What do you think I should do?

My computer crashed this week and wouldn't boot. I had backups made with True Image ver. 9 and True Image ver. 10. Some of them were just made two weeks ago. Neither of these versions would restore the backups I had. I had read here about the trial version of Acronis True Image 11 working so I thought, what do I have to lose so I downloaded it and installed it. I couldn't believe it! It recognized my backups and restored my system back to two weeks ago. Just for a test, I did it twice and it worked both times! Now I thinking "should I purchase this new version" or if I do, will it join versions 9 & 10 and not work? Have they improved it this much? Any opinions out there? What do you recommend?

 

What better test is there than "it worked for you"!
Presumably you made the Rescue CD for the trial version 11 and this is how you restored those Images you made with ver 9. or ver 10.
The Rescue CDs for 9 and 10 should also have worked, unless you have hardware that did not play nice with the Rescue CDs for 9 and 10. The most common scenarios for problems are multiple usb devices, including hubs and/or wireless keyboards and mice.

 

Reading between the lines the most likely scenario is that the linux drivers on the recovery CDs for V9 and V10 predate your hardware. The Windows ones would work fine, meaning that you could backup without a hitch. The V11 linux drivers obviously work OK with your hardware.

You should check that the build number of TI burned onto the TI 10 recovery CD is the latest build. If it is not, ensure you have the latest build on your machine and reburn the recovery CD (download it first if you need to). If you were not running with the latest TI 10 version try a restoration from the latest build Recovery CD. If that works then you don't need 11. If it fails then you do need TI 11.

The lesson here is that DR is a cycle, and unless you take some steps to restore your backups to establish confidence in the process, the backups are almost worthless.

Good luck.

F.

 

I'm hesitate about buying this version, without asking first, because if it like versions 9 & 10, it will work sometimes but most of the time it won't. I was asking because I thought it would be my luck to purchase this version and then when I needed it the most, it would do the same as 9 & 10 unless they have fixed this problem. I thought maybe someone out there could tell me if it had gotten any better or was I just lucky this time. I know it sounds crazy but why spend money on a product that doesn't work but once or twice? I have plenty of those already.

 

Yes. But do you have the latest build of V10 on your recovery CD ?

F.

 

Yes, I've got the latest build. That's my point. Just because you keep it updated isn't going to guarantee that it will work when you need it to. It hasn't with me and from what I've been reading, there are many that have the same problem. I was just hoping they had finally fixed this problem with Version 11 and was asking to make sure before I purchased it. Apparently, I was wrong. Thanks for your time.

 

If you proved a full disaster recovery cycle using the recovery CD to restore in the past, you image is not corrupt and you have not changed your hardware then it will work again. It is just software

F.

 

Yes, you're right! It is just software. As we've heard before "that's computers for you". This only working when and if it wants to is getting old. I guess I was hoping for a miracle when I asked if they had improved and fixed this problem. But, you never know if you don't ask! Thanks again for your time!

 

You didn't explain how these versions failed to restore the backups.

1. Did you try to boot from the Acronis Recovery CD?

2. What build of version 10 was shown under Help / About after you booted into the TrueImage program screen.

3. Where were your backups stored? External hard drive, DVDs?

4. Were you able to select Restore and navigate to the backups you had stored on an external drive?

5. When you selected the backup to restore and proceeded from there, what error message did you get instead of a successful restore?

6. Did you boot from the TrueImage 11 Trial Recovery CD?

7. What was different when you used it.

These answers should let us know whether you just got lucky twice with version 11 (unlikely), or whether it will work reliably for you in the future.

 

Did you restore with the earlier versions using the recovery environment by booting the rescue CD or having TI reboot the PC so it could start the recovery environment which is necessary when the active partition (typically C) is being restored? If not, then you don't know if it was ever capable of doing a restore.

Sounds like TI11 has the proper Linux drivers for your system whereas the earlier ones didn't.

And yes, if you change your hardware or your version/build of TI you should do a test restore to ensure it is working as intended.

If the PC is unchanged, which means no hardware changes, no bad sectors in a critical area, no faulty RAM locations, etc and the TI software is what ran reliably before then it will run again. That is the nature of software on solid hardware - it does the same thing over and over whether you like it or not. Something gets changed then who knows. If you wish, you can also interpret this to mean don't upgrade to the latest build/version if the old one is working well on your system.

 

1. Yes, I tried so many times to boot from the Recovery cd and sometimes it would and sometimes it wouldn't. When it did, then it would either say my archives were corrupt or it wasn't a "true Image archive".

2. The build was 4942 of Version 10.

3. My backups are stored on two external drives. It told me none of these archives are "true image" archives and said they were all corrupt.

4. When the recovery cd would boot, that is when it would tell me my archives were corrupt or not "true image" archives.

5. I tried so many different ways it's hard to remember what I did when. There was one time after it had decided to boot, I chose an older archive and it started to reboot to restore but never did start restoring. I waited about 20 to 30 minutes even though I knew it shouldn't take that long to start restoring but it never did so I never got an error message.

6. Yes, I was able to boot and recover from the trial version cd.

7. There wasn't anything different. I had just made this backup two weeks earlier with this same version of software and this same machine.
That's why I was hoping they had fixed the "corrupt archive" problem.

Thanks for your time!

 

Yes, I did as I've always done using this program and as in the past, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and this was one of the "doesn't" times.

 

It sure sounds like version 10's Linux drivers didn't work with your computer.

When it did boot, it was probably getting garbled data over the USB cable due to the bad drivers, so the backup was reported as corrupted. Actually, it was the bad drivers that were at fault.

If you can boot every time with the version 11 CD, I think you are in good shape. The new Linux drivers support your system, so you can read the USB drives normally; and you should be able to restore reliably now.

 

This may be hard for some of you to understand, but I'm still a little bit hesitate about purchasing the new version right now since I've had more bad luck than good. If I knew I would not have the trouble the past versions have given me, I would buy it in a heartbeat! Now don't misunderstand, I don't expect it to not EVER give me problems. No software works that good. Occasional problems, yes but not more times than not when you're trying to restore. I'll just keep reading these forums and maybe see how it's going for others with this version before I make a decision. In the meantime, I'll keep "trying" to use the version I have and hoping it works if and when I need to do a restore. Thanks for all your time!

 

Can't blame you for that approach but remember this forum is mainly people with problems, not posting how well it is working.

 

That's a good point Peter. However, she knows that the TI 11 CD works with her hardware, so it's a toss up between buying 11 or learning how to make a PE disk. I've done both, but I think I'd just buy the new version.

 

If you haven't bought ATI11 yet, you might as well wait until a ready-for-prime-time version is available. The current build is till too buggy to be considered ready for release, imo and the opinion of many other frsutrated ATI 11 purchasers.

 

Thanks everyone for your advise! I have now decided that instead of wasting my money on another True Image product that I can't trust, I am going to download some trial versions of other products and see how they work with my computer. If I find one that works several times, is trustworthy and will let me made a bootable cd within the trial version, I will purchase it and alternate between it and my old version of Acronis. Because TrueImage works off and on, maybe between the two of them, one will give me a satisfactory recovery when I need it. Thanks again everyone!

 

I forgot to add, I have downloaded the pebuilder3110a.exe. I will try that but I will probably still purchase another brand if I find one that is satisfactory because it is very unlikely that both won't be working or corrupt at the same time. Thanks again!

 

Will Bartpe disk builder work with today's systems that don't come with Windows installation disk but only recovery disk? That is my system. I tried BartPe and had it to burn to cd. I tried to boot using it and I got "insert Windows XP Professional in A: drive". I don't have an A drive nor do I have a Windows XP Professional cd. When I first started this program and it did the search for the windows installation files, it found them in my D drive and that's what I chose for it to use. Did I do something wrong or is it because I don't have the installation cds?

 

Try using Mustang's free guide to building a vistaPE disk. Follow the simple steps on the guide exactly. It won't matter what's on the hard drive, the OS that's operating during the restore is on the CD. If you have a full backup that includes the system partiton, andy you restore it, it should afterwards behave excatly as that system partiton did just before you backed it up, regardless of whther your PC came with recovery disks or not.