Image file names

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by helpdesk, Nov 25, 2008.

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  1. helpdesk

    helpdesk Registered Member

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    All the versions until 2009 allowed you to overwrite an old image with an updated image with the same name. Is there any way to get 2009 to overwrite the old image? Each time you run a new image, it will add a number to the name. For instance, if you have the options set to make an image the 4.3gig size, and if you called the image laptop, the files would be laptop1.tib, laptop2 . . . If there were 5 files, the next time it creates an image, it will start with laptop6, etc, even if you told it to create a new image, and you set it to overwrite the old image.
     
  2. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Are you using the latest build of TI 2009 (9,646)?

    If I select the Full option with no splits, running the task will overwrite (replace) the existing file.

    If I select to split the image (I selected 100MB due to the small test partition), I got this on the first backup:
    TestOverwrite1.tib
    TestOverwrite2.tib
    TestOverwrite3.tib
    TestOverwrite4.tib
    TestOverwrite5.tib


    Running the task again (I added a file to the partition) results in the following:
    TestOverwrite51.tib (replaces TestOverwrite5.tib)
    TestOverwrite52.tib
    TestOverwrite53.tib
    TestOverwrite54.tib
    TestOverwrite55.tib
    TestOverwrite56.tib


    On the next run, I get:
    TestOverwrite561.tib (replaces TestOverwrite56.tib)
    TestOverwrite562.tib
    TestOverwrite563.tib
    TestOverwrite564.tib
    TestOverwrite565.tib
    TestOverwrite566.tib


    So, it's actually overwriting the last split of the previous image, appending a 1 and continuing. This leaves the old image files on the drive and also renders them useless because the last split is missing.

    If I edit the task after the third run, the Backup location filename is set to TestOverwrite566.tib. Apparently, it's starting from the ending filename instead of the initial filename (which would be the correct way to do it).
     
  3. MKairys

    MKairys Registered Member

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    OMG it's worse than I thought. I haven't tried it with a split yet; I assumed it would start overwriting from the first split file.

    So, not only is there no way to avoid overwriting the previous full archive, but even overwriting the previous full archive doesn't work correctly! Do you know if this has been reported as a bug?
     
  4. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    That's what I would have assumed too. To avoid the problem, you would have to manually edit the task and reset the filename before every run.

    No, I don't know.

    ---

    I think this bug falls into the same category as the "duplicating passwords" and "duplicating exclusions" bugs. TI is making changes to the Task settings that are incorrect and unknown to the user.
     
  5. MKairys

    MKairys Registered Member

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    Yes. That seems to be how it persists the information it needs between runs. One might have thought it would use its new central database for this...
     
  6. MKairys

    MKairys Registered Member

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    For the record, if you set up an incremental backup task, and set a limit on number of incrementals before another full backup, and let it run, here's what you get (limit = 2):

    testinc.tib
    testinc2.tib
    testinc3.tib
    testinc(1).tib (full)
    testinc(1)2.tib
    testinc(1)3.tib
    testinc(2).tib (full)
    ... etc.

    And if you try something bold such as moving testinc.tib -> testing(1)3.tib out of the destination folder before the next run, you'll get testinc(2).tib, because as MudCrab pointed out, it's persisted in the task info.
     
  7. helpdesk

    helpdesk Registered Member

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    So now that everyone knows what the bug is, how do we get Acronis to do something about it? Anythime I send an email to tech support, I have the same problem others in these forums have, no response. I have used True Image since version 8. There was a bug in version 11 which, even after they supposedly corrected it, the boot up program to restore would not recognize my RAID array, so I went back to version 10, which worked flawlessly. I participated in the 2009 beta and let them know the items I found. I wasn't able to use it since it constantly crashed. When I installed the final release version, most things seem to work, except this issue of overwriting the original image. If you want to be protected, in case of an external hard drive failure, and you set the archive to split so it can be copied to DVD, this is what you get. They have some great products, it's just too bad they have such terrible tech support.
     
  8. MKairys

    MKairys Registered Member

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    What really concerns me about 2009 is the impression I get that Acronis is thrashing about in design space. They wanted to introduce a way to manage archive retention without writing scripts, so they gave us Backup Locations and associated rules; fair enough, but when that proved difficult to implement correctly, they dumped it entirely for quite a different design. It's a big step back to the drawing board, and (given their stunning lack of Q/A) promises lots of bugs and many iterations before it works correctly, if it ever does. And if it doesn't, then what? Another entirely new approach, with an entirely new set of bugs?

    It's perhaps even more disconcerting that they're thrashing about in requirements space; requirements comes before design comes before implementation, and they don't seem to have a firm handle on what the product is supposed to be able to do. Should one be able to schedule a full image backup and retain the previous archive? Apparently not (although how the answer to that could possibly be "no" baffles and amazes me). Should one be able to automatically get a full backup after a specified number of incrementals? Yesterday, no; today, yes.

    It's such a classic error for a development team to proceed to implementation before design is solid, or to design before requirements are solid. Didn't Brooks write The Mythical Man-Month over thirty years ago?
     
  9. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    25,885
    Hello all,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

    This is known issue, it has been reported to our Development Team, the fix will be available in one of next releases. Please be aware that you can receive the latest information on Acronis software by signing up for Acronis Newsletter .

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexander Nikolsky
     
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