Recovery failed - what to do?

Hi,

I have TI 10 and I am on WXP PRO SP3.

The problem:

I needed to recover my C:\ drive and used my backup, which is made up with 2 DVD-RW discs.
I started the recovery procedure in Windows and once I got at the end of disc 2 I got an error message: Archive is corrupted

Obviously, my PC cannot boot up anymore and in addition, I never made an Acronis boot CD.

Now, unless you tell me I can create an Acronis boot CD from another PC, I presume I can only format??

I can boot up my system using knoppix 5.1 Live DVD, I was wondering, do I have any chance to do the recovery through the live DVD knoppix?

I know I made a big mistake by not making the TI boot CD, but I did not expect a failure at the end of the recovery backup.
Before going through the formatting process, I really want to know if I have any chance to try again to load the two discs.

Formatting and getting back my system to what it was till today will take weeks

Thank you for your help!

Alex

 

Yes, you can install True Image on another PC in order to make the True Image Rescue CD. Once you have the CD, try copying the files from the DVD to a second hard drive, boot with the CD and try the restore that way. The Rescue CD has all the basic True Image features on it.

 

OK I will try that way.
The reason why you suggest to put the content of the 2 backup DVDs on HDD is because you suspect the media might be the reason of the corruption message or because it is more fluid to have the backup picked up from HDD instead of DVD?

I will let you know the outcome once I have tried.

Thank you
Alex

 

OK here is what I did:

1) Downloaded the trial version of TI2009 and created a bootable rescue CD.
2) Copied the 2 backup DVDs on a partition of my HDD (I have a WD 120GB, 30GB are dedicated to C:\, 90GB to M:\)

I booted using the TI2009 bootable CD and launched the backups from M:\, it gave me the same error as before: archive is corrupted.

So I tried an old backup I did 6 months ago and which I already used successfully in the past...but this time, got the same error: archive is corrupted.

How's this possible?

So, I am now trying to see if I can restore at least the original TI10 .exe from my backup, try to install it on my laptop and create the bootable rescue CD from scratch, at least, this is an attempt to use the same version of TI that created the backups.
But I am not optimistic.

Should this last attempt fail, can I format only C:\ without touching the M:\ partition?
If yes, how can I do it? Maybe using my live knoppix DVD

Thank you
Alex

 

When TI validates and archive it reads it into memory (RAM) and recalculates the checksums that were stored with the archive when it was created. Anything that does not allow the archive to be read correctly, stored correctly in RAM, or any other processing failure will cause the "archive corrupt" message. It is not a compare of source data with the archive contents. Since 4000 checksums per gigabyte of data are compared and all must agree perfectly it is a pretty rigorous test.

Some systems have experienced problems when the archive was copied to a different location or defragged. If the hardware is rock solid either of these operations should work since the archive is just a very large file.

Of course, if there is a problem with the PC when the checksums are created and stored in the file, this can cause problems too.

The first thing to do is to run chkdsk X: /r on the partition where the archive is stored. It is a very good idea to run it on all partitions. TI is actually very good at making sense out of partitions with files sytem errors but there is a limit and backing up an faulty file system isn't really the ideal way to do things.

The other cause is bad RAM. Don't think because you haven't noticed any other issues with your PC that your RAM is good. Very few apps give RAM the workout an image program does and in some cases, depending on the location the RAM error might not even be noticed. Regular PCs do not check RAM data for errors, it is always assumed to be correct.

 

You never want to put backups on dvd rw, those are very unreliable for backups. If your originals ti 10 backups are also on dvd-rw they might also have gone bad (due to degradation over time). If you have NERO on your computer do a disc quality check on your dvd media, you need to get a score of at least 85 percent for them to be reliable. It's best to use only the writeonce dvd's and only sony or verbatims.

Theres some program that can get data off a corrupt dvd (isobuster) but I don't think it can recover a severe case of corruption. If you look at the bottom of the dvd and it has small spots in the dye, those cannot be recovered.

One more thing you can try is to use a different dvd burner to read the dvd after you clean the dvd with warm water and handsoap (actually works for me more times than it doesn't). Some dvd burners have more laser power to read corrupt dvd's. I can put a dvd in computer A and it will always hang at a certain point, when I put the same disc in computer B, it reads it with no problems.

Worst scenario, you can use the free "testdisk" to recover any valuable data you had on the c: drive before you wipe it. You can also use the free "gparted" which also comes in a linux livecd (maybe it's a utility on the knoppix cd you have) . It can format your c: partition without touching your data partition, but the windows installation cd will also do the same thing (you can use the quick format).

 

I am unclear about what follows but it might be relevant.

I think your problem may be that you are trying to use a 2009 recovery disk to restore TI 10 created images. It is my understanding that if you upgrade your version of TI you need to create a new recovery disk to use with it. In other words old recovery disks will not work with new version images. It may be the case that the reverse is also true. Old version images may not work with new version recovery disks.

As I said, I am uncertain about this but .................

 

I agree with your comments on the reliability of DVD /RW for backups. Unless the DVD recovery program can get, along with the DVD's ECC, every bit perfect, TI will choke on it as corrupted.

Another case of DVD reading and writing causes is dust on the laser. The laser diode will look perfectly clean to the naked eye but if you look at it with a 10X magnifier you will see a very fine layer of dust. This dust probably doesn't reduce the light intensity so much but causes it to disperse more than it should. Cleaning the diode if this is seen can do wonders.

 

If I format C:\, can I try again to load my backups with TI10 rescue disc or do I talk nonsense?

Alex

 

OK guys, I gave up and formatted the C:\ drive but, once the system files have been loaded using the WXP CD (after formatting) and try to reboot I get the following:

Invalid partition table

I don't know what else to do

Alex

 

End of the story....

...I had to format all the HDD, eventually WXP PRO booted up and now I have one or more weeks to work in order to customize the system as it was before, but let's stay positive, I have now a clean system

Thank you for your help

Cheers
Alex

 

Just a last thought...

from this experience, I learned that you can have the best backup software of the world, say, Acronis True Image Home , but if your HDD or one of your system files has a problem, my case has been an illuminating example, you cannot recover your system, that's it.

For sure, you don't lose you data, once TI is installed again, I can restore files & folders, which obviously is very important

Regards
Alex

 

And it proves that you have to test the RESTORE part before you really have a backup.

Boot from the TI Rescue CD and validate your backups. If they don't validate, make a new backup while booted from the Rescue CD and see if that validates. If it does, that one should work when you need to restore.

 

I think root of your problems is the corrupt archive which caused your partition to be deleled and then there was no restore. It is always best to do a Validate before the restore so if it declares the archive corrupt the partition will not be deleted.

If I were you, I would find out why your archives are declared corrupt. It is essential that the TI rescue CD is able to Validate them and ideally you would do a test restore to a spare HD to show that everything is working properly under the Linux environment. Once you have done that then everything should be fine and a Windows validate should be sufficient. I know that some people do not validate their archives but I consider it worth the time.