TrueImage on Bootable CD Says Archive Corrupt

Using TI9 I had a somewhat similar problem trying to recover my C: drive yesterday.

I used something like:

1. F11 during boot
2. Selected Recovery from Acronis Secure Zone
3. Selected Restore disk or partitions
4. Selected C: drive, selected Proceed

The Acronis software then responded with --

"Partition Error; The selected partition contains the following error: MFT bitmap corrupted. Please note that you cannot change the file system and size of this partition. It is recommended that you check these partitions after restoration with your operating system restoration tools."

Well I certainly had not tried to change partition size or file system. So it must have been a "corrupt MFT bitmap", a term I have never encountered before, since I think of bitmaps as picture files like .bmp.

5. Out of curiosity I used Check Archive, used previously after establishing the archive, and once again was told "The backup archive was successfully checked"

So according to one version of reality (after doing backup) the C: partition was reported as being clean, so I was led into thinking that all was A-OK and I was properly protected. Then, lo and behold, when I actually tried to recover the C: partition, I was told the partition is corrupt. Grrrrr ! This rather undermines one's confidence in the reliability of the product.

However, after much fiddling about whose details I did not record I eventually recovered the C: partition, so I am not nearly as furious as I would be otherwise. This experience leads me to believe that it may be faults in the user interface that initially guided me to wrong choices rather than faults in the underlying software engine.

As noted in my recent post to the WishList, I wish that pertinent details of attempted recoveries be recorded to a floppy, so that failed recoveries may be e-mailed to the Acronis software engineers.

 

The only backup archive that you can be sure about is the one that you have successfully test-restored. In the case of data files this is a simple process because you can easily test-restore to any spare partition. (or Mount the image if the backup was of the entire data partition).

In the case of the operating system partition the ONLY way that you can be sure that your archive will restore is if you restore it to a spare disk and then boot your system from that disk. There is no shortcut.

There is no substitute for Testing. An untested backup is almost worse than no backup, because you believe that you have insurance only to find on D-Day that you don't, which is a little too late.

In the final analysis, companies like Acronis provide users with tools to perform tasks, but it is the ultimate responsibility of the user to ensure that those tools work as expected on their systems. The only way to have confidence in the product is to - understand how it works; set it up to work on your system and then Test, Test, Test.

And it does not matter if you are using True Image, Ghost, Copy Commander or the next Gee-Whiz product by the next Gee-Whiz company - the same principle applies, irrespective.

 

I think you offer sound advice here. I will say, however, that I had wonderful carefree years with Norton Ghost PE where I never once had a failed restoration nor did I ever have to fiddle with the software in the manner which you suggest for TI users. If I had not thought it wiser to convert to NTFS, I would still be with GhostPE today simply for the peace of mind. I admit though that TI is a remarkable piece of software but oddly it instills a trembling confidence as I now rely on it to backup and restore my system drive. In light of my recent experiences with TI, the regimen that you outline above could help to calm my nerves. For the moment, I'm keeping on hand several recent images saved to different locations in hopes that surely one will restore properly when "D" day comes again.

 

I certainly wouldn't consider Tabvla's recommendation of thorough testing as "fiddling" with the software. It is just common sense since you have no idea if it works unless you test the whole process. In responsible companies who value their data, a lot of time is spent confirming the reliability of backup software before it is put into service.

I have run TI on my PCs with only one failed restore which was caused by a marginal SATA cable. I will say that TI does seem to really give disk and memory systems a workout and if your hardware isn't in good shape failures result. Why TI gives the appearance of being more sensitive, I don't know.

To sum it up, if TI is working on your machine it will continue to work on your machine unless you have a hardware failure or introduce a change. After changing hardware the backup should be tested and this applies to any backup program, not just TI. If you cannot validate or restore your archive everytime then you have a fault that needs to be investigated.

TI's serious software faults, based on reading this forum, tend to be based on the introduction of new chipsets or a lack of Linux drivers in the recovery environment. As a rule the chipset problem is not large but it does occur. Normally, these problems manifest themselves as a hard error not a marginal one. Remember that you are using the Linux recovery environment when you restore an active partion, typically C, even if the restore is started within Windows.

It is good practice to run chkdsk /r on every partition you have both on internal and external HDs every now and then. Archive validation errors will typically flag RAM problems but you can run a memory diagnostic every now and then for additional confidence if you want. I've said it a hundred times, you only need one bad bit out of muli-gigabytes to have an archive declared corrupt!

 

Gospel! My recent experience with TI has been an eye-opener considering a history of five "ghostly" years of: worked-the-first-time-until-the-last-time-even-with-many-changes-to-my -box-yet-never-failed-once.
But I guess it's time for me to let go and move on. Thanks to both of you.