TrueImage on Bootable CD Says Archive Corrupt

[Steve.Zorch]

When I

1 Boot True Image from CD (a CD I created with True Image)
2 Select Full Version
3 Select Verify Archive
4 Browse to the Archive that was created under Windows XP
5. and Select Proceed.

The Archive Verification process reports Corrupted Archive.

When I go back into Windows XP and run True Image, and Verify the Archive, True image goes through a lengthy verification and verifies properly.

Will I be able to restore my system from bootable CD if the Bootable CD thinks the archive is corrupt?

(P.S. I have an outstanding support submission on this. [Acronis #665703] and my build number is version 9/0 build 2323 )

[Tabvla]

Steve,

What is the disk geometry of your system? Internal, external, USB, IDE, SATA.... etc ???

Let us know the system details and we may have a solution. :)

[Xpilot]

-{ Quote: "When I

1 Boot True Image from CD (a CD I created with True Image)
2 Select Full Version
3 Select Verify Archive
4 Browse to the Archive that was created under Windows XP
5. and Select Proceed.

The Archive Verification process reports Corrupted Archive.

When I go back into Windows XP and run True Image, and Verify the Archive, True image goes through a lengthy verification and verifies properly.

Will I be able to restore my system from bootable CD if the Bootable CD thinks the archive is corrupt?

(P.S. I have an outstanding support submission on this. [Acronis #665703] and my build number is version 9/0 build 2323 )" }-

Build 2323 had several problems and you have found one of them.
The solution is to register and download the latest build 3677. Uninstall 2323 using add remove programs before you install 3677. The next step is to burn a new 3677 recovery CD.
Updating to the latest build in this fashion will leave you existing image intact and you should find that it can be used from the new rescue CD.

Xpilot

[Philipp]

Hi everyone,

I'm using Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation and I have just updated to Build 3718 (July 25, 2006).

If I do a "Validate Backup Archive" from the installed application under Windows XP (i.e. not the bootable CD), I get the same behaviour Steve.Zorch describes when using the application on the bootable CD.
With a very small image, I get the result that the verify process does not end, and on the status bar the progress of the operation counts well over 100 %...

The problems occur both with images written with old builds as well as with the current build. That means that there seems to be a big bug in the verify function. :(

KR, philipp

[Tabvla]

Hi Phillip,

As I requested in my post to Steve....
-{ Quote: "What is the disk geometry of your system? Internal, external, USB, IDE, SATA.... etc " }-

[Philipp]

Hi Tabvla,

sorry about the missing details.

It is an internal IDE drive with NTFS format on my laptop computer (Dell D600).

The images I did the verify procedure with where not full partition images, but images of selected folders.
I tried the verify procedure with an image of a system partition - that worked well.

BTW: I also tried a restore of the image that was validated as corrupt - that worked without problems.

BR,
philipp

[Tabvla]

The Dell D600 uses a hidden Utilities Partition. Have you taken this into account?

[Philipp]

Hi,

-{ Quote: "The Dell D600 uses a hidden Utilities Partition. Have you taken this into account?" }-
I did not backup this partition.

But I think this is irrelevant. Everything worked fined with old releases. These problems just occur with the current release. I have validated the same archives with an old build on a different machine, and there they are recognized as OK.

BR, philipp

[Tabvla]

Hi Phillip,

Let me see if I understand this. What you are saying is.....

* You take an image of, for example, your My Documents folder

* You save the image on the same disk

* You then try to validate the image

* The validation either "hangs" or it returns an error

Is this correct?

[Philipp]

Hi Tabvla,

what you understood is almost perfectly correct - there is only one point which is different. ;)

-{ Quote: "
* You save the image on the same disk" }-
I saved the image on a different disk. The folder was on a data partition D:, and I saved the image on the system partition C:.

Regards, philipp

[Tabvla]

OK. The system is a Dell laptop. I assume that it has only 1 internal disk - is this correct? The 2nd disk that you mention, is this an external USB disk?

[Philipp]

Hi again,
-{ Quote: "OK. The system is a Dell laptop. I assume that it has only 1 internal disk - is this correct? The 2nd disk that you mention, is this an external USB disk?" }-
No, I have two partitions on one disk. I think I misunderstood your last post. In fact, I save the image on the same drive but on a different partition.

Regards, philipp

[Tabvla]

OK.... now we have the layout of the system sorted! ;D

Although this is probably not relevant to your question, on a Laptop, where there is usually only 1 disk, the recommendation is to use the Acronis Secure Zone.

In terms of your problem, at a guess (and this is only a guess) my thinking is that if the problem only occurs when you try to validate from the Linux shell that there may be some Linux driver that is not 100% compatible with your system and which is perhaps resulting in a timing difference. TI9 may see this as a corruption of data.

The only suggestion that I can make is to log a support call with Acronis and provide them with the full specs of your system and ask them to confirm whether the Linux shell contains all the up-to-date drivers for your system.

[Acronis Support]

Hello Steve and Philipp,

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

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

Please be aware that, as Tabvla has already mentioned above, situations when Acronis True Image validates the same backup archive as corrupted when it is operating in Linux based Acronis Rescue Environment, i.e. when one is using the 'Full' version of Bootable Rescue CD, and as non-corrupted when it is running from within Windows usually arise if Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD does not fully support or poorly support storage device this particular backup archive is saved to. Also, problems of this sort may appear because of a faulty memory module.

First of all, please make sure that you use the latest build of the corresponding Acronis True Image version (build 3677 for Acronis True Image 9.0 Home and build 3718 for Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation) which is available for downloading in the Product Updates (https://www.acronis.com/enterprise/my/updates/) section of your account at Acronis web site.

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

To get access to updates you should create an account (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/my/) then log in and use your serial number to register the software.

Please uninstall any previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image, prior to installing the latest build.

Note that you should create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

Then please re-create your backup archive anew and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists with the latest build of the corresponding Acronis True Image version then please provide us with the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=55317);

Please use Bootable Rescue CD made with the latest build of the corresponding Acronis True Image version in order to create sysinfo.txt file.

If the backup archive in question is saved to some kind of an external hard drive then please keep this drive connected and powered on while creating Acronis Report and Linux system information.

- Where do you store this particular backup archive?

- Does the problem appear both when you create and afterwards validate disk\partition images and file-based backups?

- If the backup archive validation process hangs at some point, please let us know when this hang-up occurs exactly;

- Perform a memory test using the memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) utility and inform us about the result;

- Try saving backups to any other location(s), i.e. CD, DVD or any other internal, external or network drive(s), and then validate them both from under Windows and using Bootable Rescue CD. Let us know the results;

- Try moving\copying large files, e.g. disk\partition images themselves, between the hard drives and comparing their checksums calculated using eXpress CheckSum Calculator (http://www.irnis.net/files/xcsci.exe) before and after the files were moved\copied. Inform us about the results.

If the backup archive having the issue is located on some kind of a networked hard drive (e.g. SMB share or FTP file server) then please do the following:

- Boot the computer from Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build of the corresponding Acronis True Image version and press 'F11' key when the selection screen advising you to select either 'Full', 'Safe' or 'Boot into Windows' option appears;

- After you get the 'Linux Kernel Settings' prompt, please remove the 'quiet' word, click on the 'OK' button, choose 'Full' version and wait for # prompt to appear;

- Issue the following commands:

asamba dhcp -n
asamba masters

- Write down the output after each of the commands or use a digital camera to make a shots of the output screens;

- Insert a diskette in a floppy disk drive and issue the following commands;

cd tmp
mkdir mntdir
mount /devfs/floppy/0 mntdir
cat /proc/net/dev > mntdir/net.txt
sysinfo > mntdir/sysinfo.txt
umount mntdir

- Collect the net.txt and sysinfo.txt files from the diskette.

Please note that sometimes the sysinfo.txt and net.txt files are not readable from under Windows. In this case please try entering the file name using capital letters, i.e. SYSINFO.TXT, NET.TXT, or follow the instructions provided in this previous post of mine (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=636167&postcount=3).

If you do not have a floppy drive then please take a look at this previous post of mine (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=678565&postcount=5) explaining how to save the sysinfo.txt file to USB flash drive (the same applies to the net.txt file).

Please submit a request for technical support (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/). Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

[Philipp]

Hello everyone,

sorry also for the delay from my side. I just tested it again.

-{ Quote: "Please be aware that, as Tabvla has already mentioned above, situations when Acronis True Image validates the same backup archive as corrupted when it is operating in Linux based Acronis Rescue Environment, i.e. when one is using the 'Full' version of Bootable Rescue CD, and as non-corrupted when it is running from within Windows usually arise if Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD does not fully support or poorly support storage device this particular backup archive is saved to. Also, problems of this sort may appear because of a faulty memory module.
" }-The validation as corrupt both occurs with the bootable rescue CD as well as with the windows application! It occurs on two different machines, so memory problems are very unlikely. It also occurs both if the archive is on an external USB harddrive as well as if it is on a local hard drive.
What is also interesting: If I use an old build (e.g. 3633), the validation works, even for image files created with the new build 3718! And restoring the image works fine even with the new build 3718 - so it is in fact not corrupt!

-{ Quote: "First of all, please make sure that you use the latest build of the corresponding Acronis True Image version (build 3677 for Acronis True Image 9.0 Home and build 3718 for Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation)" }-I am using build 3718 of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation

-{ Quote: "Note that you should create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update. " }-I have of course also done that!

-{ Quote: "- Where do you store this particular backup archive? " }-As mentioned above on local and on external USB hard drives.

-{ Quote: "- Does the problem appear both when you create and afterwards validate disk\partition images and file-based backups?" }-It only occurs for file-based backups.

-{ Quote: "- If the backup archive validation process hangs at some point, please let us know when this hang-up occurs exactly;" }-In my last tests the archive was just reported as corrupt. In earlier tests it did not finish, and the percentage counter was running over 100%.

-{ Quote: "- Try saving backups to any other location(s), i.e. CD, DVD or any other internal, external or network drive(s), and then validate them both from under Windows and using Bootable Rescue CD. Let us know the results" }-As described above, it occurred in all combinations.

-{ Quote: "Please submit a request for technical support." }- I will do that straigth away.

Thank you very much for your support!

Kind regards,

philipp

[Scopacetic]

I had the exact same problem. See http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=844835#post844835. I never heard from support, but did succeed in verifying and restoring the image using BartPE http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=146100. I also found that old archives were fine as judged by old builds and were "corrupt" with the newer builds, including 3677. My system is over 1 yr old with nothing new, so the problem has to be with the current builds rather than unsupported hardware.

[Philipp]

Hello everyone,

thanks, Scopacetic, for your answer!

-{ Quote: "I had the exact same problem." }-OK, that's good to hear! ;)

-{ Quote: "I never heard from support, but did succeed in verifying and restoring the image using BartPE" }-THX for this hint - that's a good idea.

-{ Quote: "I also found that old archives were fine as judged by old builds and were "corrupt" with the newer builds, including 3677. My system is over 1 yr old with nothing new, so the problem has to be with the current builds rather than unsupported hardware." }-OK, that confirms exactly what my feeling is. I am a bit angry that the support people asked me for all the system info files, as this happens on different hardware. This is now confirmed by your experience.


But what is more disappointing is that Acronis Support obviously does not care much und does not try to reproduce the error. :( I am quite sure it can be reproduced.

Anyway, the problem is not that bad, as I simply verify the image files by restoring them to a different location. As it is only rather small images (up to 1 GB), this is not a problem. For large images of whole partitions the verify works well.


But of course this issue must be fixed! :isay:


Best regards,

philipp

[Philipp]

Hi everyone,

I promptly received an answer from Acronis support! :D

-{ Quote: "Hello Philipp,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that this is the known issue with validation of files/folders backups in Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation build 3718. We are sorry for the inconvenience. It will be fixed in the next build.

Please also be aware that the backups can still be restored without any problems.

Thank you.

Note that you can quickly find the answers to your questions in Acronis Support Knowledge Base at http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/support/kb/

--
Best regards,
Eugene Khairullin

Acronis, Inc.
52 3rd Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803 USA
http://www.acronis.com
" }-

The only thing I ask is: Why the heck did they not post this answer in this forum before? ???
That would have saved me and others a lot of work in investigating the problem and doing all the tests. >:(

KR, philipp

[scottdr36]

I am having the same issue with ver. 10 after successfull backup , validation comes up with same archive is corrupt error, BUT I can mount and explore throught the image

[seekforever]

-{ Quote: "Hi everyone,

I promptly received an answer from Acronis support! :D



The only thing I ask is: Why the heck did they not post this answer in this forum before? ???
That would have saved me and others a lot of work in investigating the problem and doing all the tests. >:(

KR, philipp" }-

Acronis is not known for a logical, efficient approach to conveying information to the user community and as a result many support issues that could be quickly resolved aren't. There are many questions that are asked over and over and over... in this forum that could have been included in a FAQ or the Before you Post sticky.

I certainly don't fault setting up a Knowledge Base but the fact it is on the Acronis site and the user forum is here -makes one wonder if we have right hands and left hands unaware of what the others are doing.

[scottdr36]

3rd time, same error with file excluded. this version is just as glitchy as the last



update: i excluded an image file i made of my laptop this time for a laptop i have and the proccess completed successfully.

[MaverickOP]

The management at Acronis truly has their head up their.... well forget it. After reading this thread, i'm convinced the left hand is not communicating with the right hand. I'm going to stop buying Acronis products until they can clean up their act and stop this non-sense.

They release a job that is 1/2-arse done (case in point ATI v9.0 and v10); they can't even post a change log on their website; and you send off an e-mail to their tech support and it takes forever. That thing they call "knowledge base" on their website is horrendous - I thought MSKB was bad - there's nothing notable about it. You can't even define the search parameters!

Wow what great management. Next time I'll be going with Norton Ghost.

[Tabvla]

Originally posted by MaverickOP...

-{ Quote: "...I'm going to stop buying Acronis products until they can clean up their act and stop this non-sense. They release a job that is 1/2-arse done (case in point ATI v9.0 and v10)....Wow what great management. Next time I'll be going with Norton Ghost...." }-

I am sure that there are many on this Forum who share Maverick's sentiments, but before you jump ship you may want to consider the following:

ATI is technically the most advanced product currently available. The underlying software engineering is sound and is superior to similar products.
Engineers have no control over management decisions. Management decide when and how to release a product. Engineers make decisions based on technology. Management make decisions based on market forces.
Norton Ghost is not without its problems. In fact a large percentage of ATI customers were previously using Ghost. Subscribe to a Ghost Forum and spend some time going throught the posts before making a decision.

[BlueZannetti]

Folks,

Let's keep the discussion centered on the topic at hand, not alternate competitive options. If you wish to hold that discussion, use a general section of the site.

Blue

[MaverickOP]

-{ Quote: "I am sure that there are many on this Forum who share Maverick's sentiments, but before you jump ship you may want to consider the following:

ATI is technically the most advanced product currently available. The underlying software engineering is sound and is superior to similar products.
Norton Ghost is not without its problems. In fact a large percentage of ATI customers were previously using Ghost. Subscribe to a Ghost Forum and spend some time going throught the posts before making a decision.
" }-

When you shell out good money for a finalized product, you want it to work relatively well without excessive bugs. I remember very well that within the first 3 months of v9.0 being released, there were atleast 3-4 new builds (or "patches" if you will). That's just ridiculous. I can understand a patch or two during the initial phase, but 4 builds !? That's a good example of the management rushing a product to market out of pure greed.

Ghost may have it's problems, but they don't release a product pre-maturely and use the public joe as guinea pigs. You want to test out a product - then call it a beta. And if you want to rag on Norton Ghost, then post specifics. Symantec bought out PowerQuest about 2-3 years ago. What you may think is Ghost is really Drive Image.


-{ Quote: "
Engineers have no control over management decisions. Management decide when and how to release a product. Engineers make decisions based on technology. Management make decisions based on market forces." }-

You've got it so clear cut and dry - have you ever worked in any large corporation? In reality, they have a team of engineers and management that work together in formulating a product. Pre-maturely releasing a product before working out all the major bugs reflects more about the mangement style of the company than it does about the software engineers.

[boblite]

Using TI9 I had a somewhat similar problem trying to recover my C: drive yesterday.

I used something like:

1. F11 during boot
2. Selected Recovery from Acronis Secure Zone
3. Selected Restore disk or partitions
4. Selected C: drive, selected Proceed

The Acronis software then responded with --

"Partition Error; The selected partition contains the following error: MFT bitmap corrupted. Please note that you cannot change the file system and size of this partition. It is recommended that you check these partitions after restoration with your operating system restoration tools."

Well I certainly had not tried to change partition size or file system. So it must have been a "corrupt MFT bitmap", a term I have never encountered before, since I think of bitmaps as picture files like .bmp.

5. Out of curiosity I used Check Archive, used previously after establishing the archive, and once again was told "The backup archive was successfully checked"

So according to one version of reality (after doing backup) the C: partition was reported as being clean, so I was led into thinking that all was A-OK and I was properly protected. Then, lo and behold, when I actually tried to recover the C: partition, I was told the partition is corrupt. Grrrrr ! This rather undermines one's confidence in the reliability of the product.

However, after much fiddling about whose details I did not record I eventually recovered the C: partition, so I am not nearly as furious as I would be otherwise. This experience leads me to believe that it may be faults in the user interface that initially guided me to wrong choices rather than faults in the underlying software engine.

As noted in my recent post to the WishList, I wish that pertinent details of attempted recoveries be recorded to a floppy, so that failed recoveries may be e-mailed to the Acronis software engineers.

[Tabvla]

The only backup archive that you can be sure about is the one that you have successfully test-restored. In the case of data files this is a simple process because you can easily test-restore to any spare partition. (or Mount the image if the backup was of the entire data partition).

In the case of the operating system partition the ONLY way that you can be sure that your archive will restore is if you restore it to a spare disk and then boot your system from that disk. There is no shortcut.

There is no substitute for Testing. An untested backup is almost worse than no backup, because you believe that you have insurance only to find on D-Day that you don't, which is a little too late.

In the final analysis, companies like Acronis provide users with tools to perform tasks, but it is the ultimate responsibility of the user to ensure that those tools work as expected on their systems. The only way to have confidence in the product is to - understand how it works; set it up to work on your system and then Test, Test, Test.

And it does not matter if you are using True Image, Ghost, Copy Commander or the next Gee-Whiz product by the next Gee-Whiz company - the same principle applies, irrespective.

[bcool2]

-{ Quote: "

In the final analysis, companies like Acronis provide users with tools to perform tasks, but it is the ultimate responsibility of the user to ensure that those tools work as expected on their systems. The only way to have confidence in the product is to - understand how it works; set it up to work on your system and then Test, Test, Test.

And it does not matter if you are using True Image, Ghost, Copy Commander or the next Gee-Whiz product by the next Gee-Whiz company - the same principle applies, irrespective." }-

I think you offer sound advice here. I will say, however, that I had wonderful carefree years with Norton Ghost PE where I never once had a failed restoration nor did I ever have to fiddle with the software in the manner which you suggest for TI users. If I had not thought it wiser to convert to NTFS, I would still be with GhostPE today simply for the peace of mind. I admit though that TI is a remarkable piece of software but oddly it instills a trembling confidence as I now rely on it to backup and restore my system drive. In light of my recent experiences with TI, the regimen that you outline above could help to calm my nerves. For the moment, I'm keeping on hand several recent images saved to different locations in hopes that surely one will restore properly when "D" day comes again.

[seekforever]

-{ Quote: "... nor did I ever have to fiddle with the software in the manner which you suggest for TI users. ..." }-

I certainly wouldn't consider Tabvla's recommendation of thorough testing as "fiddling" with the software. It is just common sense since you have no idea if it works unless you test the whole process. In responsible companies who value their data, a lot of time is spent confirming the reliability of backup software before it is put into service.

I have run TI on my PCs with only one failed restore which was caused by a marginal SATA cable. I will say that TI does seem to really give disk and memory systems a workout and if your hardware isn't in good shape failures result. Why TI gives the appearance of being more sensitive, I don't know.

To sum it up, if TI is working on your machine it will continue to work on your machine unless you have a hardware failure or introduce a change. After changing hardware the backup should be tested and this applies to any backup program, not just TI. If you cannot validate or restore your archive everytime then you have a fault that needs to be investigated.

TI's serious software faults, based on reading this forum, tend to be based on the introduction of new chipsets or a lack of Linux drivers in the recovery environment. As a rule the chipset problem is not large but it does occur. Normally, these problems manifest themselves as a hard error not a marginal one. Remember that you are using the Linux recovery environment when you restore an active partion, typically C, even if the restore is started within Windows.

It is good practice to run chkdsk /r on every partition you have both on internal and external HDs every now and then. Archive validation errors will typically flag RAM problems but you can run a memory diagnostic every now and then for additional confidence if you want. I've said it a hundred times, you only need one bad bit out of muli-gigabytes to have an archive declared corrupt!

[bcool2]

-{ Quote: "
To sum it up, if TI is working on your machine it will continue to work on your machine unless you have a hardware failure or introduce a change. After changing hardware the backup should be tested and this applies to any backup program, not just TI. If you cannot validate or restore your archive every time then you have a fault that needs to be investigated.
" }-

Gospel! My recent experience with TI has been an eye-opener considering a history of five "ghostly" years of: worked-the-first-time-until-the-last-time-even-with-many-changes-to-my -box-yet-never-failed-once.
But I guess it's time for me to let go and move on. Thanks to both of you.