TI 11 Restore hangs - images verified and usable manually

I am running TI 11 Home (8,101) and am trying to restore an entire drive image, or at least a system state image. Both .tib files "passed" verification at the time of the backup and prior to the restore. And both files can be opened and files extracted manually. But once mounted for a system restore from the bootable recovery disc, the program seems to hang with +/- 1h40m remaining (3 progress ticks in each bar). Why can't I restore the system, but I can restore individual files? These images were "entire disk/partitions" images when built. OS is XPSP3. Drive was deep formatted NTFS using the Windows XP boot disc.

bezimmer

 

Were the tib files only validated using Windows? The recovery environment is Linux and sometimes the drivers aren't a good fit for the hardware. The Linux environment is required to restore the active partition because Windows can't be running when this is done.

If you are uncertain of the above, boot up the TI rescue CD and Validate the archive.

Have you ever done a successful restore on the machine before with your version of TI?

Some things you can try:

Try the quiet acpi=off noapic command described under II in the following link:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=55317

I'm inclined to tell you to run chkdsk X: /r on all your HD partitions. Replace the X with the drive letter of the partition being checked. OTOH, you said you did a deep format on the disk which I assume is a non-quick format and it would have done a read-check on all the sectors.

You can download the trial version of TI2009, create a rescue CD and see if it works. TI2009 has a different implementation of the Linux recovery environment which seems to offer better hardware support.

To answer your question about file extraction, the checking of the archive is much more rigorous when the entire partition is being restored compared to the case when some files are being extracted. For restoring an image, every one of the 4000 checksum/GB needs to be correct however normally such a failure results in an "Archive Corrupted" message being displayed and entered into the log rather than hanging.

 

The tib files were validated using Windows. Point well taken about validating while running Linux - I'll try that but I have a complete image that is a set of incrementals and a newer one that's a complete image in one tib. Both hung TI11 during the CD booted restore process, but then again, both might be corrupt.

This drive had MBR issues and wouldn't boot - so I'm trying to recover to a HDD that had known-unknown problems (I knew I had one bad sector, but don't know why the MBR/Sector 0 was the only affected sector). SAV-Corporate was used daily and is always up to date, so I don't suspect foul play... I do suspect that might be part of the Restore issue I'm having... Any thoughts there? Still hangs whether I do or don't include the MBR during the restore (tried a lot of stuff)...

After nuking the drive with DBAN and a "non-quick" NTFS format, I did a chkdsk c: /x. It yielded no issues. I also rebuilt the Acronis Recovery/Boot CD. Same-o Same-o

Going forward, I'll try turning apic off in the quiet mode (what does that do, actually?), then do a Linux verify of one of the images. Haven't had to restore an entire image before since putting Acronis into play, but I have done selective restores on this machine and others.

This is not as much a matter of urgency as it is a matter of trust - I know I'll get the data back. But if I cannot trust this S/W, then I've got to find something better - plus I just don't sleep well when I can't solve something like this.

Guess I'll consider buying an upgrade... thought TI was a quantum leap over Ghost. Apparently though, mine is not a pervasive problem - haven't seen much like it in the forums.

Thanks for the quick response and good suggestions.

BZ

 

ACPI=Advanced Configuration and Power Interface and APIC=Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller. It seems they can get the Linux TI into trouble on some, but not all, machines. What exactly happens, I can't tell you.

Since you said you had validated successfully, I didn't bother mentioning my typical suggestion of checking RAM. I still don't think it is too likely the cause but you never know and it can cause strange things plus there is no harm in checking it and having it available for future use.

You can download Memtest86+ free from www.memtest.org and let it run for at least several complete passes. Overnight is best to gain the most confidence it will uncover anything it can. THere should be zero errors.

 

Pardon my vent/rant...

My worst fears confirmed... I tried all the other $#!+ that we talked about, but to no avail. Intellectual curiosity has its price... So then I finally downloaded the Home 2009 version, cut a CD, and voila. It worked. Like a champ. Bet I have 60+ hours into this so far. And turns out it's a glitch with the TI11 recovery disc??

If there are known issues with the 11 and lesser Linux Recovery CD Boot images, why haven't theybeen upgraded/updated? Had I not been stubborn and persistent (I even did a couple of chat sessions with Acronis Help, which was one of the best chat experiences I've ever had in terms of responsiveness and "getting it" after a sentence or two, but was never advised to D/L the current version and cut a new CD), I would have been off to find another solution and would have abandoned my perfectly usable images as "forever lost." This is not a goofy instance - HP (consumer class) mainstream laptop with a name brand OEM drive (Hitachi - OK, so it's not a Barracuda or a Caviar, but it's not a "Bob's 2.5" HDD, Inc." either).

seekforever, I truly appreciate your interest and help with this - been just great. Not sure if you're a friend of the Acronis court, or an interested bystander. Either way, thanks tons. Problem-o solved-o. If you are affiliated with Acronis, please pass along my great displeasure with having to upgrade to the next version to make my current version serviceable as advertised and delivered. Cannot imagine why I owe those guys the upgrade fees to make my paid-up license work properly. In any case this has been an expensive quest. Thanks tons for the help and persistence.

BZ

 

I don't work for Acronis, I just happened to get into this forum when I bought TI9 and somehow I can't shake myself loose from it even though I've threatened to do so a couple of times.

While I like TI in spite of its quirks, I tend to keep out of trouble by using it in its simplest form - manually run, full images of my C partition only ( I prefer to do my data file backup with SyncBack and keep them in their native format rather than a giant container file). It has been very reliable for my purposes with the ony problem being a Validation problem caused by a marginal SATA cable.

I have often said the Achilles Heel of TI is the Linux recovery environment. It has been the reason for lots of users finding themselves in dire straits when they really need the product most. The weakness is the often lack of proper drivers for some hardware configurations. There are solutions to this such as makeing a BartPE CD with the TI plugin or making a VistaPE CD with the plugin. These are highly automated build procedures and are really not that bad to do once you get into it a bit. However, it is not something you likely would want your grandmother to tackle with her first computer. BartPE and VistaPE use the Windows environment and therefore the drivers are the same as regular Windows and you can also add any special ones you need in the build process which you can't do with the TI Linux CD.

Acronis doesn't seem to want to provide a CD based on WindowsPE (BartPE is a work-alike created by a guy named Bart in Europe) or VistaPE probably because of costing licensing $$$. Some imaging products do use it as their recovery environment and while I think it is better it doesn't solve 100% of the problems - that's the nature of PCs, just too many configurations and players and sometimes less than ideal drivers and devices.

The TI2009 Linux implementation seems to be much better than for previous versions. Normally, TI will ask people to run a report program and submit the results and then make a special .iso file to burn to CD with the correct drivers. I though they would do it for a previous version as well as the current version but maybe not. They should have suggested trying a later version, IMO, if they weren't going to pursue your problem with a different rescue configuration. However, sometimes the way problems get presented and evolve can cause an reasonable resolution to get missed.

Glad you got the problem resolved and I am glad to be of help.