Problems with corrupted images

Dear Acronis Team,

please apologize for jumping in. First I would like to express my very good impression of TI 8 after using it for 2 months now (change from another backup product to TI).

Not doing an integrity check on the files I have no problems with corrupted images detected until now (build 791).

Nevertheless I am worried about the problems described in this thread because they are going into the 'heart' of a backup system (if I would need my backup in case of a hardware failure and I would have corrupted images ....).

The main reason for being worried is that at least most of these problems seem to have been come up with build 791. Additionally at least 3 independent users are reporting nearly the same problem. And in addition it has been reported that the external drive works perfectly with all except TI ...

Seeing all this together (working for decades now as an IT professional) I take it relatively improbable that these are all problems with no relation to TI (e.g. hardware problems).

Therefore I would feel much more better if the reason for this strange behaviour would be detected and fixed so soon as possible - that means I would take it logical to work on it with highest priority.

I would be very much interested on the outcome of these investigations (also concerning the 3 users who have described their problems here) and would therefore like to ask you to communicate informations about the proceedings (or the way the problems have been fixed) here in this forum in regular (short) intervals.

With this post I would only like to express that this problem does not only affect the 3 users who have posted in this thread but also others who have to rely on the integrity of their backup mechanisms. Therefore - as already said - I would suggest to put this problem into a high priority level.

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards
WaKue_Fan

 

Hello Ilya,

I am sorry but you quoted an earlier email. The last mail from your support says "I just want you to understand that this problem isn't connected with Acronis True Image product. When Windows copies any file it doesn't matter if it is an image archive or any other file."

My external HDD is ok, because it has been checked by checkdisk and there are no problems with copying other big files >5GB.

I appreciate your support very much, but the problem "corrupt TI-files on external hdd" has not been solved yet as I can see it. There are other threads dealing with the same problem and I think it makes sense to know about their solution, that is the contents of forums, isn`t it.

Regards
archie22

 

Hello Archie,

In you quotation there is nothing that tells Windows is not working properly. The phrase you posted means that the result of the file copying doesn't depend on what software produced the file.

Have you checked the checksum for other big files (the original on the internal disk and copy on the external one)?

As for the solutions given to others, they may not solve your problem because there are a lot of possible reasons as I told in the previous post.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

I have a similar problem. I was using earlier versions of TI (7 and early builds of successfully to an EXT USB drive and there was no issues. However, When I attempted to use it on a machine with an ASUS P4C800-E MB with a Promise 378 RAID controller, it would hang, problems with the RAID Controller Support. Anyway, I got 8.0 build 921 and it works great. However, I also now have this image corrupted problem.

I made 4 images to an external USB drive and verified them in the boot environment. All checked out. However, when I check them in the real XP OS, they are all corrupted.

I wanted to make some changes to my OS, so I made an image (image 1)to an internal disk in the system, checked it in the boot environment, checked in the real OS and it checked out. So I thought the external drive is the issue. So I made my changes, booted with the Acronis system disk and made an image (image 2) of my "changed" system to an internal drive. I checked image 2 in the boot environment and it checked out. I went into the real OS and checked it and it was deemed CORRUPT. I checked my pre-change image, image 1, and it was also now reporting CORRUPT.

Now, the question was asked whether you can successfully recover a "corrupted image". the answer is NO. I attempted this and everything was moving along and then it pops up IMAGE CORRUPT and so my disk was pooched. Luckily I took another image of the system using PQ Drive Image and was able to recover.


This is just my $0.02. Don't know whether it offers any insight.

Cheers,
Jim

 

I forgot to add....I can mount and browse all of the "corrupted images" regardless of whether they are on the int or ext disk.

Cheers,
Jim

 

Thanks to Manowar for bringing up this issue in the forum.

I just downloaded the trial version (build 791) today and verified that it doesn't exhibit a corruption problem with an image stored on my external drive. Strange that Acronis wouldn't build a new trial version based on the latest codebase.

I was about to purchase this product (actually searching for an online retailer) when I came across this thread. Looks like I'll be looking at alternative software at least until this issue has been resolved.

 

I tried, just because someone in the thread mentioned it, the "defragmentation solution". I defragged the INT and EXT discs with the images. I have to report that this didn't work.

So, sadly, I now have 6 images which are corrupt, 2 days worth of work down the crapper. Hopefully the images are not corrupt and I can get them back. I just assumed that the new version would work like the old one....sadly, I shouldn't have assumed anything.

PLEASE FIX THE SOFTWARE!!!!!! ;-)

I'm now up to my $0.04.

 

I can add "only" another affirmation towards the "corrupted images" problem.

Quite strange, since only tested with the "trial" version to create an image - and it did (as far as i see)

Hardware:
Old 120Mhz Pentium with 48MB Ram and Windows NT 4.0 server with SP6a and add. sec.patches -> it works stable and reliable.
1. drive a 2GB IBM SCSI HDD, partitioned with c:/1GB and d:/1GB > all FAT (currently for testing)
2. drive a 1GB Quantum SCSI HDD, partitioned with e:/800MB and f:/200MB > all FAT (s.a. for testing)
3. drive a 20GB Maxtor IDE HDD patitioned with i:/20GB > NTFS
4. SCSI CDROM Plextor 12x
5. ATAPI/IDE CDROM Lite On32x
All works fine, the BIOS supports the IDE stuff
The Adaptec 2940x does the SCSI fine

As said, the NT server runs smoothly and nothing much to say - simply works, no probs.

We have installed Trial Acronis True Image 8.0 Server for Windows Ver. 791.
Installation went perfect without any error.

Then we did the 1. test:
- create image of c: the boot and nt system disk TOWARDS i:, the NTFS 20GB IDE HDD.

No viewable errors during creation, no "click, click" or other "sounds" indicating file read errors etc. -> the creation runs perfect.
After that TI tells that creation finished without probs.
Then we choose "check image archive for errors" and select i:\folder\image and say "proceed" to check the test.tib --> and voila "the image is corrupt"

That's even more strange, because if we mount "the image" for "explore image" all works perfect again...

We can see all files and folders, even jump into the folders, no files lost or not seeable.

That's so strange, i am working over 20years in IT now and i've not seen such a behaviour, except that something went wrong with the checksum of a compare etc.

Hope it helps

 

I am having the same problems (W2K writing to an External CD-RW via USB). However, the program tells me my image is corrupt. When I try to restore, I get "Error opening file .. a possible reason may be poor media quality. Retry with Vol 2."

This is a 2-volume set and inserting Vol 2 gives me the same message, with an option to go back to vol 1. Vol 1 then works and 90% of the image is restored until I get another file read error. I then get the option to go to vol 2, and that restores a bit more until the corruption message comes up again and I switch back to the other volume. After going back and forth several times, the restore finally completes and the image successfully restores.

 

I forgot to mention one small other item. I am running True Image 8.0 Entersprise Server.

 

OK...self-healing software. I re-checked all of my images this afternoon, you know, just for fun. ...they all check out OK now. Scary. I might try a restore again, but will use drive image before proceeding.

Cheers,
Jim

 

OK...the latest. Upgraded to build 928 of TI 8.0 Enterperise Server, rebooted and boom....the images are "corrupt" again.

Very Odd.

 

Does anyone else think that the problem is with the "check image" algorithm? I imagine Acronis is using a CRC (cyclical redundancy check) checksum algorithm on the images created, and if so, it looks to me like there is a bug in it, or in the implementation of it. There are just too many "corrupt images" reported on too many different platforms, and probably most of these are machines that work perfectly fine in all other respects.

 

But if the check image algorithm is at fault surely you could still restore ? unless its the check image thats causing the problem

I have found on occasions that a that after a reboot the image checks ok, (my system is not networked in any way)

 

I also have the same problem as everyone else here. By chance I went to check my images on my USB external HD and yes they are all corrupt. This really does suck, cause I made a WindowsXP base image so that I don't have to reinstall Windows from scratch if needed and also have created many incremental images since then. The images were all created OK, but now all are garbage. Hope that the issue will be fixed soon.

 

#39 Today, 10:49 AM
como
Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27

Re: Problems with corrupted images

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But if the check image algorithm is at fault surely you could still restore ? unless its the check image thats causing the problem

I have found on occasions that a that after a reboot the image checks ok, (my system is not networked in any way)
________________________

I'm wondering if on some systems, at the bios or chipset level, that the file contents (header or trailer) are being altered slightly AFTER Acronis stores its checksum value in the file? My experience with "corrupt images" is that they can be mounted and files extracted just fine. But if Acronis stops as soon as there is a bad checksum compare there is no option to even attempt a restore.
I guess the real question is why might the files change after the fact, and is there a way around this. Maybe restrict the portion of the file that is actually used in generating the checksum? Pad it, in effect, at the beginning and end where the system "alterations" are most likely to occur?
Just a guess, but this problem definitely needs to be solved.

 

I have a similar problem.
I made an image with a bootable CD created with TI Corp. Workstation 8.0.921 (I boot from the CD, TI is not installed on the PC at all)
The PC is HP Compaq nw8000 notebook, with a HD divided into 3 partitions, all NTFS.

I made an image of the system partition C:\ and saved it to D:\
Also copied the image to an external USB HDD, and burned it to a DVD.
TI says the file on D is OK, and the ones on the USB HD and on the DVD are corrupt. The message that the file is corrupt comes at the very end of the check.
The 3 image files have the same size in bytes, and the same CRC checksums - which means (at least I think so) that the files are absolutely identical, bit by bit.
I did all the above twice, with the same result.
This makes me think there is really a bug in the verification routine, as someone already suggested. Haven't tried to restore one of the 'corrupt' images.
--
Edit: I used maximum compression, if this matters

 

Hello all,

We do apologise for the problem with corrupted images.

First of all, I would like to inform that I have contacted our Development Team and they are absolutely sure the verification algorythm is working properly.

As a diagnostic for this problem please do the following:

- Download the checksum utility from www.acronis.com/files/support/md5sum.exe
- Run the application and click on the ellipsis sign to browse and select the image file;
- Please compare the numbers in the "MD5" string for the image that is reported as normal and its copy that is reported as corrupted.

Please send this diagnostics info to support@acronis.com. We are trying to reproduce the problem. As soon as we obtain some results concerning it they will be announced on the forum.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Hello bigg1,

Very interesting post you have. If, and when you run the MD5 hash on your files, could you also post the results in this thread? I would be very interested. The results may also give Acronis some clues.

For your info, the following is a link to Microsofts Knowledge Base which presents an example of the type of problem one might encounter with checksum calculations.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;151224

regards,
George

 

Hello George,

Thank you for your input in Acronis software improvement. We do follow all the threads on the forum and especially the threads describing main problems. In many cases we have given the information from here to our Development Team and they took it into account. We do appreciate your help.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Acronis,

I have spent the past 4 months attempting to solve various problems with a whole host of restore methods, most of which have been unsuccesful. I need a method of booting from an EXT USB2 device and restoring from the same device to an INT IDE HDD @ USB2 SPEEDS!

Symantecs' Norton Ghost was unable to fullfill such a task - Due to its poor DOS compatability combined with the lack of some form of RAM drive I suspect.

Falling back to Acronis True Image, previously more reliable than Ghost! I found that booting to your User Interace was fast and reliable and speeds in creating an image to an EXT USB2 HDD were that of USB2. However not once have I been able to restore any of the 50+ images created by True Image.
Could this be a USB2 throughput Problem when the device is near its theoritical limit? is data being read/writen at too fast a speed?
I have also tried a EXT USB2 DVD/RW with various types of media and not once have I been able to CREATE an image let alone restore one.

Once again I find myself in a position where allowing YOU 'the software provider' 6 months to iron out any bugs seems like the only viable option.

I have to say though, that I am happy to see that you provide software support - unlike the other software provider mention herein!

 

anowar (desperatly seeking a solution)[/QUOTE]

Try This.
Here is my account.....
I have read most of the replys to this post as the problem seems to be common. I have intel 865 chipset with via raid controler on ASUS P4P800 Deluxe. I am working with 3 drives on the Via controler. After several tries I managed to save an image of Drive C on drive 3 (drive C is on one of the raid connectors as a single drive and not as part of a raid array) I have two other drives on the second chanel. (Drives 2 & 3.) I tried to Image drive 2 with the image file stored on drive 3. After several tries I gave up and read the posts in this forum. That led me to try another approch. Instead of using the Boot disk TI 8 (created on another machine) which fail miserably. I tried a Ver-7 boot disk, but got a "file not recognized error". I guess because it was created in ver 8. So I installed Version 7 bld 613 in windows. I was going to create a new boot disk on this machine, but instead I stayed in windows and went straight to creating an image on drive 2 (success) Then imaged the file to drive 3, Altered my boot ini file to look for the new drive. I now have a dual boot machine. Sorry for the long winded story, but This works and Version 8 any build is a DOG. woof!

Good luck
User60

 

Hello Nezzle,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Could you please send the details of why you cannot store the image on your CDs and DVDs and the image creation? Acronis Support Team will certainly help you to solve the problem.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

I tested the image files with this tool - each image file twice.
For the originally created image on my D:\ partition (which TI reports to be OK) and for the same file copied to an USB HDD (which TI says is corrupt), it shows the same data in all the fields.
Here it is, for MD5 / SHA-1 / RIPEMD-160 / HAVAL (with the default 3/128 values) / CRC-32 respectively:
-----
E4FB97B11A65C90E2A6EAAD21E2EB9B6
59BCA6D0098C920731C653E130D15D38A716E64F
47C9B41D1A8B2D7D2927BD7ED538CDEC52D99ECD
272ABA361CED84E79CB300B1229AB2F
554CA0C9
-----

For the image on the DVD, it showed 2 different results for the 2 tests, none of them matching the above. I didn't keep them, sorry.
The DVD seems to be OK, it does not have even a one micrometer scratch or whatever. And I've never had whatever problems burning DVD's on this PC.

For all the 3 files I tested, the tool shows a 'File size:' 116,551,512
I'm not sure in what sort of units this is calculated, each of the 3 files is actually
4.10 GB (4,411,518,808 bytes) - as Windows Explorer reports.

Let me remind that I tested the images integrity after booting from a TI bootable CD, so Windows or whatever apps were not loaded at this time.
--
Edit:
As for the MSDN KB article mentioned by bocsor, I don't think this is the case for me. The KB says
====
Large application executable files can return different cyclic redundancy check (CRC) values due to unique product identification stamping that occurs when the application is installed.
===
I didn't 'install' anything, I created the image and checked images after booting from a TI boot CD. I copied the image to the USB HD and DVD under Windows indeed, but don't think this applies here.

 

In reference to bigg1's last post- If I understand the situation correctly, we have two copies of the same TI image - one on the C:drive, and one having been copied to the USB drive. They have identical CRC hash strings (so they are identical files) but TI reports one as OK and the other as CORRUPT.

Any ideas, anyone?