Build 3567: Bug in Restore of directories

For the first time, I had a need to do a restore with build 3567.

Prior to doing the restore, I used the following tools to verify that the backup was correct:

http://www.standards.com/index.html?CompareDrives
http://www.standards.com/index.html?GetFileTypeDistribution

Happily, the backup seemed to be correct, so I proceeded to do the following:

1. I reformatted the D drive.
2. I started the recovery process in TI and choose to restore only the D drive, using the "files and folders" option.
3. I had one directory on the D drive that could not be deleted, so I selected ALL the directories from the backup, other than that single directory.
4. I told TI to NOT change the dates and times.

Subsequent to the restore, I again ran

http://www.standards.com/index.html?CompareDrives
http://www.standards.com/index.html?GetFileTypeDistribution

Comparing the newly restored D drive with the backup.

I was very disappointed to find a serious bug, i.e., tho the file dates and times do not appear to have changed, ALL directories were recreated with the current date and time. That's a serious bug.

Remember, this was in a "files and folders" restore, as I could not do an image recovery since I needed to omit one directory.

Oh well, I guess that I'll write a program to get the dates from the backup and change the dates on the D drive.

 

No response from Acronis in over 51 hours!
In any case, I wrote a program to remedy things,

 

Hello Howard Kaikow,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Thank you for the provided information. I have forwarded this issue to our Development Team. As this can take a few days, we apologize in advance for any delay with response. It will be fixed in the future builds of a particular product. I'll let you know when the fixed build will be available. Please accept our apologies for the current inconvenience.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

I have considered making my program available that can fix such directory times.

Are others seeing the same problem?

On which drives?
In particular, does the drive have OS or system files?

 

Hello Howard,

Thanks for your report.
Time stamps for directories are not restored when you restore files and folders. Our Development Team is aware of this issue and it will be fixed as soon as possible.

Thank you.
--
Anton Sherkhonov

 

Just fer the record, the issue still exists in build 3625.

 

HOward,
I plead ignorance here.
why is the time stamp of directory important, if the file date/time is correct?

does this affect other utilities, etc?

I do thank you for your assistance.
Nick

 

1. Even if it was of no importanced, it's a bug.
2. The time stamp for a directory is just as significant as the time stamp for a file.

 

Did they get this bug fixed in the latest release of ATI??

 

Hello Horus37,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that we are still working on this issue along with the Development Team and will do our best in order to provide you with a solution as soon as possible. Please accept our profound apologies for the delay. I will post here as soon as the fix for this issue will me available.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Since this thread is about tI 9, does the above response mean that there will be yet another build for TI 9.

I reported this problem back in May 2006. This is a very simple problem to fix.
See http://www.standards.com/index.html?ChangeTimesCover.
Why has this taken so long?

 

I am currently using ATI 10 and it has the same behaviour: on a partial restore the file dates can be kept intact but the folder dates are all reset. This is a big problem with large file sets.

When can we expect this long outstanding problem to be fixed.

Thanks for your help.

Michael

 

As much as it pains me, I'll (partially) defend Acronis.
Wow, it really hurt to say that!

If you are restoring a drive's image, the implementatio should be straightforward to maintain the times, but there are some trick(s) that need to be used.

For a file restore, it is a bit trickier.

In any case, you can restore times using http://www.standards.com/index.html?ChangeTimesCover

 

Hello FlyboyMichael,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

As I stated in the post #10 of this thread, Acronis Development Team is still working on this issue.

I will post in this thread as soon as the fix for this issue will me available.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Acronis has totally ignored this issue. I can't say whether Acronis support lied or not by replying "I have forwarded this issue to our Development Team. As this can take a few days, we apologize in advance for any delay with response. It will be fixed in the future builds of a particular product." And then, later, "Time stamps for directories are not restored when you restore files and folders. Our Development Team is aware of this issue and it will be fixed as soon as possible."

This was in Apr 2004, with ATI build 3.5xx.
I bought ATI S/W, build 4.940, in July 2007 and I still see "Set current date and time for restored files" still checked by default!

If they can't fix such a simple thing ... (I leave this open for anyone to complete the sentence)

Alekos

 

This bug was reported by me, and others, well over a year ago.

In the meantime, you can use the ChangeTimes programs to fix the times.