Restore problem and Failed Sector Problem

Hello. I am trying out True Image 9 to determine if it is something that I want to buy. I need some Backup Software and it had good reviews, but I am not very satisfied with it up to this point. First I guess I should say something about my computer setup and what my intentions with the software are.

I have 2 basic storage areas. I use a 40GB hard drive as my Windows Drive. It basically has Windows XP system files and a few program items that insist on installing themselves on the windows drive. The majority of my data is stored on a 160GB RAID which is setup as a mirrored RAID (two 160GB drives acting as one). I am not much worried about the RAID at this moment. If a drive fails I will replace it and rebuild the RAID. Sometime in the future I may get an external HD to backup the RAID to, so that is something I would eventually need the backup software to do, but not something I am doing now. What I am currently using it for is to backup the Windows drive to the RAID so that all my Data is secure on my RAID.

The first problem I experienced (and am continuing to experience) is the infamous failed sector problem. It is with a few sectors on my RAID. I get the "Failed to read from the sector xxx of the hard disk 2" where xxx is, in this order:
729,050,305
729,050,193
729,050,179
729,050,180
729,050,179
729,050,180
729,050,177
729,050,177
729,050,177
729,050,177
729,050,177
729,050,178
729,050,179
729,050,180
729,050,181
729,050,182
729,050,183
729,050,184

Exactly as that, with the repeats and all. These sectors are all on my RAID. When I run a checkdisk I see no problems, and the RAID never flags as having any problems when it selfchecks during booting. The previous suggestion in another thread is to format. This isn't likely to be an easy issue for me. This is all of my actual data that I am interested in safeguarding, and it has more than 100GB on it. There are possibilities, such as removing one drive from the array, formatting it, and then rebuilding the array, but I'd rather contemplate that after any other options.

The second problem happened today as I attempted to test out the restorationg of these backups I have been creating. I created a full backup a few days ago and have been making differential backups daily. To restore this to the windows drive required rebooting as many files are in use. But True Image was unable to see my RAID, where the backups are stored, when it started after bootup. I'm guessing it is some driver issue as RAIDs need drivers to be accessed, but this issue basically negates the usefulness of True Image for me. I have other options, such as restoring to a different 40GB HD that I have and then making that the windows drive, but that seems like a lot of unnecessary hardware installation and removal to accomplish something that this software should be able to handle.

Finally, there is the issue with automatic backups. I have attempted to schedule a differential backup to occur early in the morning, but it doesn't seem to be working automatically. I am not sure if this is due to the sector errors or what, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Also, does the software have to be running, or does it schedule it through some other method? I'd rather not leave it up all the time unless there is some option to send it to the system tray.

So right now I'm not really sure that this is the backup software that I want to go with. It has what appears to be some useful qualities, but the implementation of them doesn't seem to be helping me achieve my goals. Thanks.

 

Well, as an update, I guess the software new what was going on with the RAID after all. My Power Supply failed, and when I replaced it I discovered a failure in one of my RAID drives. I haven't reinstalled the software and seen if the failed to read messages have left, but I'll post when I've found out.

Of course, I am still stuck with the other two issues and no replies.

 

Sorry to hear of the failures.
I suggest you seriously take a second look at your backup stratagies.
Raid mirroring should not be accepted as a data backup solution. Your data in the raid set may become corrupt for any number of reasons (virus, worm malware, lightning, etc) and when the array is rebuilt you will just have a mirror of junk. Raid1 does have it's advantages, with the foremost being just to quickly be up and running again with what you had at the failure point. For true data backup just copy to another drive (internal, external, network, etc), preferrably more than just one.
Trueimage can be used for restoring your os drive and performs well doing that. I wouldn't ask much more of it. As you have already seen, it has trouble with your raid at present.
You have your system set up in a very good configuration for ease of repair.

 

I do intend to alter my backup strategy in the future, but what I am doing will have to do for now. Ultimately I intend to backup my RAID to an external source, most likely hard drives, that I can keep in another location or a safe. Then I would simply need to backup my OS drive to the RAID and the RAID externally.

However, to do this backing up I need some sort of software, and that's why I am trying to solve the problems I'm having with this software. I have now reinstalled it and I am still getting the sector errors, so the problem was apparently not related to the failing drive. And I still haven't seen a glimmer of an answer about restoring from the RAID while rebooting or about scheduling backups.

 

Well, apparently this is not the software I am looking for. No reasonable replies to solve my problems, and by looking at the volume of traffic on this forum it seems that this software has a large number of issues. Thanks for letting me try out the software, but I believe that I am not interested and will continue my search for reliable back up software.

 

sector errors are indicative of HD/OS problems, I doubt it is related to this software.