Partial restore from corrupted backup?

I backup to an external USB drive and because it is formatted in NTSF, each archive consists of one *.tib file.

If you have multiple *.tib files for one archive stored on removable media, you can copy all these *.tib files to your internal HDD. Then run ATI restore from Windows or from ATI rescue CD. Click the last *.tib file and ATI will do the rest.

 

Unless of course one of those *.tib files is missing or corrupt. In that event, TI will restore absolutely nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. That's the whole point of this thread. If even the slightest of errors crops up, then everything is lost. EVERYTHING!!!

 

"If even the slightest of errors crops up, then everything is lost. EVERYTHING!!!"

Sorry to labour the point but what you are saying is not entirely true. With a one tib image on DVD even with corruption it is often possible to mount the tib and restore.

If I understand you correctly you mave multiple tibs (60+) and would appear to have lost one or more tibs ?

If you had all 60+ tibs and copied them to a folder on a hard drive you might be able to mount and restore much of the data.

 

Nope. Tried that. And I didn't actually "lose" one of the tibs, it got corrupted. Now I have nothing.

I suppose in rare circumstances it might be possible to mount a corrupted single-tib backup and recover some data. However, I tried that myself once and it failed. It all depends on where the corruption is I suppose. But the issue remains that this product does a pathetic job of recovering files when something goes wrong. There need to be utilities which can extract data from corrupt backups rather than simply displaying an error message and leaving the user abandoned. Like I said before, the free Microsoft Windows backup has utilities like this available, so True Image should also. The fact that they don't is inexcusable in my opinion.

 

...and when you did the backup, no message concerning a problem. And you also Validated the backup at the time?

 

Yes I did, but you're missing the point. Things can go wrong later, as they did in my case. A good backup should do all it can to ensure catastrophic failures are minimized as much as possible. I've worked with computers for over 30 years, so I know what I'm talking about. Other backup programs I've used will restore as much as they can even if errors occur--they don't just give up and quit like True Image does when something goes wrong. For a backup program to do that is unconscionable in my opinion.

 

I sympathize with you for the serious problem you are encountering. But you have been patient and accepted receiving our comments and suggestions.

So let me pursue...

if the backup has been validated, something happened between doing the backup and attempting to restore. I believed you have used CD's for this backup... what is you best guess to explain the error message... lost of a CD? Damage to a CD?

 

Actually, the initial backup was to a hard drive. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the drive was failing. TI was able to successfully verify the data when it was backed up, but not later. As soon as I realized I could not restore any data, I copied the files to another drive and also to DVD’s for an extra level of security, hoping that at some point in the future TI would evolve to being able to restore some of the data. I’m still waiting and hoping.

As for the archive files themselves, there were a total of exactly 100 tibs in the original backup. There are 93 remaining. The missing 7 files are scattered throughout the backup. It’s interesting to note that TI does not identify volume #1 as even being an Acronis TI Home Image at all. Also, volumes 2-68 show up as “This is not the last created volume of the backup archive. Please insert the last created volume to start working with this archive.” When attempting to mount volumes 1-68, this error appears, “Selected file is not Acronis True Image Home archive or is corrupted. Please select another backup archive.” Finally, volumes 71-100 say, “This is volume nn of multivolume image archive backup.tib.” These last volumes can be processed up to the “Proceed” point, but then result in the error, “Cannot assign a drive letter to a partition from the backup archive.”

Initially I tried going through Acronis support. (That was over a year ago.) I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say I was extremely unimpressed with their ability to comprehend the issues, let alone resolve them. So finally I gave up in frustration. Last week I decided to try the forum thinking perhaps that would put pressure on Acronis from a different angle, or perhaps they might now understand the issues this time. But judging from the response I got from Marat Setdikov, they still don’t get it. <sigh>

So that’s my story.

 

If that drive would have been formated with the NTSF system (rather than FAT) you would have had one *.tib file instead of 100...

 

No. I intentionally specified small files so the backup could be put onto CD or DVD media later if necessary. The reason being my extensive experience with performing backups on other types of systems. You want your archives in separate physical files so you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. I learned that the hard way years ago. And since I lost files because of the failing drive, putting everything in a single file would very likely have caused me to lose everything. Exactly the situation I was trying to avoid. Instead, I still have 93% of the archive intact. The only thing preventing recovery is TI's lack of features. I've worked on a myriad of systems over the years; mainframes, minis, micros, PCs, etc. Unfortunately, PCs have yet to reach the level of sophistication those systems possessed with regard to system and data integrity. Sure, Windows looks pretty with its graphical interface and all, but it’s still a rather simplistic DOS-based system under the hood. Regardless, I expect a company which markets data recovery products to develop their software to a higher standard. Just because Microsoft and others get away with selling crap doesn’t justify low standards from everyone.

One day Acronis will put their money where their mouth is. They tout the quality of their software, but it doesn’t yet live up to their high-sounding words. The issue is data recovery. The software should be designed in such a way that it does everything possible to restore archived data; and I mean everything. Even if files have to be recovered incomplete, without names, or whatever; the utility should not quit until every conceivable method of data recovery has been totally exhausted.

 

Well I never thought that my buying Acronis True Image would be like buying software recovery as you see on CSI or Criminal Minds...

To me ATI is a backup system capable of putting back that image where it came from, period. Nothing was ever said about discovering bits and pieces in a rubble pile of data.

 

If that's all you wanted, you should have saved your money and just used the backup that comes with Windows. It does exactly what you described. As for me, I expect True Image to live up to the claims made by Acronis--what a concept!

And by the way, the features I described were in use all the way back to the 1960's. It's not at all leading edge; it's just good solid software. So next time you can keep your silly comments to yourself.

BTW, I'm no longer monitoring this thread. Have a nice day.

 

I agree. TI is made to backup and restore data on a properly functioning system and it works well with the caveat that it is imperative that you verify it works on your system by doing some test restores.

In this case the backup apparently was made to a failing disk and there was only one backup available. I agree there are instances that some form of basic image recovery tool would have helped but we are talking about a $40 program. For all the times I have used TI to backup and restore I never would have used such a tool.

 

This is what Acronis says of its ATI 10 Home:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

...and that is what it does. Nothing said about rebuilding from garbage. Obviously, you bought Acronis for the wrong reason.