No backups since upgrading from trial to paid

I'm running a Dell Precision Workstation 360, P4/3.4 GHz, Win XP Pro, Ver 2002, SP2, patched up to date, trying to backup to a Lacie 80 GB USB HD. Acronis True Image Home, 9.0, build 3,677.

I tried the backup product by using the trial version and it worked fine and convinced me to buy the product - that might have been my first mistake!

When I upgraded to the paid version, I had trouble getting it to update. I should have kept a log of my attempts to get tech support, but I didn't. I think I was on the live chat with somebody and they said to just install over the old one and it would just continue with my old settings. It didn't - when I lauynched, it was still the trial version. In a second session I was told to uninstall the trial and reinstall the paid. I did that and it seemed to install OK, but, since doing that, it hasn't done a scheduled backup at all. I went in and deleted the scheduled backup, and tried to reschedule. So far, no backups. I repeat, the trial version worked perfectly.

I don't know what to try next other than to delete everything, including my previous backups made with the trial version, uninstall, search the registry and delete any references to Acronis or True Image, and try to start from scratch. I'd rather get it working properly without doing that. The other option is to give up on Acronis, call the $50 a bad investment and learn from it.

Rant to be continued after symptoms described...

The most recent scheduled backup was last night, and the log - as well as the logs since I reinstalled and rescheduled - has the following entries (message paraphrased for brevity):
======================
1. info, module 100, error code 2 (0x640002) backup task started
2. warning, module 100, error code 11 (0x6400011) priority changed to low priority
3. warning, module 100, error code 136 (0x6400018 no user command carried out at start becsue no command set by default [the smiley has replaced the characters 8 followed by )]
4. info, module 100, error code 135 (0x64000187) no user command carried out at start becsue no command set by default
5. error, module 1, error code 1,018 (0x103FA) please check the backup archive password in the task script
6. error, module 100, error code 5 (0x640005) operation completed with errors
======================

Clearly I have not set this up properly, but have no idea what I did wrong. Also, I have no idea where to "check the backup archive password in the task script". I would appreciate any assistance you might give since it appears that Acronis Tech Support isn't being very responsive.

I'm a fairly experienced user, and not new to tech support and forums, but so far I've found Acronis tech support to be inaccessible and/or useless. I've lost track of the attempts to get any assistance from Acronis support! It took multiple tries to get through the maze of registrations and verifications to get here, the links in the support pages are not intuitive, and so far, I haven't found a way to get a live person to help me get started. I suppose that if I buy paid support, it might make a difference, but surely there's some way of getting free support to just get the product installed and working!

I also used the form on the web page to send a problem description to Acronis Support and got the usual automated reply telling me to not reply and that sending again would just delay a response. I sent and received the reply on 3 Aug, with no other communication since.

I thought I'd try this forum and see if it helps before wiping the program and Acronis from my system and mind forever! I imagine you can tell I'm very frustrated and angry by the whole process.

Thanks for whatever help you might give.
Optiker

 

Can you do a manual backup of the same drive to the same destination and verify and "Plug" the image?

 

"Verify and plug"? How do I do that?

Thanks!
Optiker

 

Validate and mount using the boxed tools:

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7706/screenshot008copykd4.jpg

 

I did a successful manual full backup, then tried to validate and mount. Mount failed - error message said it couldn't mount because no partition. I'm backing up to a Lacie external 80 BG USB hard drive. What's it trying to do in mounting the backup?

I also validated the full manual backup, and it was successful. I set up a scheduled backup for 10 pm last night, and as previously, it apparenly failed because there was no file written to the HD with a 10 pm or later timestamp, just the afternoon manual full backup.

The log for the 10 pm backup was as follows:
===========================
1. information, module 100, error(code) 2(0x640002), backup operation started
2. warning, module 100, error(code) 11(0x64000B), priority changed to low priority
3. error, module 1, error(code) 1,018(0x103FA), please check the backup archive password in the task script
4. error, module 100, error(code) 5(0x640005), operation has completed with errors
===========================

It seems obvious to me that there is some password problem. Where do I find the "task script", what do I check for, and how do I correct it?

The password thing is confusing. There were two places where it asked for a password - in one place it just asks for it once and in the other it asks for it and then to enter a second time to verify. Is this supposed to be my administrator password for my computer, or something else?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
Optiker

 

When you mount the image of a drive you are setting it up as a virtual drive.
Virtual DVD or CD drives are often mounted disk images via disk image emulator software. This allows one to read a CD or DVD from the disk image that is usually located on the hard drive, rather than from the disc drive.(Wikipedia)

If you mount the image of your C: drive you will see pretty well what you get when you explore your C: drive with Windows Explorer. You can copy data from a mounted drive. You can even edit the data on a mounted drive. Acronis will then make incremental changes to the image. This last is something that has been added to TI9.

BTW rebooting will automatically dismount the image.

 

So, mounting failed, but validate succeeded, and the scheduled incremental backup failed. BTW, I am not backing up a full drive, only selected files and folders.

So what now?

Thanks!
Optiker

 

If I were you I wouldn't be trying a scheduled backup at this stage. I think you should keep it as simple as possible until you're at ease with TI.

Try creating an image of your whole C: drive including MBR. This is the kind of backup you need if ever you have a disaster. Make sure the boxes are checked as shown:

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/9429/screenshot009cy6.jpg

You will be given the option of validating your image. You can tick off this validate box so that the image is immediately validated. Then try to mount this image.

 

Hi Optiker,

Be aware that you cannot mount a Files and Folder image, only Partition images. Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide Chapter 11 refers.

Regards

 

Actually, I really don't care a lot if I lose my C-drive. It's a hassle to reinstall Win and all the applications, but it's low risk - lost a HD twice in the last 15 years or so - one IT support mistake and one hardware failure - and both times, not a big deal to re-establish my C-drive.

My real need is to backup selected files and folders on my D-drive (same physical HD), which contains all of my data.

I simply want a reliable way to do an incremental backup of selected files and folders daily.

Does that make a difference in your recommendation?

Thanks!
Optiker

 

As mentioned in my reply to did, I really only want and need a backup of selected files and folders. So, I guess the recommendation to do a mount is not relevant, and your post explains why it failed when I tried it.

Thanks!
Optiker

 

IMHO, if your only purpose in using TI is to backup selected files and folders to your D: drive, may I suggest you download Synctoy which is part of Powertoys for WinXP here. Use the Echo feature of Synctoy. It will scan selected files and folders on both drives and copy or overwrite any files\folders on drive A which are missing\different on drive B.

OTOH, I really think you will find having an image backup of your C: drive to be most useful, whether it be to recover from malware, bad program intallation or what have you.

 

did...I will take a look at Synctoy and see if it will do what I want. If so, I'd just as soon do what's easy and reliable...I don't need anything beyond what I've described.

As for finding an image of C: useful, I'm sure there might be instances when I would very much like that, but to be honest, I probably won't do it - for a variety of reasons. I guess I can handle some level of risk - of course, we both know that if I lose my drive, I'll be wishing I'd done it!

Thanks again for your replies.
Optiker

 

Here is what the Echo feature of Synctoy will do:

Echo
The echo action will make copies of files that are new and changed on the left to the right. New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.

For example, when you travel, you take a copy of your pictures, tunes, and documents to work on. When you return, you want SyncToy to notice the files you added, changed, deleted, and renamed in the left folder, and you want SyncToy to recreate those additions, changes, deletions, and renames in the right folder. Echo is very similar to Synchronize, except Echo works only left to right.

Echo is the SyncToy action to use.

Every file in the left folder that is new or changed is copied to the right folder.
Every file in the left folder that has been renamed is renamed in the right folder.
Every file that was deleted from the left folder is deleted in the right folder.
Note: SyncToy does not actually delete any files. It merely moves the files to the Recycle Bin.
No left folder files are deleted, or renamed.
No files are copied from right to left.
Right folder files are deleted.
Note: SyncToy does not delete folders.

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/757/screenshot010en0.jpg

 

did...thanks for the detailed reply. I took a look at Synctoy and downloaded it, but at the same time, continued to try to resolve the problem with Acronis. Last night, it backed up correctly with no errors. The difference in what I did was that I did not enter a password for the backup file. Previously I had done so. I don't know why it won't accept a password, but I really don't care. I'm not in such a risk situation that it needs password protection, so at this point, assuming it continues to function properly, I guess I'll stay with it.

The one thing about Synctoy/Echo is that I would guess there is no compression based on what you've said and what I read about it. Unfortunately, for me, that would mean buying a new, bigger USB drive since the amount of data that I'd back up could be pushing my current 80 GB drive.

Thanks again for the help. At this point, I think this thread can be closed.

Optiker