ATI corrupted my external hard drive

Last December, when I created an ATI image of my internal hard drive to my 250GB LaCie external hard drive, I got a message saying something like "Bad Media. TrueImage cannot write." It then corrupted everything on my external drive. I used GetDataBack to retrieve the files but most of it was corrupted beyond repair. I'd had that drive for 18 months and never experienced any problems with it. Does ATI have a tendency to do this?

I didn't post back then because the damage had been done. I just bought a new external drive and imaged to that instead, with no problems. I have since used that drive to back up other non-ATI stuff, I haven't used it to create any new ATI images. I'm very reluctant to do so as to lose any of the data on that drive would be a total disaster. The only solution is to buy a dedicated external hard drive but it seems like an unnecessary expense - I shouldn't have to do that.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

 

I backup to my external USB drive all the time and haven't had any problems with it getting messed up. I also have copies of other files on my external, also not problem.

Were you able to use the Lacie hard drive for any other purpose after the corruption happened or was in unusable? I had a hard drive fail once and I got it working again and it worked for a while and then failed again. Perhaps there was something wrong with the drive or the controller. After a hard drive does something wierd, I keep it in my untrusted drive "list". I can use them for testing or messing around with, but they'll never be used as a "vital" compenent.

The problem you had is exactly the reason why it is important to have multiple backups of all your important files. If you know you have at least two copies of your important images and files in two separate places, then if one of them fails you still have the other.

 

Like MudCrab, I've used many external USB hard drives with many versions of TI and have never had any problems with TI causing a problem.

After the corruption, did you repartition and reformat the LaCie drive? Have you checked it for errors? Has it worked without problems since that time?

 

I've never had any problems with my external drives.

If it were my drive, I would want to determine the scope of the problem. I'd copy the valuable files from it and run TI on it again. If that works, I'd do it a bunch more times. I would also do it from within Windows and the TI boot CD.

 

No problem here either with True Image and four external drives I've used from time to time.

 

I haven't used it since - it's gathering dust in my attic. I just didn't feel confident putting anything on it again. Perhaps it would be worth testing with ATI again (after running chkdsk/r on it), but I still wouldn't be confident with it. Still, I'm glad to hear that it seems to be a one-off.

 

Hello backinhumanform,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

If you could be more specific and provide us with more information of the issue you had experienced we would have the opportunity to investigate the issue and provide you with a possible solution.

Please note that image archive created with Acronis True Image can be placed to external hard drive and as other Forum members posted there should be no problems with it. If you wish to investigate the issue, please reproduce it and create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post before and after the problem appeared. In addition, please let us know the exact name and build number of Acronis True Image you use, which you can find in the Help -> About dialog. Then 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.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov