Why does ATI re-poll all drives?

Overall, I've been very happy with ATI. But there's one issue that has been nagging me. Hopefully someone can help...

When backup my HD, ATI polls all my drives (except floppy) so it can display drive list on the "Partition Selection" screen. I have 4 drives: internal and external HD, thumb drive & zip drive. I select the "C" drive as my target partition and my external HD as destination and proceed with backup. As the backup begins, ATI polls my zip drive again and for some reason, it sometimes hangs. This really doesn't make sense. For one thing, my zip drive operates perfectly. But even if it were going bad, why would ATI re-poll the zip drive as it begins the backup? I can avoid the problem by removing zip disk before making a backup, but I sometimes forget. When it hangs, ATI repeatedly polls the drive until I eject the disk (which is tricky since the ejection signal is not buffered). What a PIA! For this reason, I'm not using the scheduling macro to automate my backups.

Is there any way to make the zip drive invisible to ATI (other than to disable permanently)?

 

Hello ginahoy,

I'm not sure whether it will make any difference but, assuming you're using TI 9, have you tried "tools" > "Options" > "Default backup options" > "Additional settings" and then deselecting the "Ask for first media while creating backup archive on removable media" option?

Regards

 

Hi Menorcaman,
Thx for response. Yes, I'm using TI 9. I just tried your suggestion and no, it doesn't make any difference

 

Hello ginahoy,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please tell us the exact model of your ZIP drive?

Please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

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 the solution.

Thank you.
--
Anton Sherkhonov

 

I have a ZIP drive, as well as 3 hard drives (with 10 logical drives) and, currently, 3 external USB drives connected.

I've not seen any problems due to the ZIP drive.

Try running the following to see whether it hangs:

http://www.standards.com/index.html?DiskSpaceUsed

 

Hi Howard,
Perhaps my zip drive (or zip diskette) IS going bad. But still, ATI shouldn't need to poll the zip drive AFTER it knows the target and destination, neither of which are the zip drive. Interestingly, the zip never hangs (save possibly once) when I first open TI and it polls all media.

Last night it hung (I forgot to eject the disk again) and I had a devil of a time getting the disk to eject. Sometimes when it starts to read the drive, it just clicks on and off and on and off... other times, it starts spinning the disk as it attempts to read the drive and won't stop fer nothin'... When I finally get the disk to eject, I get an error message, something like "unable to read sector nnnn on removable drive".

My question is: why in the heck is it even TRYING to read my zip?

Thanks again for everyone's help...
David

 

Hi Anton,

My zip drive is 100 MB Iomega internal. Can't be more specific than that without pulling drive, and my case doesn't make that so easy. BTW, I just tried a fresh zip diskette and it hung the same as before. That would seem to rule out bad media.

Thanks for explaining support process, and for willingness to look into this issue. However, if my drive is indeed going bad, I doubt I'll get much sympathy for my argument... Nonetheless, there at least should be an option to select which drives TI looks at

I need to install the current build before filling report.

Thanks again for help!
David

 

TI does not look at th ZIP drive on my system.

Indeed, when creating a task, the ZIP drive is nOT listed as a drive that may be backed uop.

Try creating a new task in TI.
Does TI list the ZIP drive as a drivethat can be backed up?
If so, then the problem may be in the BIOS settings for the ZIP drive.
If not set properly, the PC may treat the ZIP drive as a drive so TI won''t know the difference.

I ferget what are the right settings, but I expect that there are articles at the Iomega web site. My recollection is that the BIOS support for an internal ZIP drive is suppose dto be disabled, butt I'm not sure, so check at the Iomega web site.

 

Hello again Howard,
My zip can either be the source or the destination for backups.

Your comment is very interesting. I mean, TI doesn't poll (nor list) my FDD. I would think a zip is more like a FDD (e.g., removable media).

Regarding drive settings... assume you meant CMOS? (don't think I have access to BIOS)

In any case, say more about this. I wouldn't have a clue how to construct a search query for this issue in Iomega knowledge base.

David

 

Many years ago, I ran into a problem related to how the ZIP drive is handled in the BIOS.

I do not recall the details, but on my very old system (uses an SE440BX mobo), I'm not sure that I ever had the right settings.

In my case, neither TI nor Ghost list the ZIP drive as a possible source, but BOTH allow me to select the ZIP drive as a destination for the backup files. Odd, n'est-ce pas?

I've neither the time nor interest to dig up the details.

Acronis support should know the answer.

 

One thing to try is to download the latest version of the IomegaWAre software.
Let it tell you whether the ZIP drive is correctly installed.

P.S. I always uninstall Iomegaware after, if any, use. I do not find it useful.

Hmmm, I may have misspoken.

On my multiboot syste, I see that I have an Iomega directory in Program Files for one of the OS. LIkely a holdover from when I converte that OS from Win 98 to Win 2000.

Guess I'll reboot to that OS and take a look.

But first I'll download the latest IomegaWAre.

 

I misspoke:

1. Although the Iomega directory was present, Iomegaware was not installed.

2. Apparently, I had downloaded the most recent version of Iomegaware in early March (I wonder what else I do in my sleep), so I booted to the old OS and installed Iomegaware. Did not do much for me, but I'll lt it live there until I'm in the mood to uninstall it.

3. Although TI does not list the ZIP drive as a source for an "image" backup, the ZIP drive is listed as a source for a "files and directories" backup. This is juat an artifact of the TI implementation.

4. Also, note that the ZIP drive is listed as a "Removable Disk" in My Computer. I expect that if that was not so, then TI would poll the drive as if it were a "Local Disk". could this be the problem?

 

Wow! You really want to solve this problem for me, don't you?
I've been slammed since last post... haven't had time to prepare support request. I just checked my system properties and the zip shows as "removable media"... so go figure.
Thanks for your help
David