Unable to create Secure Zone - ATI 9.0

I have True Image 9 - build 3567.

Three times I tried to establish a “Secure Zone”.

Each time the Acronis log displays the following, in the order listed:

Error: Module 100 – Error Code 127(0x64007F) - Failed to Find Acronis Secure Zone

Information: Module 100 – Error Code 126(0x64007E - Failed to Prepare Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

Error: Module 100 – Error Code 5(0x640005) – Operation has completed with errors.

I elected not to install Startup Recovery Manager (“SRM”) because I read in this forum that if I could boot from a CD I did not need (SRM).

I do not understand what any of these error messages means.

I would appreciate any assistance anyone can provide in resolving my problem.

My PC is a generic 2.80 Ghz Pentium 4, one GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive – 30 GB free - running Windows XP Pro with SP2. My firewall is “Outpost 3.5” – my antivirus program is “BitDefender 9” – my antispyware programs are “CounterSpy ver 1.5” – Ad-Aware SE Plus latest engine” – “Spybot Search & Destroy ver. 1.4”

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Instead of creating the SZ, it is better to use an external usb drive to hold your backup images. What if your hard drive fails ... the SZ goes with it.

Don't take that chance when large external drives are easily available. The SZ was a great feature when systems had only one drive and hard drives were still expensive.

 

Hello jimwal,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

First of all, please check each partition of your hard drive by Widows utility: use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command "chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drive. Note that you will need to reboot your computer in order to scan the system partition.

Please also download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it with disabled logging and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists after checking the hard drive and updating the drivers then please try creating Acronis Secure Zone when your computer is booted from Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build (3567) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home.

If that does not help either then please provide us with the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- Reproduce the problem and collect Acronis True Image log which can be saved from Tools -> Show Log -> Diskette icon;

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I apologize in advance for piling on, but I am having exactly the same problem. I reformatted my entire hard drive and reinstalled a fresh copy of XP Pro SP2 with all the updates. Then I bought ATI Home, downloaded it, installed it, and tried to create a Secure Zone for my first backup. I am also running build 3567, and my symptoms were exactly as described. I am working through the recommeded fixes now, and I will report back with the results, but I must say that this has been a seriously disappointing issue, and you may be hearing from me about a request for a refund. I bought ATI to solve my backup problems, not create new ones that take me hours to find solutions for. Heck, I could have downloaded any old garden-variety virus for that and saved myself the $50.

 

VgnATI, any particular reason you must use the SZ?

 

If statistics were my guide, I would say that no, I don't have to use the SZ. I do have an external USB drive that I have been using for my backups with a competitor's program, and the chances are slim that both my OS and my external drive's backup files would fail concurrently. But I've been on the unfriendly side of improbable computer events before, as I am now. Granted, buying software that doesn't work as advertised is more common than two sets of files on two drives failing concurrently, but more improbable things have happened. I want to backup my backups, I want the convenience of restoring my c: drive from my c: drive, and I would prefer that software manufacturers sell products that work as advertised.

 

I tried all three of the fixes recommended by Acronis Support. Chkdsk returned no errors. Updating the drivers did not change the target behavior. Burning a Bootable Rescue CD and using it to create the SZ and activate it did, however, work.

The whole process soaked up four hours of my time, beginning from my first failed attempt to create a Secure Zone up until now. I want my four hours back.

More importantly, I may have lost confidence in ATI. After all, I've run the SZ program at least six times, and each time the program attempted to modify my partitions and boot file; all of those attempts returned errors (except for the last one). What were those errors? Do I now have damaged partitions and a hamstrung boot file? Did ATI just plant the seeds of my next hard drive crash? And now that I've imaged that very same drive, won't I merely reinstall the same problem if I use ATI to recover from a crash? This program was supposed to give me peace of mind, but we'll see if I sleep well this week. I really don't want to lose the time it would take to reinstall XP Pro SP2 all over again from scratch with new partitions and without ATI, but I'm still seriously considering insisting on a refund and investing in a (second) competitor's product.

 

It seems like with ATI that if you start down a path that is problematic, recovering is difficult and possibly costly timewise. It sounds like the only reliable ways to back up your main drive are to use either a USB drive or have a spare slave drive on the ATA/SATA chain internally.

What seems most remarkable to me about this software is how some people seems to have no trouble, and for many others the opposite is true.

Regards

 

Hi VgnATI,

Well, if you value "convenience" more than "data security" then by all means continue to backup to a SZ residing on your main system disk. Personally, I think the chances of physical failure of the system disk is infinitely greater than for a removable dedicated backup drive. Still, one man's meat may well be another man's poison I guess .

Oh, by the way, another possible reason that TI couldn't create a SZ from within Windows is that some particular software you have running isn't playing ball with TI. Hence reason the SZ could be created after booting into the Acronis, Linux based, rescue environment.

Regards

 

I may not have said clearly enough that my intention was to have a backup on my SZ on c: drive for convenience AND another backup on my external USB drive. That is what I meant by backing up my backups.

If you say so, but there is a problem with your theory. Just prior to installing ATI, I had removed and reinstalled all my prior partitions, reformatted my drive, and reinstalled a retail copy of Win XP Pro SP2 directly from Microsoft. After that, I applied all the OS patches. Then I installed ATI and and tried to create a SZ. So the ONLY software I had on my PC was a clean, fresh, untouched copy of XP Pro SP2 with all its security updates. If that's what you mean by some particular software on my machine that wasn't playing ball with TI, then I suppose you must be right.

 

Windows patches have been know to cause problems. Which ones ... I don't recall. In any case I think some of those security patches are overhyped! But that's just me. I haven't done updates in over 6 months, but then I'm not a corporation or other hi-tech entity - just a home user with a small network that is online about 14 hours/day.

Also I don't use optical media for backup nor do I use a wireless keyboard or mouse.

 

Hello again VgnATI,

O.K. Thanks for the clarification.

Microsoft Security Update KB908531 was particularly troublesome for a number of TI (and other software) users. Indeed, Microsoft released Version 2 of KB908531 on April 25th which seems to have overcome most of the problems.

Regards

 

Alright - I hear you both, and I know well enough that Microsoft's software is far from flawless. But it seems to me that a software company that writes programs for Windows should be able to assure its purchasers that their products work on Windows. That's the whole point of writing for Windows rather than Linux, OS X, Free BSD, or any of the others, right?

I also must observe that it strikes me as a bit odd that the first responses to Jimwal's and my own reports of the issue in question are met with the suggestion that we abandon SZs. Was that because it has become common knowledge on this board that they don't work as advertised?

 

Hello VgnATI,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Acronis Secure Zone is good for some purposes, as Chutsman noticed.

Most likely the issue is related to the particular software configuration. We are able to resolve most of these issues.

If you wish to investigate the issue please submit a request for technical support. Provide the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem.

Thank you.
--
Anton Sherkhonov

 

I had the same error messages when trying to crease Acronis Secure Zone (using ATI Workstation 9.1, trial edition, downloaded today). What is worrying is that now when I go to computer administration>computer management>disk management, my hard drive is no longer listed!

I want to undo whatever it is that ATI has done to my system but am not sure how to go about this.

I am also dismayed to read on this forum that there is no proper uninstall for ATI.

I have already wasted hours over this program and want just to remove it and undo the adverse effects it has had on my system. I will not be buying it.

 

Further to my message above, I tried making a bootable rescue disk and starting ATI Workstation in safe mode. I thought I might try to complete the creation of the Secure Zone with a view to then deleting once it was properly set up. However, I got the message that I had the trial version and "...it is not possible to cmmit the operations you have selected." I then tried using System Restore to revert to the configuration before I started installing ATI. The System Restore gave a message to the effect that the restore could not be made. On running Disk Management, though, my hard drive is listed again, which is a big relief. I am now going to assume that my partitions have not been damaged and start going through the steps listed elsewhere in this forum for manual unistallation of ATI.

PS. Another problem I had with this software was that it would not recognize the computers on my LAN except for the one on which it was installed. I could not find any help on that problem in this forum or in the user manual.

 

Hello riskassessor,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Workstation Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that the issue with Acronis Secure Zone may be related to Acronis Drivers that were not installed properly for some reasons. Therefore, you can download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it with disabled logging and see if the issue still persists. You should be able to Manage Acronis Secure Zone if successful.

If the problem persists and you would like to investigate it, please enable logging by SnapAPI program, reproduce the program failure and send us the "snapapi.log" file which is located at C:\. You can also use Windows Search tool (available in Start menu) to find this file. Please also create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post. Create a screen shot of Windows Disk Management by following Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. Thensubmit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Please have a look at this FAQ article and apply the described workaround.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

I just purchased Acronis True Image Home 9 and I have the exact same problem. I installed the latest version of the Acronis Drivers provided in the link in the above post, and now the entire program is corrupt. Now instead of error messages that say "Cannot find Acronis Secure Zone" and "Cannot start Acronis Recovery Manager", I get the following brabd new error message:

"Cannot find the necessary Acronis Home Image modules. Please reinstall Acronis True Home Image."

This is horrible. I spent days setting up a perfectly clean new copy of Windows XP Professional with all my device drivers on abrand new system with all new hardware and only the bare essential programs. Now the program I bought to protect and image this clean install has probably corrupted it.

I am pissed and I don't have 10 days to wait for another one of these automated replies from Acronis Tech Support apologizing for the delay and simply cit and pasting freom prior replies that have essentially not helped anybody. I purchased this program because I read Acronis' tech support was superior to Symantec. I certainly don't see any evidence of that on this thread.

Acronis, please prove me wrong and I will not hesitate to advise all of your speedy resolution.

 

Hello rpr,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

First of all, please make sure that you are using the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home which is available for downloading in the Product Updates section of your account at Acronis web site.

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

To get access to updates you should create an account then log in and use your serial number to register the software.

Please uninstall the previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image prior to installing build 3677.

Note that you should create a new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

If the problem persists with the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home then then please do the following:

- Uninstall Acronis True Image 9.0 Home via Add or Remove Programs;

- Download the latest version of Acronis drivers and install it with disabled logging;

- Install the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home once more and see the result.

If the above does not help then please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also do the following:

- Uninstall Acronis True Image 9.0 Home via Add or Remove Programs;

- Launch the product installation file;

- Once the Acronis product installation screen appears, right-click on the name of the component that fails to install (Acronis True Image itself in your case). You should see two options there: Install and Extract. Select Extract;

- Select the path for extracting the component and click Save;

- Go to the Run prompt (Start -> Run) and issue the following command:

msiexec /i msi-name /l*v log-name

Where msi-name is the name of the file you extracted in steps 2-3 and log-name is the path and the name to the log file you want to save the output to.

- Reproduce the problem and collected the log file created during the installation.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution as soon as possible.

As for the issue with creating Acronis Secure Zone, please follow the recommendations provided above. Especially the one that suggests to create Acronis Secure Zone using the Bootable Rescue CD. In such a way you will be able to exclude the possibility of some third-party software (e.g. another backup software, partition and disk managing applications, antivirus\antispyware programs, etc.) interfering with Acronis True Image not allowing it to create Acronis Secure Zone. By the way, that is the most common reason for this sort of problems.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov