Nothing but errors

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by archp2008, Mar 27, 2008.

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  1. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    I just purchased a new SATA2 320 GB Hard Drive. It formatted and partitioned without problems. When I got into Acronis True Image 11 and tried to do a full backup I got all kinds of errors, some pertaining to insufficient space and some referring to lack of access, and the process terminated abruptly. I also had problems creating a secure zone in that I didn't seem to have full control over the size of the zone. Sometimes I thought I had assigned the whole drive but it come up in Windows showing only a single small partition. Can someone point me to a concise step by step guide that is less wordy than the 118-page manual? It would be easier for me to post a clearer account of my problems if I knew how to capture the various log files and/or do screen captures of the program pages to attach to my postings. Can someone point me to a page that explains how to capture the various error messages and/or screen displays that come up at various points during an attempted backup? Thank you in advance for any assistance.
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2008
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    Look for any message by GroverH and in his signature are Links to several useful guides for using True Image.
     
  3. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Thanks DwnNdrtyThis post will make it easier for him to find.

    archp2008,
    Tell us more about your new drive.
    How is it currently connected?

    What is your current use and intended use of the new drive?

    Are you using XP or Vista or both?

    Desktop or laptop?
     
  4. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Thanks Grover, Glad to meet you. I purchased a Western Digital SE16 320GB SATA2 7200RMP 16 MB 8.9MS Hard Drive. I believe it's more or less an exact duplicate of drive 1, although the shape of the case seems to be a bit different. The capacities are identical I purchased the drive with the intention of using it to create an image of Drive 1 which currently has a triple-booting XP/Vista/Linux system on it. If though compression I could save a parttiion for backing up my wife's networked computer, so much the better. My boot disk is about half or nearly half full at the moment. My wife's hard drive has probably no more than 30 or 40 GB out of 120GB on it. I have some doubts about whetehr or not I should be bothered about backing up operating systems and/or programs that I presently have on DVD's, although I imagine it would take me days to get them all reinstalled, and probably I never world reinstall those games that I have never played. I'm a little surprised that it's possible to copy Windows while I am inside Windows, that is, to copy files that are currently in use by various programs. If you wish I can attempt a backup again now and write down the errors which occur. I'm getting tired of reading that manual, most of which boasts of all that the software can do. Should I shut down all the systray programs before starting the backup? How long do you think the backup would take. I'm using a P4 3.4GHZ with 3 GB of RAM.
     
  5. metalmike

    metalmike Registered Member

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    I have a question for you (original poster). I have a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R mobo w/E6850 and a pair of SATA II 500Gb's in RAID 0 configuration for performance reasons (and ATI 9.1 WS for backup/imaging it) and I have the following layout: The first two are on my 1TB RAID 0 config: C: XP Pro SP2, D: Vista 64, and E: (3rd SATA II data disk). I booted into Vista 64, grabbed Wubi and went to installing Ubuntu (Kubuntu version I think) thinking I could triple boot and run Linux when I felt like it. Problem is when I finished the install which appeared to go just fine it crashed out to a > prompt on the reboot. I am thinking it doesn't like something in my configuration.

    My system is the above mobo w/E6850 oc'd to 3.6Ghz, 4x1024Gb Corsair Dominator, XFX 8800GTS 640Mb video card, the onboard HD audio (as well as a PCI Delta66 sound card which is what is configuring for XP, Vista has no support officially yet (I am waiting to get into beta testing V64 drivers from M-audio). I am not sure what is causing the problem. I'll go try putting Ubuntu on my other latest build (E8400 @3.6Ghz 2x640Gb SATA II in RAID 1 config, XFX 512Mb 8800GT. realtek HD audio onboard the Abit IP35 Pro mobo.

    Any thoughts to this > prompt and why I am hitting it? The progress bar gets to not even 20-25% loaded during Ubuntu boot. I deinstalled it for the time being.

    Thanks!

    Mike
     
  6. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Hi MetalMike. Glad to meet you. I'm the one who started the thread so I guess you meant me when you said original poster. I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I am knowledgeable about multibooting. I understand that Grover is an expert on Acronis True Image software. I've only had a dual booting system working for around 3 or 4 weeks and have only got Ubuntu going since around two weeks ago. I am very much of a newbie to multibooting. It took a lot of encouragement from others on the forums and a lot of Googling for easy step by step guides to get the courage to partition my drive, install Visa on top of XP and finally to go through all that rigamarole in getting the necessary partitions for Ubuntu. The only problem I've had since was yesterday and the day before when an antivirus program installation gave me the black screen of death in Vista I was foolish enough after reformatting my logical drive E and reinstalling Vista to try this installation again. Luckily I had a restore point in Vista to undo the damage the second time. I was going go say that I had to use Supergrub to rewrite the MBR with Grub. I believe Windows does that all the time, and sometime Acronis too. There are several terms in your message that I don't even know the meaning of! I would hope there are some multibooting experts in the forum that can help. I could state a very uninformed opinion but I believe that discretion is the greater part of valor. Best of luck on your booting problem and thanks for posting. BTW that's a great system you have!
     
  7. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Hi Grover H. I'm pleased to tell you that the backup and verification worked this time without a hitch. :) What a comparison with my experiences last night. The first time I shut down all the systray icons and it crashed almost immediately. The second time everything went by the book. Considering the process is completely unattended, it's not bad that it only took an hour an forty minutes to create a sector by sector image of 100 gb. Hopefully, if my system is destroyed for any reason, I can get everything back in the length of time it takes me to watch a short movie! If I can figure out how to do this, I will attach a couple of digial camera images of the computer screen for proof! Thanks for offering to assist. All the best!
     

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  8. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Hi again, Grover. I followed up this image creation by making an Acronis Recover Disk. Then I started to endeavour to scheduling new weekly incremental backups. Do I have to enter a new file name. The wizard wanted to overwrite the image if I didn't give a file name. It appeared that the wizard was going to make a second backup at that very moment. Am I correct that data backups have to be kept separate from image backups which include partition information and operating systems? Do I have to make a data backup in addition to the full image backup? Thanks in advance for any comments you may see fit to make.
     
  9. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    1. This is a feature of Acronis. Many use & like it; however, there are still many of us from the old school that believe that backups done from the Rescue CD are more dependable. It's a catch 22. Flip a coin for your answer.

    2. My signature below has info about "how to...attachments". Screen capture is "a piece of cake". Very easy to do and to manipulate. It is screen capture (plus picture editing) that I use in all my training pdf's.

    3. Far from it. I'm just a senior citizen user for several years who has gained a little knowledge over the years. I don't do multi-booting or networking so those are two topics I stay away from.

    4. Should you need to replace your system disk for whatever reason, it is a full disk backup (all partitions) of your system drive which can provide relief. Be sure you always have such a backup available. A full disk restore of such a backup (using the Rescue CD) can usually make for an easy recovery. It is essential that you have created a Rescue CD and have booted from it. Validation of your backups (at least some of them) via the Rescue CD is important. Trying to fully restore your system from within Windows can be very problematic and involves a reboot into Linux. When restoring your system or a new drive, it is best to perform that task from booted into the Rescue CD.

    5. If you have the empty space on the new drive, you can do a normal disk backup (all partitions) of your wife's computer. Normal compression will occupy about 60% of your wife's used space.

    6. What if your backup drive fails? Having all your backups on one source is not good security. Backups should be stored in multiple places. And, we don't want to overlook the very important necessity of some sort of testing to be sure that your restores will do their job when the need arises!

    Good luck.
     
  10. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    RE: post #8
    Keep your backups in some sort of folder arrangement. Backups are created in sets. A full backup and any incremental or differentials should all be in the same folder. When you make another new full backup, start a new folder, etc. Data backups should have their own folders (consolidated if you wish) since they do not relate to the full or incremental, etc.

    I do not feel the need to make regular data backups. All my are imaging of the entire disk--either full or incremental. I do use the "backup locations" and suggest you investigate that further. There have been several postings on it. Check the sticky below for that topic. Look for a downloadable sample text file by CatsFan432 for some sample instructions.

    Picture of my backup folders
    [​IMG]
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This is my "backup locations" folder. One full backup is auto scheduled and then six incremental auto scheduled every other day; then start over.

    my-backup_locations.png
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2008
  11. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Hi Grover. Thank you very much for the very professional training. You are very modest. Unfortunately, I did not notice your easy guide links on the bottom of the page. I assume that the backup that I made (within Windows with lots of background programs running) could be problematic. Do you suggest that I repeat the procedure from the boot disk? Regarding organization, there should be no problem for me to copy my backups to folders according to date. It appears that your image backups are only around 20 gigs each whereas mine would be 100 gigs each. I would fill my disk in 2 or 3 backups. I would need multiple terabyte drives! Is there a reasonable solution with the single 320 gb drive that I have? With regard to having more than one backup, I guess you mean to backup to DVD's as well. By the time your respond, I will have finished reading your guides. Thanks again.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2008
  12. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    My first suggestion is that you perform a full disk backup when booted from the TI Rescue CD. This is not to imply that your windows backup is problematic. It is a necessity that you know your TI Rescue CD functions the way it should. Performing a backup from the CD and validating from the CD is one part of knowing that your external drive is functioning properly within True Image.

    For your amount of data and multiple operating systems, you really need an additional external drive; or store some backups on a network, etc. Your 320 is a good starting point but it just that. Often times, problem with a file or the system does not really reach a frustration point until some time has elapsed. You need to have backups which go back several occurrences to have best security.

    I was not proposing a backup directly to DVD. It is too problematic and you have too much data. I do suggest that if you have some static data (music--audio--video) that could be moved off the hard drive onto DVD (straight Windows copy) to reduce your routine backup size, that would be helpful.

    How you store your backups is a matter of personal preference--as long as you keep the entire set in one folder. Files all with the same name is a set (full-incremental-differential). If you move/copy the backup files from one folder to another, you should validate the archive (*.tib) again to make sure they have not become corrupted in the copy process. It is safer if you omit any spaces or period with the backup file name except always include the ".tib" when naming a backup file.

    Listed below are previous postings which may or may not be applicable but make for informed reading.

    After you have created a few backups (with Windows & with the Rescue CD + validation); and after you have "mounted" some images to see if you can recover some individual files from the archives; then I would post a new question in a new thread where you ask for suggestions about how to backup & restore your 3 operating systems. I have no experience with multiple boots. I believe MudCrab and k0lo have had recent discussion about this question. You might want to do some further searching of topics. Should you post such a question, be sure and include your method of booting for each OS ( Drive 1 has a triple-booting XP/Vista/Linux system on it)and what testing (with TI) you have done.

    The "sticky" in my signature also has lots of good information, if your looking to increase your knowledge. I find reading these posts (even without responding) can be very helpful.

    Good luck.
    Grover
    -------------------------------

    My backup strategy Escalader
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=159177

    Best way for making functioning images
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1047306

    Backups
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1036066#29

    Recommend backup scheme for photos, music 32 replies--2 pages
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=164175

    SAVE MY MUSIC COLLECTION! PLEASE (29 replies --2 pages)
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167710
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2008
  13. como

    como Registered Member

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    You do not need to do a sector by sector backup to be able to restore your drive. A sector by sector image copies every sector of your drive whether in use or not and is usually only used when you cannot create an image normally, thus it will be much larger and take longer than necessary.

    If you don't use the sector by sector method your image will be approximately 60% of the used portion of your drive, using normal compression, depending on the total of the already compressed files (jpg, mov etc.) on your drive, TI will not compress these much if at all.

    See this thread for more information and/or do a search for sector by sector on this forum.
     
  14. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Como,
    Is Acronis supporting his Linux in the 3rd partition of his 3 partition drive which has xp/vista/linux installed on the same drive? Does he have a choice if he is doing a full disk backup where all partitions are included in the backup? I am not familiar with what is covered when Linux is involved. For sure, he can save space when doing a partition backup of the individual Windows partitions.
     
  15. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Thank you very much Grover, and also to Como. I just purchased that second 320 gb drive, so it will probably be some time before I purchase a third. One good thing about it is that hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper at the same time as they are getting larrger and larger at a torrid rate. I hope that trend continues I expect a terabyte drive may be under $100 in a few years. I have checked a few external storage sites but they seem to be prohibitively expensive to use for regular 100 gb backups, and the free ones are notoriously slow. I already have a collection of over 30 data DVDs since purchasing this computer only four months ago. I am not a big music fan but I tend to accumulate a ton of software applications. I also take a lot of digital images and video clips. I lost a ton of them on a faulty 20 gb IDE drive some months ago which Is the main reason I have become more concerned with backups. Which backups will have the same file name? Thank you for the interesting links. I will be sure to study them intently. Is there a way to search for posts on this forum by username? I have seen the word "sticky" on the forums before and still don't know what that means. Thaks Como for the information on sector by sector backups. I will unclick that option when I do the backup from boot disk later tonight. I really appreciate the help this forum has provided. All the best and will get back soon. As you mention, Grover, if I can't find the information on separate system restoration, I will start a new thread. Thanks again.
     
  16. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    When you log into this forum, note the first five subjects listed is a "sticky". This is a term used to describe a topic which remains at the top of the forum with user topics listed below it.

    Note the search button listed at the top of this page and all other pages. Use the advanced option and you can specify the user name and or topic. Or a very easy way to locate postings by an individual is to locate any of their postings. Click on their screen name which will give you a link to all their postings.

    Another way to search is to paste a word or phrase into your google search bar and make sure the last part of the search phrase lists this website. For example, using google to search for "multiboot" plus "new drive"

    multiboot + "new drive" site:www.WildersSecurity.com

    or another example:

    multiboot + "new drive" + MudCrab + k0lo + 2008 +2007 site:www.WildersSecurity.com

    The google seach effectiveness is controlled by your innovation. The more detailed the search words, the more specific the results. Add or remove words from your search phrase until you get what you want.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2008
  17. como

    como Registered Member

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    Good point re the Linux partition, I don't know, perhaps one of the Linux experts or Support will jump in.
     
  18. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    These are not the posts previously mentioned but you might want to follow along during the progression of these threads below. If I find more, I will add to this posting.

    Best practice for cloning a Dual Boot system? added
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1201966

    Drive letters and repetitive cloning for multi-booting Windows (Vista)
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=204712

    TrueImage 10.0 clone hd, with Grub as bootmanager Win XP Pro, Linux boots, XP doesn't

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=204644

    Multi-boot with OEM Vista - Cannot log on?
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=202833
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2008
  19. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Hi Grover/Como,
    I wish I could change that "Nothing but errors" thread title, because that is certainly not the way it is now. It is nothing but success now. I didn't realize that all you had to do was to hit Print Scrn to get a screen capture. I should be able to enter my boot disk backup result from last night here. As you should be able to see, the backup that I named backup2, not being sector by sector, is only listed by Windows ad 85GB compared with 104GB for the original Windows backup, and there were at least 3.5GB more on the disk to be backed up this time. As for speed, I can't state an exact duration for the backup because I went to bed after the first step was completed. I can say that it took an hour and a half to do the first operation (presumably partition 1) of six. After that it estimated another hour and 47 minutes for the total process. Being that backups will be an overnight process for me, the exact duration is not of much significance. The verification from boot disk was also successful. Are there any occasions when you would need or want to use sector by sector backup? I have to try to avoid being too lazy or taking advantage of your helpfulness. You have given me lots of good stuff to read which I haven't finished yet. I trust what is here will be useful to others as well. Anyway, Grover, where would you go from here in terms of backups we have done so far and what to do next? Thanks so much again for the great support.
     

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  20. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    You have mentioned that your system disk has 3 partions which are XP/Vista/Linux. You also have an external disk. Do you have any others? If yes, what size and is the entire disk available for testing?

    Depending upon the answer from above, your only other alternative may be below.

    Sooner or later you have to bite the bullet and do some testing to see if the backups work as intended.

    It would be best to test with a test hard drive. Otherwise, you will have to test using your master.

    Which partition is your least important? Then use the Rescue CD and perform a backup of that single partition. Be sure and validate as part of the process.

    Then, still booting from the Rescue Cd, I would restore the new single patition backup. In other words, put a checkmark beside only the one specific partition and perform a partition restore.

    Without a test disk, this is the only way to see if your restore functions as intended. This has risks which can only be avoided by having a test disk. If the restore fails, then your partition will not be bootable.
     
  21. como

    como Registered Member

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    archp2008

    I would make a new folder on your hard drive to put the backups in, so keeping them altogether.

    To see how long the backup takes open the log file from Tools/Show Log this is far more accurate than the estimated time that TI shows on the progress bar.
     
  22. archp2008

    archp2008 Registered Member

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    Thank you again Grover and Como. Yes, I was thinking you would suggest the restore function, Grover. I only have one other drive - an old 20gb IDE drive that is on the way out. I wish I had another 320 GB drive to use for testing. The one I bought was only $73 new which is pretty cheap. That works out to less than 23 cents per gigabyte - cheaper than rewritable dvd's! I'll have to add another hard drive to my wish list. In the meantime, the quickest partition to repair from scratch (I had to do it a few days ago) would be the Vista partition because there is little or no extra software installed with it. The Ubuntu is a bit involved with all the paritioning and grub editing, etc. All my program stuff, etc., is on the XP partition. I'll have a go at restoring the Vista partition when I read up on restoring single partitions. I had a look at the backups that are done and the only logs I could see within the Windows copy of Acronis were the ones I did on Thurdsay (plus s partition by partition summary of the failed attempt).. It's nice to be able to open them and see all the folders inside just like they are on the orginal disk. The boot disk does not show any logs now for what I did yesterday either, but evidently they would have been there at the time if I had checked. It said something in the boot disk about saving the logs which I didn't know about at the time. Presumably I could have saved them to Windows but I didn't at the time. Within Acronis the size of the two backups are listed as 99.28 and 81.4 gb - that's about 4 gb less than the sizes given in My Computer. The time for the original 99.28 backup was given as 1 hour and 38 minutes. It appears tha the compressed backup took longer (approx twice as long). Thanks again Grover & Como. I will let you know how the Vista restore attempt goes later.
     
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