Wow, a whole forum for people with cronic-Acronis.

Hi, new here, just bought TI home 2009 hoping for a simple backup program .. oh boy!

My basic problem, like so many, is validation failures on large backups - Disk Backups, File backup validates ok. After readng all the posts I see i need to do a Memtest of my 4G. Which i will do shorty .. but my question is, how do I do a thorough CheckDisk on a large (1Tb) external NFTS drive. i can do a simple test which comes back ok but i'd like to do a deeper test. Evey time I try to run one, it says that it needs to be done at startup, asks me to reboot, I do - but no Chkdsk!! it works on my C: drive (500G) but not on my G: (backup external) drive (1T) ?? Is it the size that's the problem or the fact that it's a USB external drive? I've tried Vista's Chkdsk and TuneUp's chksk. .. hmmmm? any help?

In mean time, I'll do the memory test using Memtest86 (although I've already used Windows Memory Diagnostic tool - 2 passes only, which came back ok)

BTW, the Acronis website sucks big time, it looks like a EDS contraption .. strange and unfriendly! it defaulted me to a large corporations support window so when I entered my product code and then realised i should be in the Single user support page, it wouldn't re-accept my code saying it had already been entered and i couldn't get any further to ask for support!! UG!! ..gladly i found this EASY TO USE FORUM (take notes EDS .. err, ACRONIS)


Another thing, the reason my validations failed was because the file size was only 147G, not the 477G the size of my C: drive - Disk Back up - sector BY sector. i think that's right? i wanted to remove all the compression al-gore-rythms.


kingRemus, first king of Reme!

 

If you have a standard Microsoft OEM or retail DVD, you can boot into the Repair Mode and run chkdsk /r on the external drive (make sure it's connected when you boot the computer).

 

have you tried doing a scandisk with the boxes to fix errors checked? that's similar to doing a chkdsk x: /f.

 

I'm confused. You said that disk backups validate OK, but large backups don't. Can you expain that more completely? Which drives validate and which fail? How much info is on each? Other details would help.

Have you tried to do the large backup which fails by booting from the TI Rescue CD? This separates the problems of hardware from those of Windows. After backing up after booting from the CD, validate the image. Then reboot into Windows and try to validate that same image.

Let us know the results.

 

ok, update

Tried to backup and validate from TI boot disk, backup seemed to work ok but validation came up with an error in the initialization phase. Same validation error when i tried to validate from the installed Icronis.

I then tried to run a memtest86, but I think i stuffed the boot disk? I downloaded the ZIP file, unzipped the ISO file and loaded it on a boot disk i created with Roxio. When I try to boot from the disk it just hangs!?

I have a dell computer and it comes with a few diag tools, which i ran with no problems. I still am unable to do a Chkdsk on my 1T drive! i don't think it works of drives this large.

After reading other posts, this is starting to smell like a Vista problem, maybe Acronis needs to run under 'Administrator'? I'm too tired to check now .. i might look at that later ..

Funny thing is, reading the box it states .. "reliable backups created easily" ..nothings easy about Acronis! LOL! (joke) stress levels high, concern high.

 

The thing about Acronis is that it is hardware dependant.

If you are lucky enough for it to work then its a great solution.
If it does not work first or second time on your hardware then its a nightmare.

Newer versions tend to work with the latest hardware.
But I have a laptop which only works using an old version of Acronis.

So run the trial software and see if you are one of the lucky ones for whom it will work. Good luck.

 

That's valuable. The backup problem is probably hardware related since you can't backup and validate in either Windows or Linux (boot CD).

The .iso file has to be burned as an image to a new CD. You can't just burn it to a CD the way you would burn a data file. After you do that, the CD will boot and you can run memtest86.

Under Vista, you get asked for permission by Vista's User Account Control when yu try to start TI.

 

Unless you've deliberately switched it off - but you may still need to right click and run as administrator - thought I didn't have to on my Vista install.

As an aside in W7 beta you can't actually switch UAC completely off (well I haven't experimented with registry tweaks as yet.)

Colin

 

Telling update, i just tried to backup to my other internal HDD and it worked ok! - validation ok! So I must have a problem with my external GigaSave 3.5 USB HHD .. or it's cable! .. I'll google it to see what i can find.

I hope i don't need to place my backup drive internally, even though it works faster and is more reliable, i like the idea of being able to quickly change and replace backups. (my computer case isn't big enough for plug-in HHDs)

--------------------

additional update, I've finally been able to do a chkdsk of my external 1T HDD and it came up ok, no problems .. hmmm. i wonder if it's the cable? i've used different USB plugs in my computer, so i don't think it's the connections. I might buy a gold/silver cable see if that helps?

Thanks for the help all those who responded .. maybe Acronis should rename their product - "Backup and Recovery AND HARDWARE TESTER!" .. heeheeehee

 

Good detective work.

If you have front and rear USB ports, use the rear ports because these are on the motherboard instead of at the end of an internal cable. Never use a USB hub for backup connections.

If you have access to another brand of USB drive, try that. It's possible for the chipset inside a drive to cause problems - although this isn't common.

It is also possible that the USB chipset on the motherboard is the problem. The NEC USB chipset is best, and you can add a PCI card with USB ports inexpensively to get the NEC chip set if necessary.

 

For those in future who have a similiar problem ...

I solved it by buying a quality USB cable with gold connectors and making sure the cable wasn't near any other power cable.

Although i'm a little concerned whether my backup on a external G: HDD may not be vaild as my internal C: and D: drives are setup as RAID 0 (C: drive is being backed up by Acronis to G

Does Acronis work with RAID 0 on internal drives?

Thanks

.

 

You shouldn't have to run as The Administator but I think you need to run with normal administrator rights. For lesser users, as Colin points out, you can set up a task and specify that the Run As option so that it's a user with admin rights.

UAC can be switched completely off in Vista too but it's probably not advisable in most circumstances -- it's an old, tried and true security technique dating back to early versions of unix, although the Vista implementation is not quite as adept or versatile.