Backup Archive Corrupted

Hi Everyone,

I was just running a backup including a backup archive check and I received a warning that the backup archive was corrupted. In the Event Log, it said that the error was in Module 7 and the Error Code was 32 (0x70020). Clearly, I need to delete this differential backup and re-run the backup/archive check. What is the best way to delete this differential backup within ATI 10 Home? BTW, what was the most likely reason for the corrupted archive?

Many thanks,

JPC

 

Any chance of a reply?........Please!

 

For a backup check to succeed it is essential, perversely, for the base image and all the differentials up to and including the one concerned to be present. Crazy but it is a fact of Acronis life.

If this is not the cause there are various hardware checks that could be performed to try to nail down the reason for failure.

I would do what you propose. AFAIK you can delete the last differential Via Windows explorer. It might be then an idea to run the validation check again on the remaining latest differential or the original full if that is all that remains. Then do another current differential to see if the problem has gone away or if further investigation is needed.

Xpilot

 

Hello jaypeecee,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

As Xpilot pointed, you can use Windows explorer to delete backup archives.

Please notice that it is possible that the archive is being declared corrupt because of faulty data transfers. Please run a memory diagnostics such a Memtest86+ available free from www.memtest.org for a several hours. There should be no errors reported. Please also run Windows chkdsk utility with parameter "/r" on the hard drive the archive is stored at.
If there are no errors with memory/hard drive reported, please try copying/moving the archive to another location, and validating it again. Please also try using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media to validate the archive.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

I decided to re-run the archive verification on the archive that had previously been reported as corrupted. This time, there was no suggestion of the archive being corrupted. What on earth is going on? Which of the two runs am I to believe?

I must stress that I am not prepared to carry out a whole string of tests to get to the bottom of this. If ATI 10 Home doesn't do what it's supposed to do and if it produces inconsistent results as in my case, then it's not much use to me. Fortunately, it's still within its warranty period.

JPC

 

I have no connection to Acronis or Wilders. I am a new user of the Acronis True Image program like you. I don't think that I am exaggerating when I say that I have probably used a hundred different backup schemes since I first started using computer(s) on a daily basis in 1964. I am retired now and I primarily use a PC at home.

Over the last year or so I have evaluated quite a large number of backup programs. I have followed most of the commercial backup programs through at least one major version upgrade. I started looking at the Acronis program when it was at version 9.

Every backup program that I have evaluated - to me has had some type of major short coming. Imaging programs that can backup and restore to a partition that is in use are very sophisticated. I am going to simplify the following greatly. Imaging, as well as all read/write operations depends on copying each sector exactly using heads encased in a hard drive flying lower than the width of a human hair over multiple platers moving at over 7000 rpm, etc. The mechanical operation of a hard drive is a very wonderful but highly complicated thing. Head crashes should occur multiple times per minute. Of course there can only be one head crash because a single head crash completely destroys the hard drive. Hundreds of read/write errors should occur per second. That is not even considering any electronic influence in a hard drives operation.

Be very glad that small errors can be detected during the above operations. If you were to review the many logs maintained by the Windows operating system you would see that your computer makes multiple mistakes during the day. It is imposable for mistakes not to occur.

If you feel that you can not troubleshoot problem areas on your computer, I would suggest that you dump Acronis now. Every commercial backup program is going to frustrate you. You can adopt a backup system that I use when I have something very important to me. The system is costly, takes a lot of time, and frustrates me when I can not find the media that I used for my backup. Back up your files individually on to some independent storage device. Don't archive with compression because error are far from rare when using compression algorithms. Use md5sums to compare your original with your backup.

The above backup process works well for backing up data files and errors are few. Don't try to backup your operating system - other than C:\Windows\system32. Reinstall it.

I am surprised that you chose Acronis True Image to be your backup system. While Acronis is a very good program (probably the best for a home computer - with an advanced computer user requirement), you picked the program with the steepest learning curve.

Regardless of the path you choose you are going to need to learn quite a bit of new material as well as learning patients.

You have an excellent chance of getting your money back from Acronis with a minimum amount of effort on your part. Your second post pegged you as the type of customer that will never be happy or satisfied. I am not trying to be ugly - just confirm that I bet they will be more than happy to refund your money

 

jackboyce,

You have made all sorts of assumptions about my knowledge of computers and software. This is evident in the tone of your reply. FYI, I'm a Chartered Electronics Engineer and I specialize in Software Quality Assurance. I've worked on software projects that are far more complex than disk imaging software.

When you say "If you feel that you can not troubleshoot problem areas on your computer...", it's not that I cannot troubleshoot problem areas, it's that there are times when I choose not to. I simply don't have the time to carry out extensive troubleshooting. I've done plenty of troubleshooting of PCs, I can assure you.

You make the comment "you picked the program with the steepest learning curve." I chose this program because it was considered by all the major computer journals to be the easiest to use. My choice was an informed decision.

As for your comment that "Your second post pegged you as the type of customer that will never be happy or satisfied", what right do you have to pass judgments like that? The fact of the matter is that I'm often very happy with software that I have bought and I could reel off a long list of such products but this is not the right place to do that.

I trust I have addressed the points you made. Now, let's lay this particular dialogue to rest. I want to get back to the matter in hand - "corrupted" backup archives.

JPC

 

My two cents .....

Sounds like you had the "Validate Backup" checked when you started the Backup. Do the Validate as a separate process, if you must, after the Backup has been completed.

What kind of system are you using, single system, networked? What version and build of True Image?

 

Hi DwnNdrty,

You're absolutely correct - I had the "Validate Backup" checked when I started the backup. I'll change this when I do the next backup.

Although my PC is on a WiFi network, the ATI is only running on my PC. I'm using ATI Home version 10.0, Build 4942. OS is Windows XP Pro SP2 and I'm using an Iomega 80GB external USB2.0 drive, the drive being powered via the USB lead.

Regards,

JPC

 

One caveat ... even if you do get a successful validation, you must restore that backup to a spare drive to be 100% sure you have a good backup - just the nature of the beast. After you're get a few good restores, you can rely on the validation.

Also make sure you have the bootable Rescue CD ready to go. In fact use it to do the restore because in case of drive failure, you'll need to use it to restore a backup to a new drive - and you don't want to wait until you really need it to find out it doesn't work.

Because you never know what, in Windows, may interfere with the True Image processes, I always use the Rescue CD to do Backups, Restores and Clones. Of course, if you do scheduled backups then the CD doesn't work for this.

 

Using Differential backups in the Acronis true image system.

I noticed a few recent posts on the subject of error messages when one attempts to validate a “backup” using a “Full Backup” and a just completed “differential backup”. Several weeks ago I researched a question closely related this topic on the Wilders Security Forum. There maybe some that would appreciate what I found. The high number recorded for people reading the same posts that I did would indicate that is probably so. I didn’t mention my research earlier to be nice. But it looks like I should share what I found.

The Acronis FAQs and operating manual state that all that is required to restore a partition that has been backed up with a “Full Backup” and repeated “Differential Backups” is the “Full Backup” and the last “Differential Backup” – both being in the same saved backup location (partition). The “differential backups” made along the way are not needed for successful restoration. I read several dozen, easily found, posts on the Forum on this subject. This has been a well discussed topic. Apparently no one has ever reported on the Forum a failed restoration in any instance when anything other than these two backups were available and were used. All agreed that “differential backups” accumulated along the way are superfluous and they can take up a great deal of space. There may be times when the Acronis True Image program might itself delete an old “differential backup” when the space that it occupies is needed for a current “differential backup.” Also agreed upon is that a computer operator can safely remove old “differential backups” using Windows Explorer and similar programs.

The problem discussed in the Forum posts dealt with trying to validate a backup when old differential backups were removed from the backup location. Validation in this case always fails. Restoration works but validation always fails. Posts from 2004 through the present time confirmed these facts. Acronis users have petitioned Acronis to fix this admitted (by Acronis Support Personal to be a “Bug”) problem. In February 2006, Acronis Moderator, “Tatyana Tsyngaeva” posted a notice that said that the bug had been fixed. Tatyana’s post was quickly refuted empirically by a Forum reader and just as quickly denied by several other Acronis Moderators. The “Bug’s” existence continued throughout Acronis True Image Version 9’s full life.

Many have hopped that the validation bug would not be in Version 10 when it was released. I could not find any evidence that the bug has been fixed. Unless the validation bug has been repaired within the last few days, it seems that it is impossible for a backup to pass validation when only the “Full Backup” and last “Differential Backup” was subjected to testing. My question was answered and I avoided being thought of as a fool by holding back my pen and simply reading what apparently lots of people already knew. Thank goodness I didn’t post anything that actually said that a validation passed under these circumstances. That not being possible.

Such a sad state of affairs all the way around. Who knows maybe a fix has been published? “But there would not have been time to download it”, says I.

May this finally end? My part in it has. The answer is all over the Forum. Let us all hope that Acronis will pick up their cross and fix the admitted “bug”. Bless you all - jackboyce

 

Acronis has always treated Differential Backups as Incremental Backups and has never changed it. Bug or feature makes no difference.

Assuming the image files are intact, the only three situations where a Full backup and the last Differential backup will Validate okay are

1) when the Full backup image exists, the last Differential image exists and all the inbetween Differential images exist

2) when the "last" Differential backup is the ONLY Differential backup created based on a Full image (no inbetween Differentials created)

3) when you "Validate" the Full and last Differential by doing a successful restore (this is not a true "Validation" by running the Validate feature, but if it restores then the images must be valid)

Acronis's design of this makes absolutely no sense at all. Neither does their seemingly resolute stance in leaving it this way through many versions of the program. Will TI 11 still work this way?

 

Closely associated with complete " chain" having to be present for a validation there is the other anomaly of multiple validations which are run on the whole of some archive storage areas. This has applied to Secure Zone archives and has I understand been perpetuated in the Backup Locations feature. Though, not from personal experience,I understand it no longer applies to a new Locations backup if it is validated as a separate exercise after creation?

I first noticed multiple validations with Version 8 and it has been reported to Acronis several times and there have been promises that it would be fixed..Yeah right.

Xpilot

 

I said that I would say nothing further on the validation problem - but I lied. This will be the last post from me on the subject until I am asked (if ever that happens) to aid in trying to get the status quo changed.

The following quote gives information, directly from Acronis, that was correct through the March 2007 update (which is the last update that I was able to find).

This quote comes directly from the Acronis True Image V 10 Home edition.


6.4.5 Additional settings page 46 in the operation manual

1. You can choose whether to restore file date and time from the archive or assign the files the current date and time.

2. Before data is restored from the archive, Acronis True Image Home can check its integrity. If you suspect that the archive might have been corrupted, select Validate backup archive before restoration.



To check archive data integrity you must have all incremental and differential backups belonging to the archive and the initial full backup. If any of successive backups is missing, validation is not possible.