of all previously created incrementals with the full backup in the drive with the M: drive letter when it tried to execute the task of the incremental backup creation.

-{ Quote: "(1) Why didn't it simply start to create a new backup on this partition? From time to time I update the generations of the backup files. When I do this, TI finds no existing backup and does a full backup, without comment. Is the problem due to a missing destination folder, rather than an empty one?" }-
Most likely this issue relates to some of Windows Vista particularities, so I'm afraid that I cannot provide you with the answer at the moment since Acronis True Image was not tested on the compatibility with this operating system.

Officially Windows Vista is not included into the list of supported operating systems. This is certainly will be done in future versions of Acronis Software.

-{ Quote: "(3) And of course I can not edit the task because it now has an invalid destination path, and tasks with invalid destination paths can NOT be edited, in spite of the advice to do so - or has this been fixed by now?" }-
The only possible solution for this is to delete this task and create a new one, but we cannot guarantee that Acronis True Image will be able to save image archives in the partition where you have Windows Vista installed.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

[bodgy]

Shraddan,

You should be able to alter the schedules manually by going to

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts

and open the a_whole_load_of_numbers_here.tib.tis file in whatever XML editor you have - even notepad will open it and change the drive letter to N

Colin

[Shraddhan]

Hi Bodgy,

Thanks for the tip.

I didn't make it clear that my problems with TI happened while running it form Windows XP SP2, and NOT from inside Vista, which I know is not supported yet.

However, this bug in TI9 where you can NOT edit a task if there is a problem with it is a pain, and this is not the first time I have mentioned it. I think that it is just crazy that TI realises that a task needs editing, but refuses to allow you to do so. Maybe this will get fixed in TI 10? Maybe.

So with your help, I can now edit the task independently of TI. This is less inconvenient than having to re-create a missing folder structure purely so that TI will allow me to edit the task so that it uses a new folder.

Naturally, the problem only arises when the old folder no longer exists, and this is invariably due to a drive being relabelled by the OS (to my great annoyance, as other things break too), or an external drive being removed.

Thanks again,

Shraddhan
www.ultimacalc.com

[bodgy]

I suppose another way possibly is to recall the old command line DOS parameters and use something like subst N: "M:\name of folders here.tib" and then bung that in a batch file and locate that batch file under the startup folder.

Colin