$1million to the person who ....

... creates a True Image corruption repair package!

If the right money is offered for some software that can repair or force an extract of a damaged image .... can it be done?

 

Data can already be extracted from a damaged is that enough?

Xpilot

 

Data can't be recreated from nothing. If the data is corrupted, then it's gone. In most cases, the uncorrupted parts can already be extracted by mounting the image.

Until Acronis includes parity information or some other form of "repair data" inside the image, I don't think it can be recovered. Doing this would increase the image size by at least 50% and then you'd have people fussing that their images are too large. An option would be nice, though.

 

Mudcrab, if you do not know what you are talking about, simply don't post. "Raid"ing the backup data would not add 50% - and probably would not even be necessary it Acronis would get their restore process error free.

Sometimes, even if the restore function detects a corrupted archive, you can still mount the backup and copy the data manually from the assigned drive letter.

Tom

 

Big Tom I'm sure Mud Crab is quite capable of taking care of himself but I just wanted you to know that your comment is way out of line. Mud Crab is one of the most knowledgeable members of this forum and gladly shares his vast knowledge.

OTC

 

I don't claim to be an expert on error correction or parity information and I wasn't referring to RAID. However, in what I've read, the amount of recovery available depends on the amount of recovery information available. If the image file is 50% corrupted and you only have enough error recovery information to restore with a maximum 20% corruption, then you won't be able to recover it.

Perhaps saying "at least 50%" was on the high side. It may be more in the 20-30% range. Comparing to RAID, RAID 1 would add 100% to the file size and RAID 5 (with 3 drives) would add 50% (parity information takes up the space of one entire drive). Programs that create parity information like PAR1, PAR2, QuickPAR, etc. can take quite a while to process the file(s) and allow for adjustments depending on the amount of recovery you want available. This will ultimately determine the final file size.

Also, talking about the restore process being error-free and talking about repairing a corrupted image file are two different things. There are many posts about images being reported as corrupted when they are really not. Actual "physical" corruption/loss comes from bad sectors, errors on CDs/DVDs, missing file splits, etc. This is actual data loss and can't be recovered without having recovery information available to use. It is also not something that Acronis can "just fix" or "get right" without adding to the image size.

As already stated by Xpilot and myself. I also figured out a method to recover data from a split image when one of the splits is completely missing (as long as it's not the first or last split). Acronis doesn't even offer this as a solution and images in this state will not even mount to allow extraction.

 

Thanks. It's always nice to be appreciated.

 

I have 12gb of photos and videos taken in Rwanda over a period of 2 years. They were never burnt to DVD's ... stupidly, i dont think so anyway, no idea why i didnt.

I verified them after creating the images but on returning to England i discovered that they were all corrupted

I will do anything to retrieve even the smallest amount of data back off these images!

 

If the images are not on DVDs, what are they on? External USB drive?

When you previously verified them, was it on a different computer than what you're trying to use now?

What version and build of TI are you using now?
What version and build of TI was used to create the backup images?

 

As a general principle a minimum of two copies of unreplaceable data should be kept. From what you report it would seem that your original photos were uploaded to a computer, an image was made of them and the originals were then deleted.
If my understanding is correct you have exposed your data to considerable risk and now as the saying goes the chickens have come home to roost.

Quite why TI is used to image presumably in a compressed format data that is already compressed is something I do not understand. It is far easier and safer to keep a straight copy on separate media and to retain the originals or even make a second copy elsewhere.

Xpilot

 

It's one thing to disagree with ideas and quite another to attack a person presenting ideas. We're all adults here, right?

****

With the appropriate programing, a genuinely corrupt tib file could, conceivably have the bad parts marked and ATI try to recover from the rest of the file -- it would probably be no less chancy than trying to recover files when a bad sector shows up on harddisk. I don't think Acronis is working on this tack. Personally, I'd rather just revert to another tib file that isn't corrupt than try to restore one that is.

If the problem is a case where the BootCD can't read the tib properly and reports it as corrupt, even though it isn't, or more or less routinely has this problem, then that's requires a diff kind of solution and I"m pretty sure Acronis is working on minimizing the cases (or hardware setups) where that occurs.

 

Hi sWiZzLe,

You haven't provided enough information for anyone to try to help you. We need to know what version of True Image was used to create the tib files. Was the backup process done using the Files/Folders method or was it a Partition/Disk method? Where was the original tib file stored (on what media)? Where is the tib file stored now? Have you copied the tib file to a different media or location?

How you got into this situation is immaterial. However, without all the details of how the tib file was created and what's happened to it since its creation, no one can help you. Most files that TI reports as being corrupt are actually good images that are falsely being reported as corrupt. These files can usually be recovered by experimenting with different recovery options, using a different version of TI, copying them to different media or doing the recovery on a different computer. If the tib file is truely corrupt due to real data loss, you're out of luck.

 

Hello sWiZzLe,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that it is possible that the archive is being declared corrupt because of faulty data transfers. Please run a memory diagnostics such a Memtest86+ available free from www.memtest.org for a several hours. There should be no errors reported. Please also run Windows chkdsk utility with parameter "/r" on the hard drive the archive is stored at.
If there are no errors with memory/hard drive reported, please try copying/moving the archive to another location, and validating it again. Please also try using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media to validate the archive.

Notice that in most cases corrupted archives can be mounted/explored and most of data recovered. Please see chapter "Exploring archives and mounting images" of the respective User's Guide for details.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Yes i totally understand that i should've burnt the images, but im not entirely sure i didnt! But I was extremely stressed and utterly exhausted from 2 years working as an Accountant / IT Manager, Technician & Trainer in a street kids organisation in Rwanda. I was lucky enough to get malaria around 20 times and constantly had worms You try living in a mud hut with no carpets, hardly any electricity, no running water and a hole in the ground for a toilet Apart from all that i rather enjoyed being there!

The reason i backed up the computer was that i was leaving it there - i took a Shuttle out with me but after all the bombings and reduced weight restrictions for baggage i didnt think i would be able to get away with being 10kg of my hand luggage allowance again on my journey home. So i backed up to a hard drive and brought it home with me.

I honestly have no idea why i would not have copied these images to dvd's as it is totally unlike me. I was backing up everything before i left My boss is going back to Rwanda shortly so i am going to ask him if he can bring home the disks i left there so i can see if i did in fact back up these images but forgot .... highly unlikely

So backed up in Rwanda using a Shuttle SK43G - god knows what version of TI, now trying to restore them ... well not really i've given up, there is only so many times i can try before putting my fist through my monitor

There is nothing wrong with my computer, its you software that has phucked me over here!

 

I've noticed that you don't say what method or version of TI you are using to try and restore your 'backup' - have you put the hard drive into an external case? If so USB or Firewire? are these connections going through an external hub?

If you've put the hard drive into your computer, what do you see in Windows Explorer, does TI see your hard drive?

What is the exact error message you are getting?

Colin

 

Hi,

I may can help you...

mount your damaged backup file as a volume, then use "GetDataBack for NTFS" or "GetDataBack for FAT" to scan your mounted volume for files which can be restored!
If there are bad sectors, select to ignore them all...

I hope I could help you

If you are not able to find GetDataBack, contact me

Marc

 

If it was two years ago, it must have been version 9.0 that you used. It doesn't have an option to mount the backup archive, you can only explore.

If when you explore, validate or restore the backup archive you always get a message that backup archive is corrupted then I guess there is no way to get anything out of it.

Also there might be a point tryin to restore in rescue mode using Acronis Rescue CD (if you tried in Windows)

 

Version 9 did indeed have a mount feature, I used it all the time, with win98se and also XP. Still do on my old computer.

 

Be sure you make a backup copy of your valuable data before running chkdsk /r, GetDataBack for NTFS, GetDataBack for FAT or similar programs. These operations can sometimes be destructive and can make matters worse. I'm assuming you can still at least copy the data to another drive, even if it can't be restored or mounted using ATI.

Personally, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to edit a damaged tib file using WinHex or some other hex editor in order to make it mountable again. Has anybody done any work along these lines? Probably just a matter of giving it a valid header or something.

Acronis support, please comment on this idea.

edit:
Now that I read the posts again, it sounds like there are multiple images that can't be accessed, so using a hex editor is probably not the best approach. Plus, we need much more specific information from the OP, including what he has tried so far and what error messages were produced.

 

I've done work on mounting images with splits corrupted/missing to allow recovery of the files on the remaining splits. See Critical 500GB backup ruined? How to recover something?

However, fixing the corrupted bits/bytes would be very hard to do without knowing the internal image format. A better solution would be for TI to give you the option to go ahead and restore a "corrupted" image. In most cases, only a small part is actually missing.