Can't Validate Archives

Didn't you make the TI 9 image from the TI 9 Recovery CD? That will work as will restoring the image from the TI 9 Recovery CD.

Installing TI 9 under Windows Vista is not likely to produce anything good, and it may not even be possible to uninstall it.

Since many of us have installed TI 10 on Vista systems and made backups that verify both in Windows Vista and from the TI 10 Recovery CD, there is something about your system that TI 10 doesn't like. Since you get the same corrupt images in both Windows Vista and Linux with TI 10, it has to be something basic to the program separate from the operating system or other software. Memory is one such possibility. Other hardware components are another.

For a real fluke, try making a new image and splitting the image at 1000 MB. That will make a lot of files, but sometimes in the past this allowed images to be verified. It may sound silly, but it's really worth a try.

Although you have run Memtest, it normally takes 24 hours to thoroughtly test a machine with enough RAM to run Vista, so I'd suggest you do that when you can give up your system for a day.

Beyond that, I think you are stuck with making images with your TI 9 CD and waiting for a new build of TI 10. What a bummer.

 

Try this for an odd "can't validate archives" scenario:-

True Image Home v10 build 4942 on Windows Vista can see my DVD drive and write a backup file to it when using the backup process. But it can't see the DVD drive at all when it comes to trying a validation or restore process! the DVD (Drive E) is shown on TI10's list of drives to backup to. But the drive list menu in Validate or Restore only shows my floppy and internal hard drives C & D. If I plug an external hard drive in via a USB port, Validate and Restore can see that, though never the internal DVD drive!

So TI10 gives me the option of backing up to DVD but then denies me the option of validating that backup or restoring from it. Windows Explorer does see the DVD drive and also the DVD with a backup file in it. This doesn't look like a problem with my system or memory. If TI10 can see the DVD drive and disk to backup to, but can't see it to validate or restore from, it looks like a problem within a component of TI10 to me.

I've sent a tech support request e-mail today to see if any help can be given by Acronis.

 

I have been receiving the same error. Here's an interesting twist though;

In the last couple days of trouble shooting this here our my results:

I'm running Vista 32 Home version
4GB ram (of which only 3 slots are recognized by Vista (I added the 4th slot after purchase) the 4th slot isn't recognized-- but the BIOS does recognize all four. This is a known problem I'm researching too.

I've tried doing a B/U with Validation on two different external hard drives;
1st one-WD My Book Essential w/ 750GB USB 2.0--this is the drive I get the error on

2nd one-WD Media Center w/ 250GB Firewire--this one works perfect.

So, it can't be my memory, or needing to do a check disk (which I did do), it has to be something about the external H/D of the USB 2.0.

Can anyone decipher something from this scenario?

Cheers All!!

 

If you are validating with the boot CD version then it could be a Linux driver problem. In this case Windows may validate OK.

If you are having troubles with the Windows version then it may point out a problem with the USB device.

You can do a check of the file transfer by selecting a large file, one of your tib files, and calculating its checksum (make note of it). Copy the file with Windows Explorer to your USB drive and calculate the checksum again, it must agree. Now, copy the file back to your HD and recalculate the checksum. Again, it must agree. If they all don't you have a USB or the disk in the USB case problem. (It could also be a RAM problem but given your other experience that is less likely.)

A free checksum calculator is available here:

http://www.irnis.net/soft/xcsc/

 

Thanks. I treid this and your instinct was correct. Here are the results:

J drive = WD 250GB ext HD FAT32 LBA
Z drive = WD 750GB ext HD FAT32 LBA

I copied one .tib file from my J drive (which was a good valdation with TI) and copied it to my Z drive. The checksums were different. I then copied the same file back to my J drive, the checksum from Z back to J matched.
I did the checksum test with a 107MB file (copying from J to Z and the checksums matched). So it looks like any big file going to my Z drive isn't copying correctly.
So, using the file size option in TI I tried a back up to my Z drive with a max size of 100MB and still got the same error.

Any thoughts?

 

I think it would make the analysis a bit more focussed if you did the checksum tests with files from your internal HD to/from the external rather than from USB to USB.

Your results show a problem but unfortunately the checksum case that works doesn't provide a solution for your TI validation problem. This could indicate something is marginal. In general, TI is known to really give systems a workout and things that don't normally fail can fail when running TI.

Is the 750GB drive recognized properly by your system?

Try plugging the USB cable into the back of your PC rather than the front. The extra cable length to the front can be a problem.

Try a different USB port if you were already plugged into the back.

Try a different USB cable.

Run the same checksum tests on a different PC with the 750GB external.

I am assuming your PC isn't overclocked or running with aggressive memory timings. If it is, back off to the "normal" ones.

It wouldn't hurt to run memtest86+, V1.7, available free at www.memtest.org . This test is best run for an extended period of time such as overnight.

 

Wait, isn't this because the drives are FAT32? FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB.

 

If I split the archives into 4GB pieces they will then validate fine. Have you tried that?

 

TI automatically splits the files when writing to a FAT32 device and it normally causes no problems.

 

mikex11,

Suggest you take a look at this thread:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=185256

JPC

 

These are my sentiments entirely and I feel very strongly about it. Just imagine if you'd bought a faulty television and the manufacturer suggested a whole load of troubleshooting to get to the root of the problem! Yet, for some reason, that's the way the computer industry seems to work. How much longer will it go on for?

JPC

 

I understand your frustration and I find Acronis guilty of not paying attention to the issues raised in this forum. There is a wealth of info here that could alleviate a lot of the problems.

On the other side of the coin, to use your TV example, it just isn't the same type of problem. The TV is meant to deal with a very standard, consistent signal and if you get it working properly at the factory it will work everywhere there is an acceptable signal. This is light-years from the PC industry where there are a million different types of hardware and software that your product has to co-exist with and this is compounded by the numerous ways the products can be configured and mixed on a system. Apart from a stock fix that works there is little that can be done to troubleshoot a problem without the customer doing some work and supplying information.

I admit I do wonder if some features of new products were given much testing at the factory though.

 

Hi Seekforever,

You may be interested in this thread:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=186016

With reference to my TV example, I agree that it wasn't a perfect choice from a technical point-of-view. But I think the gist of my comment was hopefully clear.

Regards,

JPC

 

Yes, I've seen it and I don't disagree with the view of the original poster on how TI seems to do business. If you go back in the posts to the time TI10 was released you will my posts regarding the annoyance at the lack of correcting some major bugs in TI9 that still existed when TI10 was released. Acronis did finally release some corrections but it didn't fix them all and some considered the previous build to be better.

I accept that a product like TI will have bugs when released because while you can do a lot of QA and testing there is just no way you can cover everything in the PC world as mentioned before. However, I think Acronis could do a lot better and to give them a bit of credit I think TI10 in spite of its faults was a better release than the initial disaster TI9 was. TI11 - I don't know.

Acronis support may not be at the top of the heap but I've seen a lot worse.

I am at a loss to explain why there were so few bug correction builds released for TI10. Could be they unfortunately listened to all of the posts made during the heyday of TI9 that said that there were too many updates!

While I'm on that subject, I chuckle about the posts wanting a stripped down version ( I would be happy with one since I only use TI for full images done manually.) yet there are more posts wanting all sorts of clever features that IMO are another potential source of problems for little gain. The software business model always says that more, not fewer, features sell the product unless you are prepared to almost give it away.

I've digressed a bit but as I've often posted, I don't think Acronis is aware of the wealth of information in this forum that would improve their product if acted upon. This is the type of information that other companies spend big money to determine and here it is for free.