Validate alwaysfails

I have backed up and restored several times.
I did it for experience and practise.
I cleaned up and degragged my c drive.
Every time I back it up it fails on validation. Sometimes it fails as soon as the validation starts.
I don't really know what to check.

 

What version and build number are you using?

what is your backup media - internal HD, USB HD, DVD...

Is the validation done within Windows or with the TI rescue CD?

Does a validation in Windows fail if you do it after the backup has been done, that is, the validation is done independently of the backup task where it creates the backup and immediately does a validation. Try the validation all by itself.

Does a validation in Windows succeed but a validation done from the TI rescue CD fails.

The "archive corrupt" really means TI cannot read the archive and recompute all of the checksums contained in it and get the correct values. It is not a comparison of the data contained in the archive with the data on the HD and it does not necessarily mean that the archive is all garbled up.

Other place to start is to check your drives.
For all partitions run chkdsk X: /r replace X with the drive letter of the partition being tested.

Check your RAM since it will affect the checksum calculations. Run memtest86+ V2.0 free from www.memtest.org .

 

First of all I was still in the trial period. But now I am really in trouble.
I deleted the acronis11 program and downloaded another copy. I cannot install it. It refuses to install. I have no acronis 11 on my computer.

In answer to your questions.
Version V11 Build 8,053
I cannot valididate any new backups with either Windows, Rescue or Explorer
I can valididate programs I backed up yesterday.
I ran the chkdsk c:/r on my c drive with no known problem.
I can't run memtest86 V2

I have been holding off on purchasing Acronis11 because I wanted to find out if it would work on my laptop. It does so once I get it working on my desktop I will buy 2 copies at the same time.

Yesterday I could do anything with it. In fact last evening I backed up and did not validate. I started restoring and got an error. I lost the operating system on my c drive. Fortunatly I had the rescue disk and restored an older saved backup file.

I suoppose I can always try and restore an older copy and that way I will gey Acronis back.

 

I'm not sure I'm following all of this but I think:
TI11 works fine on your laptop but not your desktop.

It was working on your desktop but stopped working (?) but you were able to restore an older backup. This makes me wonder if you have an older rescue disk which wasn't made by TI11. TI11 has a new format and old rescue disks won't restore TI11 archives. The other possibility is that the TI recovery environment changes have caused TI to no longer work properly with your hardware in restore mode. This assumes the older backups were made with versions earlier than TI11.

Did you run chkdsk /r on the partitions you are creating the new archives on? Problems with the location you are writing the new archives to will cause them to be bad. You won't know it until you try to read them.

What's the problem running Memtest86+ V2? Given the additional info in your last post that indicates you can restore older versions I doubt you have a RAM problem. Nonetheless, it should run.

 

I have a solution for you... Purchase the Acronis TI 11.

 

For what it's worth, I had the same problem and had a bad stick of ram on a shiny new state-of-the-art two month old desktop. I recommend buying Disk Director Suite v10 from Acronis for validation failure emergencies. That way you can if all else fails restore your entire windows partition from an exact uncompressed copy squeezed down as small as will fit using a spare hard drive or USB hard drive. All you have to do after you make the copy is use Sysinternals VolumeID as administrator at the command prompt to change the copy's Windows Volume ID to that of the original operating system partition. Then after you copy the copy back to the original operating system partition, you just boot the Vista DVD and it offers to fix either or both installations!
It took Memtest86 donationware only five minutes to find the bad stick of memory after burning the ISO to CD and booting it. Microsoft's WinDiag was my secondary memory tester. It told me exactly what byte had a single bit error. I couldn't use Vista's memtest.exe memory tester because I couldn't get it to boot and run from my then corrupted Vista operating system. After replacing the bad memory stick, one of those memory testers was able to test all of my computer memory ram plus all of my video memory ram at once. It couldn't tell the difference between them. The other one choked. Now I only have one data drive I can't get to validate. The data partition tests without errors using Chkdsk /r on Windows initiate, but it's got one file on the image which Chkdsk /r /x says is corrupted after I mount the image and run chkdsk from within Windows! And unfortunately, Chkdsk can't correct the problem because you have to dismount the read/write mounted drive to run Chkdsk /r /x, and after you do so, Chkdsk says it can't fix the problem because there is no space left on the mounted drive for a correction, which in fact should not be true! At this point I began to realize with a sinking feeling that I had reached a dead end. Then as a last resort, I tried running Chkdsk /r on the mounted image by not dismounting the image before restart, hoping Chkdsk /r might be able to fix the problem during windows initiate, but instead it corrupted the Acronis Image Backup driver, which means until I fix it, I can't mount any images anymore. And yes, that was a classical example of the maxim, "If it's broken, try to break something else."
By the way, I've had four versions of True Image, and the first time I had any trouble with it was when I moved my data onto a new Vista computer with that bad memory stick and felt compelled to validate the partitions before transferring them! Before that I ignored validation completely and never lost a byte that was backed up.
I have a similar thread titled "Cannot Validate Image Creation." I will mention your thread in my next post under my thread to encourage those who read my thread to also read yours. I hope that is not contrary to the forum's posting rules or to your wishes. I must confess that I haven't had time to read all of them yet. It does sound a little like advertisement, which I despise, but I believe in this case we are all seeking the same solution to the same problem.
It would also help immensely if Acronis Support would at least acknowledge the fact to its users that if there is a "no problems found" Chkdsk /r on the original partition during windows initiate, then there should be a "no problems found" Chkdsk /r /x on the mounted backup image from within windows.
And when that is not the case, Acronis True Image should be provided with a "force imperfect restoration" option to force it to "restore the imperfect image" minus a given number of completely identified corrupted files, since that would be in most cases a lot easier to recover from than having to completely reinstall windows or restore data files a few at a time from a mounted image.

 

1.. When removing version 11, did you use add/remove and un-install or did you perform a delete operation. I'm not sure from your comments about deleting.

To perform a manual un-install, check the link on Bodgy's signature. Link below.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=199758#5

2. Prior to version 11 trial, did you have an earlier version of True Image installed? If yes, did you un-install before installing the trial version?

 

I used add remove then restart. Anyway that is resolved because earlier this evening I was able to restore a backup that had acronis on it, so it is available.
This is my first experience with acronis.

After reading that other experience I guess I am lucky. I'll have to find out how to use that memory test. I don't know how to do it.

 

Download Memtest86 from here and make a bootable floppy. Download Windows Memory Tester from here and make a bootable floppy. If necessary change the boot order in the Bios to boot from a floppy first and reboot your computer. On recent systems the Windows Memory Diagnostic will identify which stick is bad (if any) Memtest86 will only tell you that you have bad ram. Both programs have instruction for running on their websites.

 

COMO You are the Champion. All of the Wilders Posters did a terrific job, but I was ready to quit until I read your post. You summed up the advice of others and hand fed me the help I needed. I downloaded the Microsoft Memory Tester and found a memory problem. With a lot of American Ingenuity I manage to locate and correct the problem. I can backup, validate and restore flawlessly. This is all thanks to you. I will become a paid up Acronis user tomorrow.

But the real benefit is the clearance of a memory defect I didn't know I had. I have for some time been experiencing some screwy conditions, particularly when using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I never could find a real cause for these irregularities. I was preparing to purchase a new computer because of this.

Como, again I want to thank you. If you had not hand fed me I would have quit.
Thank you and happy posting.
Joe Dora

 

joedora

Thank you for your kind remarks, I only did what a large number of posters on this forum do, and that is if I am able, help other users.

Regarding your comment re Photoshop and Dreamweaver, as a user of Photoshop I know that it is a memory hog and I assume Dreamweaver is as well, it is well documented on this site that TI stresses parts of memory that most programs don't reach. I am pleased that you have found the solution to your problems.

 

Glad you fixed the problem. It is indeed a side benefit, albeit a sometimes frustrating one, that TI really flogs the memory and will uncover many marginal RAM problems. Lots of people aren't aware that there is no mechanism such as partity or ECC on virtually all regular PCs to validate the RAM data. The problem is only revealed when the error causes something unexpected to happen but that doesn't turn on a light that displays, "RAM problem" and worse still, may appear to be totally unrelated to the cause.

Viruses are often blamed as is the whole PC being too old or whatever in these cases. In fairly modern machines a lot of RAM isn't really utilized to the full extent and also bad bits in data can go un-noticed unless they are in a critical position. Also, new machines with new memory are no guarantee the memory is perfect. I have had memtest86+ uncover bad locations in new, premium memory. Probably the worst thing hiding memory problems is the fact the machine doesn't appear to have any problems running the usual stuff like email, browser, etc.

The other difficulty with RAM problems is that the bad locations can cause differing symptoms depending on what was loaded into them and the application being run.

The moral of the convoluted story is: Keep your RAM diagnostic handy when you have bad things happening. It may not be RAM but at least you will then know to look elsewhere.