About To Ditch Acronis

Well it all started from the last thread https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=220911&highlight=compress The compression never worked properly. Basically I ended up changing some configuration settings (boot priority) which made me think my OS installation was messed up, so I tried to do an image restore with Acronis True Image Home 11 and it said my image was corrupt please select another one. So I tried the very first (and most important) image of my pc which was just after the reload with all the programs and games and windows updates installed, and it said it was corrupt as well. I tried with full and safe mode. Luckily I did not lose my entire partition. This is about the last straw with me and this software because I had another computer which I tried to make a simple image but it was always corrupt. I always verify backups each and every time I backup and it passes. So my bottom line of this software seems to be, it attempts compression but does not check compression afterwards to see if it applied and simply gives a message "Backup operation completed successfully." And it creates backups and verifies them successfully even though they are in fact corrupt and unusable which defeats the purpose of verification. I never thought in a million years I would be considering using Norton Ghost, but im just so disappointed in Acronis. I really expected more. Anyone else share my issue? Or can anyone explain to me why it is preforming so poorly?

 

Some of the problem here is ATI and some, I think is yours. But he main problmem is that ATI doesn't work on your hardware and now, how much toruble do you want to go through to get it working?

The shortest trip, if you stay with ATI, is making a BartPE or VistaPE disk. Next would be to contact Tech Support and maybe get some help -- they'llask you to collect some info form your computer and then send you a iso file to burn to CD to make a boot cd that hopefully will work with your PC.

Other alternatives are to try other backup progs, most have free trials.

 

I use Acronis Home Image 11 and backups work for me BUT ONLY to hard disks. I use hard disk caddies for backups.

I have tried using backups to DVD but unless I can fit all my files onto 1 DVD it has never worked for me.

Using spanned DVD's of more than 2 DVD's or CD's NEVER EVER worked even though Validation says that everything has worked. I have tried different brands of DVD and 3 different DVD drives.

Restores from spanned DVD's failed with a message saying that the validated backup is corrupt.

The software the way that I use it with removable hard disks works reliably and for the small cost has rescued me many times. But I would not buy it again as only some of the features work on my Windows XP Prof, Pentium IV system.

 

DVD burning has never been TI's strong suit. Most of us experienced users still use the 2-step method if we want an archive on DVD. This means creating the archive on HD with a suitable split-size and then burning it to DVD using Nero, Roxio, or whatever. We also would do what it takes to get the DVD back onto a HD to do a restore rather than fooling with interminable swapping and other hassles.

While this may or may not be related to your problem, a Validation done in Windows is relatively useless until you know you can validate and restore using the TI rescue CD which is Linux. It obviously has different drivers and they may not handle your hardware properly. When TI restores the active partition it cannot use Windows so it either runs the Linux environment from your HD (after rebooting) or you are running the CD version.

Personally, I have even stopped doing 3rd level backups on DVD which I used to store at my friend's house in case of total disaster. It is far easier to take an old 80GB HD and write it, I don't even put the HD into a box; I have a USB to IDE, SATA, Notebook IDE adaper gizmo with its own power supply. Too much OS and application data to fool with multiple DVDs anymore.

 

Thanks for that. Yes the 2 step idea is good.

Coincidentaly I have today had a problem with compression when backing up to a hard disk. I have put a few comments on another posting about this. Its my first problem in 11 months of regular backups, backing up to a hard disk.

Re: Acronis True Image 11 Won't Compress?

"Todays back up Drive C: to drive E: The backup file produced by Acronis Home Image 11 is 59 GB in size but the used space on Drive C: is only 34 GB.

So the backup is 50% larger than the original files.

The backup is 100% larger than my last backup of the same drive done a few weeks ago."

**
Now sorted. Chkdsk on C: found corrupt allocation records.

I used the rescue CD to do the backup as I find this quicker.

 

Hello abcdjzmcbt,

Thank you for purchasing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

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.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

I agree with much of what has been said. TI works for me though I prefer TI 10 to 11 as 11 tends to fall over at nothing. I always backup to other HD's one is an internal slave the other an external HD. I don't use compression and this may sound bizarre but I don't validate either. I have had two failed restores when using validation and one where I have had to use my Vlite installation disk to repair Windows startup, I have no idea why that should be. I also always use VistaPe now for restores as it is very very quick when compared to the Acronis Loader and far more reliable.

 

Thanks for the reply. But, as stated in my previous thread, I already ran chkdsk -r on both of my drives. I also ran the memtest on my ram sticks and both of them passed with no errors. I have tested all of my computer hardware components down to the motherboard and cpu. I have tried creating the image on two different hard drives yet I get the same results. Any other ideas?

 

I had a similar problem with DVD’s. The only way I can use DVD’s is to boot with BartPE. I can then read all the DVD’s without the corruption error message. The only thing I can figure is my system (DVD drive) does not like Linux.

 

Ok. From what I hear it sounds like i need to just junk this Acronis CD and use the BartPE cd. I wanted to avoid using BartPE but I guess that is the only option I have not tried yet so I will give it a shot. Is there a way to just download this instead of rebuilding the BartPE? Because that sounds like I have to rebuild it with TI in it but what a pain.

 

Some things to try:
If you haven't, let memtest86+, V2.01, run overnight not just a single pass.

If your machine will run on 1 stick of memory then try it with just one and then just the other. A diagnostic isn't real life.

Make sure you aren't overclocking or using aggressive memory timings.

Try resetting the BIOS to default values.

Check your voltages.

Reseat your HD/DVD drive cables, particularly if they are SATA drives.

 

I have ran a 5-pass memtest on the memory on both of the ram sticks by themselves. And I have not got fancy with any of my bios settings or overclocking. I suppose I could re-seat the plugs but I'm not very optimistic about it. It might be an issue with the CD and some hardware devices because I had another computer before this one (completely different) but got corrupt images. I guess I will do research on the BartPE. I hope I can find some way to get this working because otherwise I think the TI 11 interface and usage is superb. It just will not do the main thing I got it for. Let me know any other suggestions.

 

If you have the stamina to try further, try the VisatPE or BartPE route. If that doesn't work for you, try one of the other brands available with free trials.

 

NOT about to ditch Acronis =)

Well it seems Acronis redeemed itself! I just downloaded the TI 2009 version and used the bootable media and it works! It detects my image backups as valid even the very first image appeared as not corrupted. Also I ran a backup and it at least applied 20gb worth of compression which is not bad. I am very satisfied with TI now. I love the new feature of TRY&DECIDE that lets you restart and stay in the mode. Also has an option to restore the MBR from the backup image. The only issue I had was when I wanted to be sure one of my backups was valid, I setup the restore but stopped at the summary page and quit. But apparently it applied the MBR without me knowing because it messed up my bootloader my computer would not boot after that. Luckily I have tools like Super Grub Disk and the know-how to fix this issue. Just be careful if you don't want to do a restore, don't even click restore. Otherwise I think ill stick with Acronis. Excellent update to the software!