Work True Image 8 with S-ATA Hard Disk? (Boot-CD)

Dave, I bought Acronis expecting your experience. It looked fantastic and I posted on another web site how fantastic the program was but that was before it failed me 6 or 7 times and continues to fail me by telling me I don't have any drives or partitions to restore.

I am not so self-centred as to see this issue only from my own experience and I don't doubt that there are many satisfied customers but the number experiencing problems like those that I have experienced appear to be a significant number even if they are in a minority relative to those who have found it works for them.

You are lucky that it works on your computer but I am currently about a third of the way into reinstalling all my programs because it failed me and it will take me at least a week before I have finished doing so. This I have had to do repeatedly over last month because of various problems which rendered my Windows installation unusable.

I could ask you to PM me so I could find out your computer configuration so I could then spend several thousand dollars buying a similar configuration so Acronis could then work for me but selfish person that I am I would like it to work on my computer which is nothing out of the ordinary except that it is a modern powerful computer with some very good up to date hardware.

To all those many people who have found Acronis works on your systems, that’s great and good luck to you, but for the unacceptably large number of people who bought it in good faith believing all the hype about it I think we have a case to feel hard done by because it appears the product was not properly tested and the bugs ironed out before being put on sale, or at the very least, the advertising for it was misleading and to the editors of PC magazines that gave it their editors choice I wish you could see it running on my system or some of the hundreds if not thousands of computers it doesn't work on.

 

Is the Acronis bootable rescue media working with Sata drives on the rather new socket A nForce2 Ultra 400Gb chipset with the native Sata-Controller in the southbridge like the Epox 8RDA6+Pro or the MSI K7N2 Delta 2 has it?

For raid it's not working - thanks to the stupid nVidia information policy. I allready know that. I'm just asking for regular sata drives.

Does someboby allready experience a functioning version of TI with this controller?

Thanks for your help!

 

Guys, I'll try to be civil. I appreciate that some of you are happy with Acronis. I'm not. There is no conceivable excuse for advertising a product as being capable of something (i.e. supports SATA drives) when it is, in fact, not capable of doing so. And before I hear any more comments along the lines of "well, it can't work with every device out there", let me say this: IT IS ADVERTISED AS BEING ABLE TO DO JUST THAT.

And when I spend $700 on a mission critical piece of software and it can't do the job I bought it to do (and was told by Acronis that it could do), that tends to get me more than a little upset.

When I read: "To say that Acronis is just sitting on the problem that some of you are experiencing with SATA drives is really unfair" my blood pressure goes up a little bit. They are sitting on it in the worst way! TEN DAYS with no response from the company? Come on! I'm not talking about some no-name computer from Fry's, folks, this is a Dell!

I also want to address a comment made about the professionalism of Acronis.

If they were "very professional", I wouldn't have been forced to post about my problem on a discussion forum for the last ten days. It would have been dealt with, by the company, on day two at the latest. So I'm not terribly impressed by Acronis' "professionalism", it strikes me more as "negligence" bodering on "fraud".

Does anyone know how to go about getting a refund from these folks? Please let me know if you do.

 

I'm very happy with my purchase but for your info I provide this quote from a previous post by Acronis Support:

By "our" they mean the Digital River online store.

Regards

 

Menorcaman: Thank you VERY much for that info. We'll now see if anyone's awake over there in Oyster Point or not.

I'll keep all of you apprised on the refund progress.

 

I have been using True Image since version 7. I have had absolutely no problem creating, and restoring images to and from SATA drives. I am using the Asus P4C800E-Deluxe mobo. I have also tested image creations and restores on my RAID 0 config (ICHR Chipset) on the same board with no issues at all! Creating and restoring images to and from an external USB drive.....no problems. Creating and restoring images to and from my 20 gig iRiver MP3 player.....no problem. How many image creations and restores have I done? I have done so many I lost count. I would guess hundreds! I actually use this software as a software un-installer, not just when I get in a bind. With all this bad press for TI in this thread, I had to add my happy user comments. I am in no way associated with Acronis!

Tipton

 

Amen.

Acronis should just place an order with Dell for an 8400 160gb non-RAID PC and try to install AND USE their latest build. It will fail... stating that it can't find any hard drive(s).

This is not off-the-wall, non-mainstream stuff. It's vanilla.

The silence here is deafening. I guess Thanksgiving was a long holiday for their employees...

 

Tipton we both use the same motherboard and both use SATA drives and Acronis works for you but not for me! It leads me to believe that the problem is easily solvable. I know that Acronis did see all my drives in the box before the one in which I have to point out the drive and partition to restore. In the last box all I get is the word empty so it has to be a minor issue.

Perhaps it's something as simple as a bios setting or perhaps you used a version of True Image that works with the motherboard while my version doesn't. I always understood that the latest version of a software program maintained all the features and success of earlier versions and had extra improvements as well so it was the best one to use. This may not be the case with Acronis but it ought to be the case. Later versions ought to have evolutionary improvements and still have all the operating capabilities of earlier versions.

I'm going to install True Image 8.0 version 774 on my newly installed Windows XP Pro and play around with bios settings to see if I can get it to work on my computer. Interestingly I got exactly the same error when I used ICH raid and Promise raid as I get with non-raid configurations namely the box that is supposed to show the drives and partitions to be restored says 'empty'.

Perhaps you use a different bios to mine or different SATA drivers. I like to use the very latest bios and drivers I can find. It is frustrating hearing that others with my motherboard and Sata drives have had success while I haven't but it does convince me that the issues are reasonably easily solvable and if I can't get success by experimenting I will patiently wait for Acronis to solve the problem which I'm confident they will.

I didn't pay a large amount for my single user version of True Image 8.0 as it was quite reasonably priced so I will not pursue a refund which I could insist on (after burning a copy of the CD if I was dishonest) but instead wait for the problems to be sorted out. I hope my faith in Acronis is eventually justified.

 

I am using bios version 1016.001, I also had no problems with my earlier bios version. The 1016.001 is also the bios version I used when I had my RAID 0 array set up. I am back to a single SATA C drive, and a second SATA D storage drive now. I am using two Maxtor 120 gig 7200 RPM, 8 mb cache SATA drives. I am trying to recall any major bios settings I may have done. I believe I basically have things set at default, except for a few minor tweaks. Every TI build since TI7 build 613 has worked on my system.

When you say you like to use the latest drivers, do you mean on a RAID set up? Or do you mean with single SATA drives, connected to the P4C800E-Deluxe? What hard drive setup do you have now?

Tipton

 

Tipton, I'm currently using 2 Western Digital 74 GB 10,000 RPM Raptor SATA drives in a non raid configuration and store the Acronis images on drive D. I had bios 1016 but have now updated to 1019. I have had problems with a program called Deep Freeze failing to freeze my C drive so I can go to sites that give me viruses and just reboot and everything is back as it was before. I was told by tech support I need to use Microsoft default IDE drivers rather than Nvidia IDE drivers so I wandered if perhaps this is why Acronis has not worked. However checking in Device Manager the IDE drivers are Microsoft ones. Device manager lists two 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers with Intel Drivers and two Primary IDE Channels and two secondary IDE Channels with Microsoft Drivers. My system is pretty much the same as yours. I use a 3.2 GHz processor manually over clocked to 3.61 GHz with Hyperthreading enabled and ACPI enabled if my memory serves me right.

 

Both my SATA drives use the default MS drivers. If you want to compare screenshots of what is listed in device manager, I can do that. Also, I can go into my bios and we can compare settings. I too show the two ultra ATA storage controllers, but MS drivers are listed under drivers in properties.

Tipton

 

Thanks for the offer Tipton. Probably the bios settings are more important.

I have checked the bios and I have the following settings for the options which are probably the most relevant ones:

Main:
32 bit Transfer is Enabled for both Hard Drives with all the other options being set to [Auto]

Advanced:
CPU Configuration
CPUID Maximum Value Limit [Enabled]
Hyper Threading Technology [Enabled]

Chipset
Performance Acceleration Mode [Enabled]
Spread Spectrum [Enabled]
ICH Delayed Transaction [Enabled]

Power:
ACPI 2.0 Support [No]
ACPI APIC Support [Enabled]

 

Hi, mareke

I have a Abit Motherboard which uses the Nvidia IDE [SATA] drivers and there as been alot said about them on the Abit forum, and my [IMHO] advice is stay away from them, I tried them three times [updates] and the HDD's both PATA and SATA seem sluggish and one of the PATA sounds flaky, always had to roll back to the default one.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

I just installed True Image 8.0 and burnt a boot CD and then tried the boot CD to see if this time Acronis could see the hard drives and partition to restore the image to and to my surprise the box did not say 'empty' any more but rather showed drive C (it called it no name C instead of Local Disk but that's irrelevant) which means I can presumably restore my image from the previous installation!

God only knows why it finally decided to work! The only things I've done differently from before is I've used Fat 32 so I could use WinRescue to get me out of trouble and instead of using a boot CD from one of my earlier Acronis installs I used the one I had just burnt. This could be the reason it worked. I had assumed the boot CDs were all the same and any of my several boot CDs burnt from earlier Windows installations and earlier versions of Acronis would be OK. Also I have turned ACPI 2.0 support off since the old install.

Anyone using the P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard and SATA drives that has been unable to make Acronis work may like to learn from my experience.

I may attempt to restore the old image but if it failed I'd be right back to square one and cursing Acronis again and my latest Windows install has progressed to the point where it is not too different from my old one in the image. I wander if now having Fat 32 instead of NTSF would affect restoring the old image which was in NTSF? Would it restore it in NTFS or Fat 32?

Better late than never! Acronis seems to have finally come through for me! Of course the mere fact it sees the drive and partition to restore does not mean it will successfully restore it but it certainly looks like it is now working properly! It's nice to know I am protected against any more of the sort of catastrophes that have plagued me over the last few weeks. I could now extol the virtues of Acronis and say how marvelous a program it is but I’m not forgetting my past disappointments with it and it would be unfair to all the people it still doesn't work for and anyhow I have still yet to actually restore an image!

 

Hi, mareke

Good to here it work for you now. [problem shared, problem solved]

Should not make any difference, I used both to store Images, and never had a problem restoring, ie NTFS to FAT32, FAT32 to NTFS.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Well, I'm another "unhappy Camper".
Bought TI 6.0 1 year ago for 70 bucks. It made images and restored fine on conventional IDE drives and recognized my WD external 120 gig USB 2.0 HD OK too.

But then I tried to restore an image on my own computer with the VIA VT 6420 Serial ATA controller configured in RAID 0 and it wouldn't detect the partitions on the RAID drive. Installed the August 2003 patch (build 350) from your site with no luck.

So then, bought TI 8.0 (49.95) and it recognized my RAID drive fine but now it won't recognize my WD external USB 2.0 120 gig HD .

I then went to "Updates", searched for TI 8.0 and it takes me to the same 6.0 section with the same 6.0 build 350. Is this really the right one for 8.0 with a date of August 2003?

Tried calling the ph# in the book but it says its disconnected. So sent an e-mail to support 3 days ago and nothing back yet.

Come-on guys, you've got to do better than this for support. It's just a matter of time before the magazines and radio tech talk shows get wind of this and you'll be dead in the water and out of business. I appreciate what little info Andrew has given us but we need more than this.

I think TI has the posibility to be a great backup program but so far I've spent 120 bucks, have no restores and little or no support.

Andrew or anybody please respond...Mike M.

 

Hello Mareke

Glad you managed to sort it

Not sure whether you're aware of it but the "Full" version of the boot rescue CD (as opposed to the "Safe" version) is Linux based and uses Linux open source device drivers. Therefore it makes no difference as to which version of Windows SATA drivers you use.

I note that you've created a new boot rescue CD from your latest build of TI. Good. This is essential if you want to benefit from the latest (hopefully the best!!) versions of the Linux device drivers and TI bug fixes.

On a final note, Acronis Support has previously confirmed that later versions or builds of TI are backward compatible with previous version/build images.

Regards

 

Mike M it sounds like you need to register TI 8.0 as it's taking you to the updates for your old TI 6.0 version. You may need to use a new username to avoid confusion with the old TI 6.0 registration.

I just restored an image to my drive C and I must admit the program is great when it works. I immediately uninstalled the Deep Freeze program that caused Windows to become irretrievably corrupted and I have now avoided having to ask for new registration serials for a couple of programs which require this when installed on a new Windows installation.

I am going to save the image I just restored to DVD and feel secure in the knowledge I can always restore it in the future! How nice it is to finally feel I have gotten some value for money from Acronis! Don't get me wrong I know very well how the people for whom it hasn't worked feel but now I've been on both sides of the fence and I must say this side is better!

At least I can confirm that Acronis TI 8.0 Build 774 works on a P4C800-E Deluxe with 2 non raid SATA drives using a new boot CD rather than an old one and the bios set as I described earlier on. It probably works with raid as well as I was getting the same error when I used raid as the one that is now fixed. The whole process of restoring took less than 5 minutes and saves 50 or 60 hours of work so it really is a great program when it works. I hope all those who are still frustrated and angry because it hasn't worked for them get to sit on the other side of the fence and feel the satisfaction of achieving success with it as I just have!

 

Glad you got it working. I wished I had known you were using an old rescue CD when I was trying to help yesterday. Creating a new rescue CD is the first thing I do when I upgrade to a new version of TI. They are backward compatible, but definately not the other way around. For example, if you were using a rescue CD you made from a version 7 build, and used TI 8 to create an image, the version 7 rescue CD is not going to work.

Again, glad you got it working!

Tipton

 

No response from Acronis today. I'd hoped for one, but am not terribly suprised. Anyone have a phone number?

 

Ach. Alright, now I'm a little freaked out. All Acronis has listed is a voicemail number. Does anyone have a number where I can actually talk to a human being on the other end?

 

Thanks for the advice Mareke, I'll give that a try.

I did get it to work by doing a restore from inside Windows where it did recognize my external USB 2.0 HD. But it still won't recognize it from a boot disk.
(it is a current boot cd)
Going to try Mareke's suggestion now.
Mike M.

PS like said above, this program is sweet if you can just get it to recognize your drives.

 

NO, that's the big problem here. Very week support. Just an occasional message from Andrew in this forum which has been helpful.

Mareke, you da man!!!
Reregistering with the new ser# and e-mail address got me the 8.0 update and it worked. Thanks to you, everything working now although kina slow.
It went fast when restoring inside Windows. Wonder if it's running at USB 1.1 speed when restoring from a recovery disk. Hmmmm
Mike M.

Athlon 3200
1 gig RAM
Biostar M7NCD Ultra MB
NForce2 Chipset
VIA VT6420 ser ata RAID controller
2 WD 120 gig ser HD RAID-0