Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad T43 USB 2.0

It doesn't seem like the most recent version of True Image can utilize T43’s USB ports in high-speed mode. It took me more than an hour to restore a couple gigs image while the same image only took about 15 minutes on T42 (same image, just for testing).

 

Hello stinky,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept my apologies for the delay with the response.

Please make sure that you use the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update, boot your PC from this CD and see if the problem still persists.

I would also recommend you to try the "acpi=off noapic" workaround as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also check whether your external hard drive is connected to the PC through a hub. If yes, then please connect it directly.

If the problem still persists with the latest build (937) of Acronis True Image 8.0 then please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also do the following:

- Launch Acronis Report Utility once again and select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;
- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;
- Collect the report file from the floppy;
- Rename the report created from under Windows to report_win.txt and report created using the bootabale floppy to report_diskette.txt.

Please keep your external USB hard drive connected while creating Acronis Report and Linux system information.

If you will not be able to create a sysinfo.txt file for some reasons then please boot from the Acronis True Image 8.0 rescue disc once more and press F11 key when the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears.

After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the OK button. As the startup messages stop scrolling please write down the last few lines of the output, or use a digital camera to make shots of the output screens.

Please also download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0, create new Bootable Rescue CD, boot your PC from this CD and see if the problem still persists.

Send all the collected files and information to support@acronis.com along with the exact model of your external USB hard drive and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

So let me get this straight....

According to Alexey, in order to report to Acronis that TI8's drivers fail to operate at USB2 speed on new computer hardware, one must possess the following:

1) TI8, build 937.
2) A CD burner.
3) A floppy drive.
4) An external USB2 drive.
5) A digital Camera.
6) A highspeed internet connection to download TI9 trial.
7) About a day's worth of time.
The patience of Job.
9) The persistence of a Pit Bull.
10) Await the results of Acronis' investigation.

There's something wrong with that picture.

Many of us have been reporting the same slow speed problem on new laptops since April, 2005. The threads are numerous. Most of the new laptops are the most popular models sold since last fall. Acronis' response has always been the same as above and there has been no improvement in TI8 speed after six months of reports and five TI8 build revisions.

I fully appreciate the need for all of us to continue to assist Acronis in resolving unusual or isolated software issues as they arise. But, it seems absurd to me that such a very commonly reported speed flaw in TI8 is still being "investigated" and treated like an unusual or isolated occurrence after all the reports here in the past six months.

Further, it is stupefying to read that one must avail oneself of all kinds of expensive peripheral equipment in order to help Acronis discover and rectify this type of problem when they should have felt obligated to resolve it on their own within the past six months.

I'm beginning to feel great sympathy for all those who now post angry and critical messages out of frustration after being shocked and surprised that a commercial software program like TI9 could have been released with such a multitude of serious flaws while users of TI8 have received such ineffective problem resolution over such a long period of time.

Please, Acronis, focus your efforts on fixing that which is and has been most obvious as flawed in TI8 before you rush to release more bug-fix revisions and label them as paid upgrades like you just did with TI9. What about all of us who you failed to satisfy because you never fixed the common speed flaw in TI8? Don't you feel any sense of obligation to provide the support your advertising and websites imply?

Please feel free to comment.
Thank you.

 

I have a Thinkpad T43 which uses the 915 chipset. I believe this is a common chipset. I have a 60GB drive and have about 15GB of used space between my primary partition and service partition. I have a USB2.0 external drive case with a 250GB Maxtor drive in it. When I directly connect the external drive to the usb2.0 port on my laptop, boot to the TI 8.0 b937 rescue disk, and create an image it takes roughly 4 hours. Not Good! Thinking it may be my laptop I got my hands on a Dell 6000 Inspiron which also has a 915 chipset and tried to create an image and it took over 4 hours for a similar amount of data.

When I connect the same external drive to my Dell 8200, Dell 4600, and my custom gaming machine I can image both smaller and larger amounts of data in under an hour. All of which use different chipsets.

The following was no help as it didn't boot up into the gui and I don't have a floppy. Its almost 2006, I haven't had a floppy drive for almost 4 years.

I would also recommend you to try the "acpi=off noapic" workaround as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Shez

 

You will have to create a separate BartPE CD using the Acronis plugin for each computer (i6000 & ThinkPad) in order to get high speed capabilities. And, you'll have to boot from the CD to clone or restore images at high speed.

You can install build 937 to your hard drives and create images at high speed, but not clone or restore images.

Older hardware works fast like it should with TI8 installed on the hard drive and you can use the Acronis recovery CD for high speed cloning and restoring.

 

I am reading this thread out of the curiosity and also to learn about the application to other systems. Your posting is really disgusting. Can't you be more positive or at least neutral? Forum is to serve for both users and programmers for constructive exchange of opinions.

As far as my application is concerned, both v8 and v9 performed flawlessly. I found that the speed of v9 was slightly slower but it was no big deal. I have no complaint against TI9. But I am grateful to have an access to TI. Do you believe that Microsoft and Adobe products perform better than Acronis products? Man! Be reasonable. If you feel that bad about Acronis, don't use TI and get out of this forum. BTW, I am one of the users who found TI program about three weeks ago. Sarutaro

 

Hello everyone,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I have forwarded all this information to our Testing and Development Teams, so they will investigate the problem and try to implement better support for this hardware as soon as possible.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello everyone,

Could you please provide me with the following details?

- Does the problem persist constantly or maybe Acronis True Image 8.0/9.0 shows slow backup speed on 915 chipset only from time to time?

- I would also like someone who still has a floppy drive and use 915 chipset to do the following:

1. Boot the computer from Acronis True Image 8.0/9.0 (build 937 or 2277) rescue media and hit the F11 key when the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears?

2. After you get to the "Linux Kernel Settings" window, please remove the "quiet" parameter and click on the OK button.

3. When you reach the # prompt, please provide a floppy and issue the following commands:

cd tmp
mkdir mntdir
mount /devfs/floppy/0 mntdir
lspci > mntdir/lspci.txt
umount mntdir

- Collect the lspci.txt file from the floppy and attach it to your reply (use Advanced reply mode).

This information would let us investigate the problem under consideration thoroughly and provide you with the solution as soon as possible.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

First, in response to bobdat, thank you. I made a new BartPE disk with the Acronis plugin and it worked great. 20GB of data imaged in ~30minutes. That is what I like to see.

In response to Acronis Support, when I use your rescue disk it is always slow on my 915 chipset machines. (T1 8 b937)

In general I am very happy with T1 8. However, the lack of support for what I would consider a popular chipset and configuration is disturbing. I know that there is no way for Acronis to support every hardware configuration out there. But, come on, its not like the rescue CD is bloated and will barely fit on a CD. Wouldn't it be possible to include a little extra driver support. Maybe not. I am not upset I am just curious as to why this is not being done. Hell, I would pay more for TI if I knew it had better driver support, if nothing else at least support for major chipsets and major hardware vendors.

shez

 

Hello shezwhitey,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software and for providing the additional information on the problem.

I'm really sorry for your inconvenience. However, as you can see, we are already working on this problem and will do our best in order to improve the backup speed on 915 chipset as soon as possible.

Could you please provide me with the lspci.txt file I requested earlier?

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Thanks for the response but I cannot provide you with the file you need unless you can provide me with some instructions on how to send that file to my usb key drive instead of a floppy.

If that is not possible than someone else will have to provide the file.

Thanks

shez

 

Hello shezwhitey,

You can create the lspci.txt file with the following method:

Boot your computer from the Acronis True Image rescue disc and press F11 key when the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears. After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the "OK" button and wait for # prompt to appear. Please issue the following command:

lspci

Please write down the output after this command, or use a digital camera to make shots of the output screens. You can use Shift+PgUp and Shift+PgDn keys in order to scroll the screen manually.

Please contact us from our web-site send the captured information along with the link to this thread. This would allow us to investigate the problem and help you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I too have been having problems with a newer IBM R52 Thinkpad with a Maxtor One Touch II drive. I have gone thru the process of taking digital pictures MULTIPLE times and have got nowhere with Acronis support. This has been going on for MANY months and no solution has been found. In the meantime Acronis has now gone off and introduced a new bug infested version and doesn't respond to my last email with pictures I sent.

Where are the programmers who originally developed TrueImage..... they must have left!

My support claim number is #275016 Slow Backup and Image Check using Maxtor One Touch II External Drive via USB for your reference Acronis

John H

 

To all of you ThinkPad owners.

I realize some of you have bought external usb hdrive enclosures and may have various good uses for them aside from storing Ti images.
Perhaps you are unaware of a economical reward available to you because you spent the extra bucks for a Thinkpad.
It is called a 2nd bay Hdrive adapter and is available as a ultrabay size for the R series and a slim bay for the T series. Just slide one of these into the 2nd bay (optical bay) with a hdrive installed, and you can image at ide bus speed. In addition you get to eliminate the age old usb problems with TI because you are on the ide bus. Then you can drag and drop to your usb external enclosure at usb2 speed, if you still feel the need. These are available direct from IBM for around $45.00 with free shipping. Search their website for more info. I wouldn't own a ThinkPad without one.
...
BTW there is a pleasant surprise included with the IBM adapter

 

hello,

i wonder if the latest build of true image (2337) supports the intel 915 chipset. as i'm using a second hard drive in my thinkpad t43p i'd like to restore from this drive without using the boot-cd...

restoring images seems very slow, same speed as restoring from external hdd. when using bart-pe it works much faster, so it seems to be a driver problem.

well, in short form:

does the latest build support the intel 915 chipset - or is the problem not yet solved??!

MfG Christoph

 

well, i finally tried it by restoring my recovery partition....it is still as slow as before...the support for intel 915 chipset seems not to be improved!

 

I've been trying to figure this out as well. Using a T43 (Intel 915 chipset) and a USB 2.0 drive with TI 8.

It takes about 6hrs to do a full restore, that doesn't seem normal. A full backup is < 1hr.

 

Hello raccettura,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please download and install the trial version of Acronis True Image 9.0 which is available at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/ in order to see how the program works on your computer.

If the problem still persists, please boot your computer from the Acronis True Image rescue disc and press F11 key when the selection screen appears. After you get the "Linux kernel command line" prompt, please modify it in the following way:

quiet acpi=off noapic, click on the OK button and choose "Full Version".

If that doesn't help, please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to 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.
--
Tatyana Tsyngaeva