External Hard Drive Question

I have an external hard drive (USB 2.0). I can use Acronis TI Home (V9.0, Build 3633) to back up data from a system drive to the external drive but not from the external drive to a system drive. Is seems that the process ought to be bi-directional. I would appreciate it if someone can clarify.

Thanks,


Wayne

 

Well that is something that I have not thought of doing. Why do you want to do that? Normally it's the system disk that becomes corrupted and so needs to be backed up. However, back to your question, I do agree with you that the process should be bi-directional.

 

Mark,

I just happen to have a couple of old, small drives that I want to reformat for other uses. I thought that I could use Acronis to create backups on a system drive, which is fairly large, and then combine those backups into a package that I could burn to a DVD for archiving.

My intent was to package the backups in an encrypted "vault", which is what I would actually back up to the DVD. Since I can't create the vault directly on the DVD (I'm planning on using a DVD+R) and then write the files to it, I have to collect the backups in a vault in one location and then burn the vault to the DVD. Some of the information that I'm working with is confidential and I don't want to depend on basic password protection which is why I'm using an encryption tool.

In any case, I've tried repeatedly to get Acronis to make a copy from the external drive to a system drive with no luck. Acronis just "locks up" and I can't even get it to cancel the action. The only way to clear it seems to be to reboot. As noted previously, I've confirmed that Acronis will back up within the system drives (I have two installed) and from the system drives to the external drive but not from the external drive to the system drives. I'm wondering if any of the users have encountered this problem or if there's some setting or such that I need to be aware of.

Thanks,


Wayne

 

I haven’t done it with build 3633, but I have done it (with 2 different drives and 4 partitions). I’ll try a little test in a bit.

 

I just created a small Files/Folders from an external USB to my system drive with no problems.
Build 3633.

 

As long as your external drive detects in Windows as an actual drive instead of "removable media," TrueImage will detect it just fine. The only drawback of course is that TrueImage can only do a backup of the entire volume and not a select number of files. So yes, it is definitely bi-directional although you may not have all the control you want in backing up a select few number of items.

 

"TrueImage can only do a backup of the entire volume and not a select number of files"

Could you explain this further? You lost me.

 

I have the same question. One of the options in the backup process is to select individual files, just as any other backup program permits, so I don't understand the previous comment regarding a full backup. I have, in fact, backed up single files as part of my test so I know that is possible.

I also saw the other comment confirming the ability to back up from an external drive to a system drive. Thanks for checking on that. I'll have to go back to the drawing board to see if I can figure out what is happening. If I uncover anything meaningful I'll post the results.


Wayne

 

At what point does it lock up? Have you checked the log file for any messages you could post that might be helpful to TI Support?
As I said, with an earlier version, I put 2 different HDs in an external enclosure and was able to image them onto an internal drive.

 

The first time I tried it the operation got to 31% and then just sat there. After about an hour I tried to cancel. The task disappeared from the "Active Task" screen at the bottom, but the desktray icon (bottom right) continued to show the task in progress. Even closing TI and reopening it did not stop the icon from flashing. The only way I could get it to clear was to reboot (and even then the task manager showed TI as "not responding").

Since then I've had attempts where it never registers beyond 0%. I'm just ran a test and it got to 46% almost immediately and then locked up again. I'm currently rebooting. As mentioned previously, I've done simple backups in the other direction (system to external drive) and across the two system drives using the same software with no problem. Whatever is happening seems specific to backups from the external drive to the system drives. As a side note, I have two 160 GB internal drives and they each have 4 partitions.

The only thing that shows up in the logs is a note that the Priority had been reset to Low. That shows up on every run even though I don't recall changing the setting. I'm not sure but I think the Priority is set to Low as a default. If so, I'm not sure why it would show that it changed. I'll double check that on the next trial.

In any case, per your suggestion, I've attached the log from the last run as it seems to be similar to all of the other runs. Hopefully someone from Acronis can spot something there that might give a clue.


Wayne

 

I may have figured out the problem. The network permissions on the external drive were not set to "shared". It didn't occur to me that would be necessary since the drive is physically connected to the PC in question. Evidently, TI will backup to the drive even though it is not shared, but it will not backup from that drive unless it is shared. Note that I set the "Network Sharing and Security" option to clear the problem. I did not check the "Local Sharing and Security" option but that might clear the problem as well.

 

Actually, that doesn't seem to have cleared the problem. I am running into the same problem, though I was able to back up one file initially, which is why I posted the earlier comment. I just did a backup using the standard Windows backup program and it worked with no problems so I'm back to square one on this. Perhaps changing the permissions reset something that allowed TI to complete one backup

I'll continue to investigate and post any meaningful findings.

 

Hello seurat01,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We need some additional information to investigate this issue thoroughly and to provide you with a possible workaround.

Could you please check the external hard drive for errors?

- Go to the Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd);

- Enter the command: "chkdsk DISK: /r";

where DISK is the partition letter you need to check.

Please also clarify if you tried to use file backup (backup of separate files and folders) or also disks and partitions backup? Try to boot your computer using bootable CD created with the latest build (3633) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home to perform backup procedure. Please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov