Testing of v9 Build 3854

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by bodgy, Dec 11, 2006.

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  1. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    OK guys, time to get my feet wet again I guess and create a few more redundant images to join the shed load created during my previous bouts of testing earlier builds :p.

    I've now installed Build 3854 and am in the process of repeating the tests detailed in anomalies #1, #2, #4 and #6. Will post consolidated results when it's all done and dusted.

    Regards
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2006
  2. MKairys

    MKairys Registered Member

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    Thanks in advance!
     
  3. nice_guy

    nice_guy Registered Member

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    It's not that I ended up with a CD that didn't boot I just couldn't get this version of TI to run when I clicked on the entry within my BartPE environment.

    Nothing at all happened when I tried to run TI.

    The previous version worked just fine.
     
  4. bobdat

    bobdat Registered Member

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    You are absolutely correct. I should have been more explicit in my earlier angry post. Your BartPE CD is fine. It's the Acronis files that are "broken". They used to work in v3677 but stopped working with Acronis' new improved final version 3854.

    It could be either the Bart version of TI 3854 or the support files that are included in the BartPE subfolder but there is no rational explanation as to why Acronis would fiddledy fart with these files and release them as a FINAL version without first verifying that they didn't F**K up what used to work in the previous version. After all, they've had YEARS of experience carelessly breaking what worked in a prior version and then being criticized for it in this very forum.

    These guys at Acronis are hopelessly crippled as software developers but they're fortunate to have all the dedicated and knowledgable users here in this forum to act as their uncompensated beta testers.

    Someday in the near future we'll all wake up and realize that Acronis products are based upon Linux freeware programs and that the freeware programs are uncomplicated with Acronis' unreliable commercial add-on features and that those freeware programs work better than Acronis' buggy feature-bloated and thinly disguised variations.

    Then, the guys at Acronis, who never learn from their past mistakes; who offer empty apologies and reassurances to their unpaid beta-testers; who continue to churn and abuse the trust offered from its customer base by charging for even buggier so-called "upgrades" will finally get their just reward - ever decreasing sales to the point where Acronis joins so many other "has beens that never were" software amateurs who figured they could gouge and gouge and gouge their trusting customers.

    In case I haven't made myself clear, I'll NEVER spend another dime on an Acronis product nor will I ever recommend anything they develop because of their perfect record of failure to provide ANY product version which meets its advertised claims.

    Someday I'll tell you how I REALLY feel..... :mad:
     
  5. werne

    werne Registered Member

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    Tested Menorcaman's 6th Point <Build 3567 - Unnecessary Verification?>. Caveat: This kind of testing isn't for the faint of heart. Messing with your boot/system partition isn't my cup of tea.
    On Apr 24 2006 Acronis posted

    "Hello Tom,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please note that it is a known issue and our Development Team will fix it in the future builds of the software. Please accept our apologies for the current inconvenience.

    Thank you.
    --
    Tatyana Tsyngaeva"

    I guess this issue wasn't too important for them because in build 3854 the behavior is exactly the same. It validates the image in windows then does it again when the system reboots into whatever mode it goes into before windows to restore your system. I wonder how far in the future Acronis intends to take this issue?
     
  6. CatFan432

    CatFan432 Registered Member

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    At least through the first build on Version 10 Home, because v10 still does the double validation.
     
  7. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Mustang has updated his plugins to reflect B3854. You might try his http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/.
     
  8. werne

    werne Registered Member

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  9. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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  10. werne

    werne Registered Member

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  11. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    OUCH!! In the procees of testing this build's imaging to DVD functionality I came across a major stumbling block.

    After booting from the Build 3854 rescue CD and opting to create a disk/partition image neither of my two DVD burners were visible in the Backup Archive Location window (Screenshot 1). If I opted to create a Files & Folders image then the burners were visible in the Source Files Selection window (Screenshot 2) but disappeared again after advancing to the Backup Archive Location window. However, if I chose to either Restore or Validate the image then both burners were visible as normal (Screenshot 3).

    Carried out a manual uninstall followed by a reinstall and then created a new rescue CD but it made no difference. Booted from a Build 3677 rescue CD and everything behaved as it should.

    What on earth is going on here o_O. Has anybody else come across this problem?

    Regards
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Dec 21, 2006
  12. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Ouch, Indeed!

    I just rebooted to the V 9.3854 Boot CD, and just as you so deftly detected, when opting to create a Disk/Partition Image, there is no DVD or CD drive shown in the destination tree!. Yet, with a Files and Folders process begun, there they both are, at the bottom of the tree.

    So, this "final build" of Acronis True Image Home sure doesn't seem to be turning out to be a resolution of the known issues in ATI Home 9. In fact, it seems to me to be some new program, or at least some re-worked program, with missing features such as the option to burn to DVD, and additional undocumented features such as Ignore Read Errors...

    By the way, has anyone else noticed that the Additional Settings Screen of the Create Backup Wizard in V 9.3854 has changed? Now, instead of the second option, Ask for first media while creating backup archives on removable media, is the new mystery feature:
    Seems to me that someone at Acronis was ignoring quite a few things when they rolled out this "final build." Of course, perhaps whoever made this program knows that Direct to DVD doesn't work, so why bother including it?

    What, exactly, is this build supposed to fix? Our wagons o_O
     
  13. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Thanks for the confirmation Christopher. Nice (??!!) to find that I'm not alone :p.

    I've just tried the work around posted by Acronis Support in this <previous reply> but it made no difference. Will curtail further testing on anomaly #2 until Acronis Support can come up with a fix (provided they are still interested). Meanwhile, I'll move on to anomalies #1, #4 and #6 although "Yule Tide" preparations are currently taking preference I'm afraid.

    Regards
     
  14. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Thanks for all your work Menorcaman. I for one will not be installing B3854 any time soon. Its obvious from your comments and those of others that this build was rushed out with little or no testing from Acronis. It sounds like we are stuck with what we have. I have no need for V10 either.
     
  15. Ralphie

    Ralphie Registered Member

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    To quote the old cliche: "So what else is new"! :mad: :mad:
     
  16. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Menorcaman,

    Before reading your latest post, I'd been doing more testing myself, and was about to post what seemed to me to be going on. Now, having read this, and what Acronis support had to say on the matter, it seems that I have been missing this functionality all along. I never suspected that I could burn to optical media from Boot mode. I rarely backup to DVD anyway, preferring hard drives (thanks to Xpilot and many others who convinced me of this). I've just looked thru the users guide for info on such capability, but haven't found anything. Clues??

    So, when testing the Boot Discs further, I found that with my USB external HD connected, neither build 3854 nor 3677 saw either of my 2 optical drives as source or destination (SATA DVD+R ; EIDE DVD Rom ). Perhaps I have too many drive letters assigned for ATI Linux mode: 13-15 partitions and drives - is there an upper limit in boot mode?) Taking the ext USB HD out of the loop, the optical drives then show up when I attempt a F&F backup, in build 3854 as source drives, but are not visible as destinations under Image backup creation.

    Off to test some Linux commands in Boot mode -- perhaps a burning option awaits, behind door number??

    Regards,
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2006
  17. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Adding the F-11 command:

    then pressing enter,

    Build 9.3854 Boot Mode, Full, sees both my optical drives as source

    but does not recognize my SATA DVD+R as destination - so, still no burning available in Boot Mode on my system.

    Without the F-11 prompt, 9.3854 only sees the SATA DVD+R drive as source, but does not see the EIDE DVD Rom drive from which it booted.

    More details here: previous post @ F-11 workaround for optical drive recognition in Boot Mode

    Note: if you try this, to exit the Linux prompt, and reboot, type Reboot, then press enter.

    And, on further checking, build 9.3677 Boot mode, Full, also sees my SATA DVD+R drive as source, but with or without the F-11 / "product" prompt, does not see the EIDE DVD-Rom drive it booted from.

    So, here's a narrow edge to 3854...:doubt:

    Christopher
     
  18. werne

    werne Registered Member

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    Double OUCH!!! Just tried it with same results. Also tried it with the Acronis solution that Christopher mentioned and the results were also the same. Yes, Menorcaman I had the same problem with a previous build but thought that was fixed for good. I had tested the write directly to DVD in windows and tried restore from the Acronis rescue media with no problems, but this is a major stumbling block. The bug is obviously hardware independent as all of us seem to have different DVD burners (with both EIDE and SATA connections). Just as you get one bug fixed Acronis manages to recycle their old bugs! By the way, you should have kept going in the files and folders option. I did (and saw my burner) but guess what - when I tried to actually burn to the blank disk I got error E004000A can not write to the media! So you can see the DVD but it doesn't work. This is a show stopper for me because there are times when I need to image a partition or disk not from windows. There are good reasons to use TI but for now the negatives outweight the positives until Acronis gets this fixed in TI 9.0 Home. We need a real final version that actually has everything that Acronis says is supposed to work - WORK! Back to bootitng for me - for now. Come on Acronis get us a final copy of TI 9.0 Home that works as advertised.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2006
  19. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi werne,

    As you can see from my Post #36 above, I did keep going past the Source Files Selection window (I've hilighted the relevant text):

    Because the CD/DVD drives had disappeared I couldn't progress past this point.

    I've never had this problem with any previous build's rescue CD, so I agree that there appears to be something horribly broken in this "final" build.

    Acronis Support - if you are reading this, may we have your comments please.

    Regards
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2006
  20. werne

    werne Registered Member

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    Menorcaman, you're right, I should have read your reply a little bit more closely. Mine though didn't disappear; it just didn't work. It sure looks like either Acronis (1) really doesn't believe in beta testing (2) don't sign up ones that know what they are doing. I vote for a new final build of Acronis TI 9.0 that works as advertised. Acronis hasn't commented here, I believe it is about time that they do.
     
  21. werne

    werne Registered Member

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    Just to make sure I imaged a partition from my bootable Acronis media (a USB key) to my hard disk. All seemed to go well. So you can still do this just not directly to a DVD with build 3854.
     
  22. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Yes, I can confirm that imaging to an internal or external hard drive from within the Linux based boot rescue environment works as advertised.

    My initial reaction to the disappearing CD/DVD drives was that Acronis had incorrectly incorporated the "Free Trial" version of the media builder into Build 3854 (trial version of the rescue CD can't create images). Therefore, imaging to HDs was one of the first checks I carried out after coming across the CD/DVD drive problem.

    Regards
     
  23. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    O.K. As advised earlier, I've now rerun the tests detailed in the threads below (or at least tried to!!). In order to save unecessary typing and uploading of new attachments, the quotes and their associated screenshots refer to the original thread.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    <Does Acronis take account of deleted folders in differential backups?>

    FIXED. I can confirm bodgy's finding in Post #4, deleted folders/files are no longer displayed in subsequent Files & Folders differential images.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    <TI 9.0 Build 3666 Direct to DVD Imaging - Still Some Problems>

    FIXED. Can install Build 3854 over previous build and run TI without obtaining the Serial Number error message.

    1. Imaging to DVD in Windows Mode

    a. Erased DVD+RW Media:
    NOT FIXED. Still results in the previous warning message that can be ignored by clicking "OK". It seems this is not just peculiar to Nero as I tried two alternative CD/DVD burning programs with the same result.

    b. DVD+R, DVD-R and Erased DVD+/-RW media:
    FIXED. Validating a multi-DVD image as part of the image creation task no longer results in the endless loop of requested disk changes.

    HOWEVER, as noted by Kapiti at Post #11 above, there is now a new, albeit minor, anomaly whereby, after the last Volume has been recorded, the DVD is ejected and a warning message pops up requesting that you insert the media containing the last volume of the multi-volume backup archive (screenshot below). This is sloppy programing as TI should be able to recognise that the ejected media contained the last volume and therefore can proceed to validate the image rather than eject the DVD.

    2. Imaging to DVD in (Linux based) Boot Rescue Mode

    a. DVD+R, DVD-R and Erased DVD+/-RW media:

    Unable to test due to a major new problem of not detecting CD/DVD drives as detailed in Post #36 above.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    <Bug Report - Bootable Rescue DVD Selection Screen>

    NOT FIXED. The tooltip is obviously attempting to display more text than the available space allows.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    <Build 3567 - Unnecessary Verification?>

    NOT FIXED. As has already been noted by others, the double verification is still taking place.

    _________________________________________________________________________________

    Conclusion:

    Of the previous anomalies I retested, 3 problems were fixed and 3 not fixed, However, 1 minor and 1 major new problem has been introduced by this build. Hmm, seems like one step forward and two steps back :mad:.

    Regards
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Dec 23, 2006
  24. USAAlone

    USAAlone Registered Member

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    Finally got a BartPE Disk to work with TI 9.0.3854.
    Used the BartPE 3625 and up plug-in.

    I added the following DLL's

    msvcp71.dll, msvcr71.dll, msvcr70.dll

    to the C:\pebuilder313\BartPE\i386\system32\drivers,

    C:\pebuilder313\BartPE\Programs\TrueImageH9\Common Files\Drivers,
    C:\pebuilder313\BartPE\Programs\TrueImageH9\Common Files\TrueImage, folders.
     
  25. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Mustang has updated all of his plugins to reflect the need for the these files. They are available for download at http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/.
     
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