Is there any way to fix corrupted TI 9 images?

I have two TI 9 images. Both were validated. However, they are now corrupted. I think the only common denominator is I moved both of them to the same USB external hard drive after validation and not they show as corrupt.

My belief is that Acronis somehow thinks both files are corrupted after the file move.

These are 50 GB files. It really bothers me that Acronis is really weak in this regard. Does one bad bit make the whole archive bad?!?!?!

Does Acronis offer any tools to fix corrupted archives? I'd hate to see all my archives go to waste. If Acronis can't fix corrupted archives, then it may be time for me to find another drive image solution. This is ridiculous.

 

I would like to post a follow up comment.
We have to trust that our drive images will be robust enough to stand being moved to another drive. If copying a file makes the image "corrupt" then this product is woefully lacking.

If I can't trust my drive image *.tib files to be stable then I might as well make straight file and folder backups using Windows XP!

 

hi peter

i am very sorry to hear that. i just make a post in here
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=198888
that explain why is very stupid backup stuff which isnt the main drive c:\ (os drive) in order to get back to work fast

cheers

 

More bad news for me. When Acronis failed in restoring my image it also corrupted the Dell MBR on my hard drive. Now I can't boot or do anything else. Dell tech support seems to be clueless on how to fix this.

Way to go Acronis! Your image is corrupt and now you've corrupted by MBR!
Anyone have a good suggestion for a different backup solution? I think it's time to put Acronis in the garbage where it belongs.

 

there are some tools that earse the MBR you can find in google.
after that u can start install a fresh copy of your OS


cheers

 

After further research I think my partition table is totally jacked. I can't do anything--the disk isn't readable to Windows.

Can't I just use FDISK /MBR? Will that clear my partition table too? Why would have I have to a google search for a tool?

I have another problem. Since this is a Dell I then I have to rebuild the Dell System Restore part of the MBR.

Thanks for your good work Acronis. I've had enough of your products. I feel like I'm your beta tester. I also feel you are more interested in releasing a new version every year rather than making the current product version you have work properly.

There is a key word in programming Acronis should learn-ROBUSTNESS!

 

So here's my question.

What if the only archives I have are Acronis True Image corrupted files?
Is there anyone with specialized skill in hexademical editing to fix the corruption and allow a restore?

 

If ATI can't validate a copy of an archive on a disk, then it won't be able to use the archive on that drive--not necessarily the end of the road. Note that sometimes, ATI will declare an archive corrupt after putting it onto a USB drive even though the file is not corrupt. This happens when the file is being copied without error but ATI is unable to read the file on that drive without error. Did you try copying the file back to ahard disk and trying to validate?


If files *are* becoming corrupted when copied, the problem is most likely that one of your drives is bad or that your USB connection is as good as it should be. One bit will skunk a backup archive as it will many programs, driver files, etc. Of course, if your pc is corrupting files, the larger the file, the greater the chance that it will have a corrupted bit -- so, it's best to validate an archive after you copy it and before deleting the original, have more than one backup, and, if you can, store them in more than one geographical location.

good luck

 

let me tell youe something mate...never hear of such problem using other image making programs (didnt say symantec ghost hehe)...if a program can do a good trusted image even if its on usb...i said what the hell

 

If one or another drive is causing bad copies, it doesn't matter what program made the file.

If a person doubts that that other backup progs have big probs, just check the forums (some companies don't even have forums, which isn't a good sign at all). None of them work on all hardware set-ups, it's a question of what works on an individual's particular type of hardware and what features are offered for what price.

I used to used Ghost but swithced when I seet up a RAID and asked Norton about Ghost working on RAID and they basically told me to drop the RAID or drop dead. I've tried others but still find ATI10 to be better for me--especially the automated management of archives.

 

This is a major problem! One bad bit ruins the image and there's no one who can fix it? That is pathetic.

 

One must start with the knowledge that the files on a PC are really all part of 1 big directory tree a la unix/linux.

A drive is just a node in the tree.

Acronis chose to create a single image for the entire tree.
Other products, chose to create a separate image for each drive in the tree.

The latter approach has two advantages:

1, If the image for a drive goes belly up, the images for the other drives might still be good.
2. When doing a verify, it is faster to verify only those drive images that actually changed.

I'd be surprised if Acronis did not have internal tools that could fix certain types of problems. Such options need to be made available to users.

However, drives do get bad spots, making recovery of archives/files difficult, if not impossible. Nothing Acronis can do about that.

And, moving an archive from one drive to another will expose the archive to being copied to a drive with bad sectors. BEFORE such a move make sure the original file is in perfect condition. AFTER the copy, use a program such as the following to assure that the copy is identical with the original: CompareDRivesUsingFileContent. Such a program will take a loooong time to run as it is reading each byte of all files in the path.

There are two things to check:

1. Is the TI file self-consistent? Only Acronis can provide software to do this.

2, Can the BYTES of the archive be read. This can be tested using a program, e.g., ReadFile. If the bytes of the file can be read, then the archive has become self-inconsistent and only Acronis can ride their white horse to the rescue, Oooops, I guess so too could Sir Lancelot!

 

I worked on a large Universe/Unidata Pick database system. Our files became corrupted at times and the experts had to repair our files using hexadecimal editing tools to link the data together.

They were so talented they could identify the exact files that were corrupted when they sewed files back together. The downside was this service cost $1,000 an hour, but that's peanuts to a 200 million dollar per year business.

Acronis needs to release a file repair utility that will scan through corrupt archives and fix them! They must have the tools to do this and I agree we as users deserve the right to access them.

I said it before and I'll say it again--I'm through using Acronis if they don't have the resources to fix my corrupted images.

 

So you're going to ask Acronis developers to manually fix your image. Are you going to pay for several hours of work, $1000 per hour?

 

Usually the problem can be fixed in 30 minutes. Anyway, I tried to mount the image and it worked. I then copied the data files out of the mounted volume. I have my data. The image says it's corrupted but I can still get my data so I'm okay.

However, not having any tools to repair a corrupted image is not acceptable.
And I don't think Acronis is willing to offer image file repair services anyway.

 

By the way, I fixed this today myself with a little help from a Dell genius named Dan Goodell.

www.goodells.net

Dan has a tool called DSRFIX that fixes the MBR.
He gave me instructions to manually edit my partition table to fix the MBR.
Then I ran DSRFIX on the drive and it restored the drive.

Then I mounted my Acronis TRUE (as in TRUE Disappointment) Image to a drive letter and copied the files out. Explain to me how I can mount the drive image, but the drive image is corrupt.

Anyway, take home point: Acronis and Dell offered no help for me. It was through my own resourcefulness and Dan Goodell that I solved this problem.

It's really sad when the manufacturers of hardware and software can't find solutions and independent techies have to figure everything out on their own.

 

Let's start at ground 0.

A file is nothing more than a stream of bytes with associated attributes.

The interpretation of the stream of bytes in any file is application specific.

In the case of a backup archive, each file that constitutes the backup archive has an application dependent structure.

Hopefully, such structures include mechanisms for verifying wheter a file is self-consistent, as far as the application is concerned. As far as we know, True Image does have such structures.

On top of that, each application may include structures that will assist in data recovery if a file gets "corrupted".

I expect that some archives are better than others for such protection.

So, the questions to ask are:

1. What types of recovery protections are built into each archive?
2. What tools are available to recover corrupt archives?

Note that if an archive becomes corrupt because the undelying sectors get corrupt, that adds an additional loyer on the complexit yproblem.

So, Acronis what recovry structures are included?
What tools are available?

Indeed, these might be the first questions one should ask in choosing an archiving program.

 

grandma once told me no to put all the egg in one basket.

thats why backup files "as it is" always better (and smarter) than in 1 huge file (s).

cheers

 

I really like how some posters point the finger at the person who made the backup.

Let's suppose I'm walking down the street and someone stabs me with a knife. You'd probably say it's my fault I didn't carry a gun to protect myself.

Doesn't Acronis have some responsibility to make recovery tools available?
We live in a capitalistic society--the laws of supply and demand apply here.
I am tired of this B.S. and thus my demand for a tool like Acronis is going down. I want them to make the product work and not be so fragile. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

 

I think one of Acronis' biggest problems is that their error messages possibly require more work to make them more user friendly and accurate.

I suspect the problem isn't an actual file corruption otherwise mounting would not work correctly if at all. It might be that the archive verification information embedded in the image file may be corrupt - rather than the contents. It might be useful to have the ability to override the verification of the image before restoring - though of course this would bring it's own set of disasters if not used as intended.

Colin