Boot Mode Files & Folders Restore: PDF file corrupt and unreadable

Fwiw:

When I experienced this problem some months ago, my recollection is that the kind of file was irrelevent. Since I had full image backups, I just did an image restore to get rid of the Win-unreadable files. I was just testing the file and directory restore feature, so I wasn't out anything but my time. But hose bad files were pernicous buggers.

Scared me enough about file restores that I never used it again -- just mount and copy.

Btw, you can mount an image and copy files that turn out just fine that sometimes come out as unreadable with file restores. So the source tib file is not the problem. Also you can run the file restore task twice and the same files won't necessarily be the unreadable ones.

I did this back a build or two ago and never tried it again with the most recent build.

 

Alexey,

Just to be clear, are you investigating, and want our input on, the issue of files and folders restored from disk\partition Images, or files and folders restored from Files and Folders archives? Or, are the issues common to both types of .tib source files?

The problems on my system occured when restoring from a Files & Folders archive, in TI Boot Full Mode, and could, in some instances, be erased if I overwrote the exact same new directories with TI running in Windows (both version 9.3677). I also experienced the corrupt directories using an earlier build sometime in the past few months. The destinations were logical NTFS partitions on internal SATA HDs.

Corrupt file types included: .jpg .pdf .exe

And, as shieber puts it so well, those directories are "pernicous buggers." My CPU heated up just now even thinking about all this.

Would you like snapAPI logs of the restoration process which resulted in corrupt directories? Only if that will help narrow down the cause. I understand that the problem stems from TI's incorrect use of NTFS drivers, and this may be exacerbated when the files contain compressed files, like .pdfs or executable files.

I imagine that the exact configuration may matter here, since only some of us are having this problem. Perhaps different HD controllers, mainboard chipsets, etc. will influence these results. If TI doesn't run all hardware equally under Linux, perhaps writing new NTFS directories & files works on some systems, as it does on Menorcaman's, and fails on others. I'm about to update to a new mainboard and CPU, and will report any changes in this behavior.

Perhaps Files and Folders are best restored under the watchful eye of the OS, with Boot mode reserved for Image restoration...though, again, this is only when TI has to create the directory structure. If it is restoring the same files to already existing directories - hence, does not need to create the NTFS structure, it works fine, here.

Regards

 

Here's the complete story (as best I remember it after a month):

I made an Image backup of my 250 GB (third-full) SATA II hard drive to an external USB 2.0 hard drive.

I installed a second 250 GB hard drive and did an image restore to that as a test. I unplugged the original drive and booted successfully from the restored image so I thought I was good to go.

I then reconfigured the two hard drives as a RAID-0 array. I tried an Image restore, but that Windows wouldn't boot up; I think it was probably just a boot.ini problem but I didn't have way to fix it up. So I used the emergency rescue disk that came with my computer to rebuild the original layout (on the RAID-0 disks). That worked fine. I then used Boot-mode Files and Folders Restore (running from a CD) to restore my Downloads directory (so that I could re-install True Image). Everything else I restored from within Windows.

So far the only files I've found corrupted are the ones in my Downloads directory; I found three of them when I went to replace them with newer versions. The other two I found when I copied everything from that directory to a new one (renaming the old directory to zzz and the new one to Downloads). So the bad files are isolated. I tried restoring three of them from Boot Mode while specifying the location (instead of using the original location); of course, they were restored to C:\zzz\CDrive\Downloads\..., which after looking around the forum doesn't seem to surprise anyone but me. Those files are also corrupted.

I've tried restoring one of them from within Windows. TI said it had to reboot, which I allowed; after the boot (and the chkdsk), it said it was verifying the partitions, then said something about a disk error and rebooted. I later ran a chkdsk /r and it found no errors. I also found out that the file I'd tried to restore had in fact been restored but with extra characters on the end of it's name; that file was deletable. The corrupted file remains.

I don't care about the files; I just want to delete them. I do NOT want to have to rebuild the drive again. Anyway, I can't. I've downloaded more stuff and I no longer have room to back it up anywhere. I'd have to go buy another 250 GB hard drive to back everything up, and my wife won't stand for that!

 

Hi - I had the problem as well. It was a couple weeks ago (I've been lurking on this thread hoping for a quick solution).
First off, kudos to Acronis for acknowledging the problem and working cooperatively for a solution! Thanks!

Here's what I recall. I am a new user who started with the trial.
Using the trial, did an image backup #1 of 250 GB SATA drive, only the boot active partition (80 GB total, approx 25 GB used). Did this from the Acronis boot environment to try it out.

Liked Acronis, bought it, upped to build 3677.
Made a bunch of system changes, then wanted to revert. Made image backup #2 from Windows in case I wanted to pull any files back that I had changed since cutting #1.

Restored image # 1 from boot mode.

Booted it, looked just fine.

Realized I wanted an exe install image I had downloaded since #1, so I thought that would be a good chance to try out boot mode selective file restore ( ))-: ). So, booted from the CD, and restored an exe file from c:\Downloads to c:\temp (c:\temp already existed). The exe was exactly this size: 42,590,272 bytes.

Booted into windows, tried to run the file, got the "Corrupt and unreadable..." msg and the rest is history.

I am hoping for a fix soon - selective file restore from an image was a selling point for Acronis for me!

Also, can Acronis or anyone confirm (give me a comfort factor) that the problem is isolated to boot mode file restores? I'm feeling a little hinky even about the full image restore. I don't want the whole filesystem to suddenly go south weeks from now..
How are restores going with 3677?

Thanks -

 

Hello tcangle23,

To date, all my restores within Windows work fine. I use ATI often, and find it to be a valuable tool. Once I learned what worked, and didn't work, on my system. The corruption seems only to occur when TI running in Boot (Linux) mode creates new directories in an NTFS file system.

I learned today that one of the advanced features of NTFS is that it maintains multiple copies of the Master File Table, the number of copies depends on the size of the volume. Perhaps this has something to do with the problem in the way ATI creates these directories.

I found that, as I posted earlier in this thread, that, with very specific targeting, I was able to over-write the corrupt directories with the same new folder from TI running in Windows XP, and wipe out the problem. But, thinking about it now, my tests with that successful outcome were only on an otherwise empty partition, and may not apply to an already created directory structure. Others have tried that to no avail.

Imaging works best, and if you want a specific file from a Disk/Partition Image, you can Mount that Image, running TI in Windows, and then browse and copy any files you want. This method of copying uses the OS to create the directories and folders, so, the corruption does not enter in.

Good luck!

 

I am having the same problem Christopher describes.

1) In the restored folder (and damaged), the long names are ok, but he lacks the short name (name in the form 8.3 of MS-DOS).
You can check using tea command MS-DOS "DIR /X":

Folder restored from Rescue CD:
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> .
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> ..
27/06/2006 18:38 __626.332 _______ Philips 32PF9731D-13945.pdf
27/06/2006 18:44 __121.275 _______ Philips ClearLCD_backlighti..
27/06/2006 18:43 __444.962 _______ Philips PixelPlus3HD-backgro..
08/05/2006 17:28 2.396.809 _______ Samsung LCD LE32R51B.pdf.djvu
08/05/2006 17:07 2.830.697 _______ Samsung LCD LE32R7xx.pdf.djvu
08/05/2006 17:48 1.561.106 _______ Samsung_TV_lcd.pdf
19/06/2006 15:30 3.562.549 _______ Samsung_TV_lcd_2.pdf

The original folder and the folder restored from windows:
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> .
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> ..
27/06/2006 18:38 __626.332 PHILIP~1.PDF Philips 32PF9731D-13945.pdf
27/06/2006 18:44 __121.275 PHILIP~2.PDF Philips ClearLCD_backlighti..
27/06/2006 18:43 __444.962 PHILIP~3.PDF Philips PixelPlus3HD-backgro..
08/05/2006 17:28 2.396.809 SAMSUN~2.DJV Samsung LCD LE32R51B.pdf.djvu
08/05/2006 17:07 2.830.697 SAMSUN~1.DJV Samsung LCD LE32R7xx.pdf.djvu
08/05/2006 17:48 1.561.106 SAMSUN~1.PDF Samsung_TV_lcd.pdf
19/06/2006 15:30 3.562.549 SAMSUN~2.PDF Samsung_TV_lcd_2.pdf

This however only creates problems to the MS-DOS applications.
MS-DOS applications open files using the short names and so do not see files restored with the cd rescue.
But this does not create problems to windows (windows uses the long names).


2) In folder restored (and damaged), everyone misses the owner.
You can check using the command MS-DOS "DIR /Q":

The folder damaged:
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> PC-DANILO\Danilo .
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> ... ..
27/06/2006 18:38 __626.332 ... ____________ Philips 32PF9731D..
27/06/2006 18:44 __121.275 ... ____________ Philips ClearLCD..
27/06/2006 18:43 __444.962 ... ____________ Philips PixelPlus3..
08/05/2006 17:28 2.396.809 ... ____________ Samsung LCD LE32R5..
08/05/2006 17:07 2.830.697 ... ____________ Samsung LCD LE32R7..
08/05/2006 17:48 1.561.106 ... ____________ Samsung_TV_lcd.pdf
19/06/2006 15:30 3.562.549 PC-DANILO\Danilo Samsung_TV_lcd_2.pdf

The folder OK:
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> PC-DANILO\Danilo .
15/07/2006 11:43 <DIR> ... ..
27/06/2006 18:38 __626.332 PC-DANILO\Danilo Philips 32PF9731D..
27/06/2006 18:44 __121.275 PC-DANILO\Danilo Philips ClearLCD..
27/06/2006 18:43 __444.962 PC-DANILO\Danilo Philips PixelPlus3..
08/05/2006 17:28 2.396.809 PC-DANILO\Danilo Samsung LCD LE32R5..
08/05/2006 17:07 2.830.697 PC-DANILO\Danilo Samsung LCD LE32R7..
08/05/2006 17:48 1.561.106 PC-DANILO\Danilo Samsung_TV_lcd.pdf
19/06/2006 15:30 3.562.549 PC-DANILO\Danilo Samsung_TV_lcd_2.pdf

When it lacks the owner, you obtain an error, the file cannot be opened, copied, deleted.
A few times the rescue CD restored file has the owner, this file can be opened, copied and deleted windows, but not MS-DOS (because it lacks the short name).


3) The damaged file cannot be renamed.


4) I also did this test (using TrueImage for Windows).
I did a backup (image) of the partition (included the damaged folder).
Then I did a restore of folder damaged, in a different location, using "Restore file preserving their security settings" = OFF.
The damaged folder, after the restoration, is OK!!
Also all the restored files are OK!!


**CONCLUSIONS**:
This makes me think that the problem does not depend on the type of file (pdf, txt, etc).
The file is not damaged.
The problem is in the directory.
The directory is not corrupt (because using CHKDSK /F I do not solve the problem), but important information lacks in the folder.
I suppose that the linux NTFS driver, present in rescue CD, is not 100% compatible with all the NTFS versions (many NTFS versions exist).

I suggest always using BartPE.
TrueImage with BartPE works well, because it uses the original NTFS drivers (windows driver).

My configuration:
- Acronis True Image Home® version 9.0 (build 3.677)
- Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519) - Italian version
- file system: NTFS

(sorry for my english).

-- Danilo

 

Hello Danilo,

A nice bit of detective work and clear reporting . Hopefully Acronis Support will pass this additional information over to their Quality/Developement Teams.

By the way, you have no reason to apologies for your standard of English (just wish I could say the same for my grasp of Spanish!!).

Regards

 

***HOW YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR HARD DISK***

1. you creates a new folder (name = TestFolder)
2. you creates a new text file (name = TestFile.txt), inside the TestFolder folder
3. open TestFile.txt, write some line, save it
4. connect to internet using Internet Explorer, and you go to http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/docs/
5. click Acronis Disk Suite Directory 10.0 (0.1 mb), unloads the DiskDirectorSuite_datasheet.en.pdf file, and put it in the TestFolder
6. you execute the backup (image) of the partition containing TestFolder
7. reboot PC from Acronis Rescue CD (full version)
8. you restores the TestFolder folder, in a different location
9. boot Windows XP

Now you open the restored folder, and you open the two file.
- TestFile.txt is OK
- DiskDirectorSuite_datasheet.en.pdf is damaged! You cannot open it, you cannot cancel it!

If you think that the problem is the DiskDirectorSuite_datasheet.en.pdf file, you tries to repeat the operations, using an any file unloaded by internet.

My configuration:
- Acronis True Image Home® version 9.0 (build 3.677)
- Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
- Internet Explorer 6.0
- file system: NTFS

-- Danilo

 

I used WinHex (trial version), to analyse the cause of the problem (see attachment).

I noticed that some file have two entrances.

• The true and real file (DiskDirectorSuite_datasheet.en.pdf)
• A pseudo-file with "zone. Identifier" suffix (DiskDirectorSuite_datasheet.en.pdf:Zone.Identifier).

This second file is invisible to the normal applications.

I noticed that only file which linked the second file (zone. Identifier) cause the problem with Rescue CD.

But I did not understand why any file have Zone.Identifier and other no.

Then I noticed that file with Zone.Identifier had been unloaded by internet!!!

Who are these hidden files useful to?
Bill Gates traces my downloads!?!?
Mystery!

If I copy the file in a different folder, Zone.Identifier follows it.
If I delete the file, Zone.Identifier disappears.
If I copy the file in a FAT partition, Zone.Identifier disappears.

-- Danilo

 

Curt, Thank you so very much for your tutorial on Trinity! I too have had a similar problem. Performing a "files and folders" restore caused corruption of most binary files stored, as archives, in my "Documents and Settings/%username%" path.

Through a continual "trying to fix one problem leads to two more", I've verified to my satisfaction that ATI 9.0.0.3677 is responsible. (submitted a support request a couple days ago and have yet to receive a response...)

Trinity allowed me to remove ALL of the corrupted files except for one. The "one" was a binary file, which I opened with "vi" in TRK, removed all of the lines, and saved. It's now a zero byte file. And I still can't remove it, but I'm much better off now than I was before.

Issues such as this are pushing me closer to a wholesale switch to a linux-based OS. I'm more and more fed up with MicroSlop products and how a basically good program, such as ATI, can cause such huge problems, confusion and frustration.

ACRONIS: Please confirm or deny that binary files (.exe, .zip, .pdf files, et al) fail to properly transfer with your product! Give us solutions! This problem, for me, only occurred in the "Documents and Settings" directory structure--not in other folder structures. (Oh, BTW, denial would not be good given the number of similar issues noted in this forum.)

Dang, I loath having my first post to a forum feel so ugly. I guess it's from over two months of frustration (and my own failure to think that Acronis was the issue).

Trinity Rescue Kit ROCKS!

 

The response, and my initial support request below that:

Quite honestly, I'm not impressed. Nor did the "elevated" level allow me to remove the one remaining corrupt file.

I'm not here to "flame" Acronis. I do, though, expect support and answers--even if the answer is "we can't fix it".

I'm not new to Acronis. I used it to clone images, which it did marvelously (sorry, don't recall the version but it would have been late 8 or early 9). Based on that use, I bought it for myself and believe I've now wasted my money. Not a good attitude for a Customer to have if a company wants future business.

 

If you have a file/folder that you can't delete you might like to try the freeware program Unlocker from http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/#description
Ignore the fact that it talks about sharing violations and files in use by another user.
I had a stubborn folder that I couldn't delete in Windows or with any other utility I found - Unlocker did the trick.
The table at this webpage also lists a number of other similar utilities and compares their features with Unlocker.
If unlocker doesn't solve your problem then maybe try Killbox or DelInvFile next.
Killbox has a forum where the developer hangs out so you might also get some help if Killbox doesn't work.

A useful utility to explore the NTFS structure is DiskExplorer from http://www.runtime.org/diskexpl.htm
You can download a demo version.
There is also a BartPE plugin which I haven't tried,
you can download from http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm

 

F-Secure Virus Descriptions : Zone.Identifier

There is no virus by this name. However, we occasionally get queries about this, as many Windows XP files have an invisible stream by this name.

Existance of Zone.Identifier stream on some files is normal, and as such is of no cause for concern. This stream is generated by Internet Explorer and Outlook when saving files from to local disk from different security zones.

Typical content of such file would be:

[ZoneTransfer]
ZoneId=3

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/zoneident.shtml

-- Danilo

 

Zone.Identifier is an ADS (Alternate Data Streams).

With the advent of Windows XP SP2, when a file is downloaded from the internet to an NTFS volume, an ADS (Zone.Identifier) is created along side the downloaded file.
The content of this file is used as a security by Windows XP as security data to determine the publisher/source of the file. The values in the following table are either explicitly assigned:
URLZONE_INTRANET = 1
URLZONE_TRUSTED = 2
URLZONE_INTERNET = 3
URLZONE_UNTRUSTED = 4

If you place a web site into the trusted zone then an ADS is not created when a file is downloaded.

For Acronis: was TrueImage Rescue CD tested with Windows XP SP2?

For everybody: if you want to find ADS, you can use software ADSSpy
http://www.merijn.org/programs.php#adsspy.
Please, you verify if the original file (to which a damaged file corresponds) has an ADS.

Attention: ADS are system file. Do not delete them indiscriminately.

-- Danilo

 

Sorry I've been away from this for a while. The time I lost while trying to fix this problem set me back in other areas. Nice work by a lot of you while I was away, and it's great to see that we at least have an acknowledgement if not a fix yet. I'm sure it'll be forthcoming.

The most intrituing piece of information comes from Danilo in his post of 2006-10-12 at 4:33AM (you're up too late, Danilo!):

The key here is that the Acronis Rescue Media is a Linux OS. As such, NTFS support isn't coming from Microsoft.

There are a number of ways Linux can mount and write to NTFS partitions. The most reliable way is to re-use Microsoft's file system drivers with a Linus "wrapper", which is what the CaptiveNTFS drivers do. However, I doubt that Acronis has gone that route because of the legal challanges involved in redistributing Microsoft's drivers. Just look at the hurldes TRK goes through to install CaptiveNTFS without including them per se in their distribution.

All of the other ways to access NTFS partitions involve essentially reverse-engineering the NTFS specifications (which seem hazy at best, at least in the open source world... witness the sparseness of the docs at linux-ntfs.org). Microsoft doesn't seem too keen on making them available to non-paying developers... especially those promoting open source. Of course, that makes perfect business sense for MS.

The problem lies in the fact that whichever method the Acronis Rescue Media uses (assuming it's not CaptiveNTFS) is a reverse-engineered implementation of an NTFS file system driver. Given the complexity of NTFS as compared to FAT, the lack of clarity around it's inner workings and it's comparitive newness relative to FAT, it's no surprise that there are some glitches in these non-Microsoft implementations.

One of the things that NTFS does for NT operating systems (NT, 2K, XP...) is provide POSIX compliance. To do that, they have to support POSIX-compliant file naming conventions... in particular, case-sensitivity: i.e. myfile.txt <> MyFile.txt. In DOS and normal NT operations, this is not the case, but you can turn that on with a policy/registry setting. These are seldom-used features by regular users, but were necessary for Microsoft to be able to compete for big government contracts.

Why is this important to us? Because MS admits that if NTFS gets bad information in the Master File Table (MTF... the file \$MFT, roughly analogous to FAT's File Allocation Table on steroids), especially related to the short and long file names that are stored for the file, the error we see may occur. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246026/en-us.

Danilo's post shows clear evidence that TI under the Rescue Media is not writing correct filename information to the MFT as it is restoring files. And, by Microsoft's admission, this can lead to the very problems we've experienced.

Regarding Danilo's conclusions, I'd say the following:

- He's right... it's very unlikely that they type of file has anything to do with the problem. In fact, the symptoms I experienced were not with a file, but with a directory I couldn't delete.

- Don't see any reason why the file would be damaged, but Christopher_NC in his post of 2006-09-19 clearly shows damaged files. My take would be that these are unrelated problems. I've personally used winmerge (winmerge.org) to do binary compares of all files restored and never found corruption of the actual data.. of course, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I've also done binary compares of mounted TI archives with the source and they've always verified. That's to double-check TI's "verify" function. So I'm comfortable that what's in the archive is good. Getting it out is the trick.

- I believe, technically, that the problem is in the MFT (and possibly other NTFS internals) in conjunction with the directory, which itself is just a file in NTFS. This is what I think Danilo was trying to say.

- Microsoft admits that CHKDSK won't fix these problems (see the MS KB article referenced above). I believe that the MFT/directory containing information about the file ARE in fact corrupt, most likely due to a problem with the NTFS drivers used by the Linux kernel on the Acronis Rescue Media. MS should augment CHKDSK to address issues like this, but since the article at Microsoft dates to 2003, I'm not holding my breath.

- Right on relative to the problem being with the NTFS driver. Don't know if it's related to the version of NTFS, though. Danilo is correct that there are several versions of NTFS (roughly corresponding with the major releases of NT-based OSs). However, if this is as basic as omiting short filename information, my guess is that we'd see this problem REGARDLESS of the version of NTFS with which the disk was formatted.

MOST IMPORTANTLY:

- Absolutely!!! Even better, boot from a scratch HDD with a vanilla installation of your actual XP distribution since we've not seen any problems like this under Windows... but this isn't feasable for everyone.

A couple of questions for Danilo:
- With the files lacking owners, did you experience the "The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable" error from Explorer, or some other error related to file permissions?
- When the file lacked the owner but had a short file name (i.e. SAMSUN~2.PDF in your example), were you able to "Take Ownership" as an Administrator and then delete the file? Were you able to "Take Ownership" of the files without short filenames?
- When you did the restore with "Restore file preserving their security settings" = OFF, were the files previously restored without short filenames then restored WITH short filenames or not?

Wrting off the cuff here, I'm not entirely sure where the file ownership information is recorded in NTFS... I don't think it's in $MFT but rather in $SECURITY, but I could be mistaken on that one.

Anyway, my point is that Danilo's issue may be related but somwhat independent as well... in other words, two separate prolblems with the NTFS driver implementation on the Linux kernel of the Acronis TI9 Rescue Media. If that's the case, then just turning "Restore file preserving their security settings" = OFF may or may not fix the problems resulting in the "The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable" error from Explorer.

Lastly, thanks to Tachyon42 for those couple of links... especially DiskExplorer. I've been hand-decoding sectors from the available NTFS docs, and it's slow going. If it works, DiskExplorer might just make the forensics a whole lot easier. Do you know if the demo functionally limited or time limited (either under XP or PE)?

Hope this helps folks working on the issue... especially you all at Acronis - Alexy and company. Please let us know how you are coming with a fix.

-- Curt.

 

What's described in these last few posts starts to put everything into perspective. A "Security" note on the General tab of a downloaded executables properties says: "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer." Next to this notice is an "Unblock" button.

It seems to me that the files that I "unblocked" were usable after restoring but others weren't. This isn't very scientific as I didn't take notes on which/what/where, etc, where I'd done this--I just know that trying to find good information about that string didn't yield me good results (other than to talk about having high security settings--which I don't).

Clearly some of you have a much better handle and understanding of the technical aspects of this issue, so I'll ask: is there a correlation between what "unblock" does and the ability to properly restore a file without corruption?

Great thread...I've learned a lot and will heed the advice to use the BartPE plugin.

 

There are several issues present here. "Unblocking" a file may be necessary if that file has been restored with security settings preserved, and if in your current user account you do not have permissions/ownership rights to access that file.
Microsoft Support - How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP


Another issue occurs when certain Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf) may not open properly directly from the internet browser. Menorcaman posted a solution to this issue in post #3 of this thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=832749&postcount=3


The larger & central issue here is that when some users Restore Files and Folders to a new location on an NTFS partition, from ATI Full (Linux) Boot Mode, some of those new folders and directories are corrupt. Windows reports this corruption, and the corrupt directories cannot be moved, deleted, or repaired by Windows/CheckDisk. There are several possible ways to resolve this problem, detailed in this thread, but, not everyone has had success using them. The one sure method requires making a new file backup of that entire partition without the corrupt directories included, reformatting the partition, then restoring the intact files. Which can take awhile, and requires adequate disk space. This is, of course, not a viable option on a system partition.

That some files contained in these corrupt directories are also corrupt, or have permission issues, may be unrelated.

So, the pursuit of the underlying cause(s) continues. Here's an excerpt from post #19 of this thread:

Until this issue is resolved, do not restore files and folders to new locations using ATI Boot Mode.

I will also note that a good many of the most active posters in this forum do not use Files & Folders features at all, but prefer to rely on the more proven Imaging technology of ATI. Files and Folders can be retrieved from a disk/partition Image by Mounting that Image, then using normal OS methods to copy and paste those files. And, to be fair, my tests using ATI running under Windows to restore Files and Folders to new or existing locations were successful.

Linux implementation of NTFS may not be fully mature. I also wonder if Microsoft is not playing a role in making this challenging. They do have a history of doing what they can to best their competition. Even if we, the users, suffer for it.

Regards

 

Thanks Christopher, but I do believe the problem is directly related to your later suggestion re

Here, though, is THE problem! Why should any user of any software need to research a program to that level prior to using it? Some of us (me for one) purchased ATI to aid in migrating from one computer to another. Using the Disk Clone method at the time was not an option.

This issue has never been about permissions, at least in my view. It's been about the total lack of permissions: no security tab; no ability to change using XACLS. When a file cannot be accessed to change permissions, the problem is much deeper.

You may note an earlier response of mine re use of Trinity. That was the first and so far the only suggestion that has provided any remedy (without a total rebuild--again). And I got very good results from it: only one file remained that continues to resist removal.

Collusion by Microsoft? Wouldn't put it past them at all.

I think one of the best results of ALL of this is that I've made the decision to wean myself from Microsoft. I've got 1/2 of my 120G drive available--plenty of room to build out a very nice Linux-based workstation. With the improvements made by Ubuntu and a couple of the other distro's, this option is increasingly viable.

 

It's a 30 day time limited demo (on Windows 2000 so I imagine XP too).
Haven't tried the PE version.
I haven't seen the licensed version so I don't know if it has extra functionality.
I have only used DiskExplorer to browse the NTFS structure and it hasn't given any warnings about not being able to do certain functions due to being a demo.

 

The message is " The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable. Use CHKDSK".
Because Win does not find the permissions associated with the file and supposes that the folder is damaged.

No.

The short names were restored.
The file owner became the current user.

Ciao, Danilo

 

Hello Curt, Danilo, Dan, ddi and everyone,

Turns out that this same problem has been reported by a number of users for well over a year.

Here's one thread among many reporting this bug.

Sept. 2005 Thread: True Image 9 out - problems browsing file only backups

So, I am going to quit searching for a solution, and suggest those of you who are reconsider how worthwhile this is.

In fact, unless Acronis supports this program and fixes the known hardware-independant flaws, I am leaving this forum, and will not purchase further versions of Acronis software.

Re: Will there be more updates to TI9 Home?

Regards,

Christopher

 

Don't blame you one bit. We'll miss you here... but I doubt Acronis will!

I did read the posts from the thread in 2005, and this seems like yet another problem. To be fair, it looks like Acronis did fix the original problem of not being able to mount ("plug") a file backup by calling it a "feature" and not permitting that in future releases. Haven't tried this myself, though.

The issue with the Rescue Media is different that what we're talking about here, and their original appears resolved... you can browse to an alternate location in the recovery disk now... problem is that it occasionally corrupts the directory/security structure when doing so. Close, but no cigar.

Post back to this thread if you find a suitable alternative to TrueImage. FYI, I tried Norton Ghost 10 and, believe it or not, that was WORSE than this!!! I was looking for something that would do both image and file B/Us on a schedule, and those two seem to be the only two mainstream options that fit the bill.

I've seen EMC/Dantz Retrospect, and that looks pretty good, but only does file backups, not drive images. It's been around a long time, but I question EMC's commitment to the consumer space.

I also used to use Ghost 8 but finally grew tired of being stuck in DOS and all the issues around that. Finally jumped off the dime and tried Ghost 10, which I believe may have actually corrupted the VBR of my boot partition... even though I wasn't doing a a restore! I've got no way to prove that, though. Plus it's extremely SLOW... and it slows down your system just sitting there in the background. Try if you'd like, but be very careful!

As I said, we'll miss your contributions and if you uncover something useful, please post back here with your findings.

Best of luck!

 

VERY INTERESTING!!!

So I was mistaken... these DO seem to be more closely related than I thought.

Acronis, please take note!!!

Very good supplemental information related to "file or directory is corrupt and unreadable" error.

 

This is the Acronis Support forum, so please keep discussion of other software in the software & services forum.

 

It seems to me that Acronis Support has decided that it cannot support the issue caused by its AIT program. The last couple of emails I've received from them are almost carbon copies, if not in words but intent:

To which I responded with:

This all followed a run of the AcronisReport.exe that showed that chkdsk needed to be run, which I did for them, again, as suggested. I then ran the report utility again and sent them the results (which no longer showed the "File System Error").

I asked them which disk utility I should run. No answer, except to suggest the HD manufacturers.

All these things I have done. Again. (Except for getting a disk utility from the HD manufacturer, which I haven't taken the time to do yet.)

And it was with mild amusement that I also received this morning the "pitch" to buy AIT 10.

For all this trouble, I'm being asked to pay more?

As I previously noted, this forum has provided me with the only answers that worked at all: using the Trinity set. And I think my next step is to try DiskExplorer...why not? I've done pretty much everything else!