cant get acronis to create secure zone!!

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by nmoralez, Apr 29, 2007.

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  1. nmoralez

    nmoralez Registered Member

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    purchased and installed acronis true image 10... I wanted to use snap restore to create an exact copy of the current state of my PC... followed instuctions to create secure zone . it asked me to reboot and then I expected the program to re open and continue but . nothing!! I opened true image and checked the logs and got errors 127(0x64007f) failed to find acronis secure zone,error 126(0x64007e) failed to prepare acronis startup recovery manager error 5(0x640005)operation has completed with errors. Now the secure zone is not to be found anywhere on the PC not in windows nor in true image in fact I did this many times... why is it not completing the secure zone??!?! this program is useless to me if I cant make a restore disk(s)!!!! this is supposed to be the best one on the market I was told I thoroughly read the entire help section and user guide plus I registered the product at acronis and downloaded the latest update Acronis*True*Image*Home® version 10.0 (build*4,942)) and then uninstalled the origional one THEN reinstalled the 4942 build . didnt help .. so can anyone tell me why thiss is happening or if anyone has heard of this happening to anyone else ?? Im running XP home edition SP2 with ALL the latest windows updates my HD is just defraged and only has 11 GB out of 149 G,,,, Please for the love of GOD someone help me!!!!
     
  2. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    A couple of questions.
    Where are you trying to create a secure zone ?
    How many partitions does the hard drive have?


    Xpilot
     
  3. greenock girl

    greenock girl Registered Member

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    I also am having problems creating a secure zone. I have over 40GB unused space on the HD and am trying to allocate about 10 to the secure zone. When it is creating it I am getting an operation error message that it is an invalid partition size. I am wondering if it is relevant that the information given under "Resizing partition" section says the file system is NTFS but when it is "Creating the partition" it says the file system is FAT32. I need easy to follow instructions as I do not know enough about computers to be able to do anything complicated.
     
  4. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    I will repeat XPilot's question to both of you: "Why are you trying to use the Secure Zone?"
    Do you know what will happen if your hard drive dies suddenly? You lose everything in the Secure Zone.
    It is better to invest in a second hard drive (external is easier to install) and keep your backups there.
    Greenock, the SZ is a Fat32 partition even if the rest of your drive is NTFS.
     
  5. greenock girl

    greenock girl Registered Member

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    I have already bought an external hard drive to replace a faulty one. I had thought backing up to the secure zone and also the new HD was double insurance if something went wrong with either the computer or the external drive. I did not manage to use the faulty one at all but it made me wonder just how reliable they are.

    Because of the problems with the secure zone I am tempted to just back up to the external drive but am concerned that maybe something has gone wrong with the Acronis download which has caused the difficulty in setting up the secure zone. If that is the case would I know that it maybe wasn't backing up properly on the external drive? (I obviously would not be trying to creat a secure zone on the external drive).
     
  6. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    The disadvantage (and also the advantage - if that's possible at the same time) of a SZ is that ONLY True Image can access it. So unless you might run into the possibility of someone accidentally erasing your Backups, the SZ is not needed. And, yes, you can also create the SZ on an external drive. Some forum members actually do that.
    If you think you might be unlucky again with an external drive going bad, you can also burn the Backup file to DVDs. But to do this, you have to make the backup files small enough to fit. Again, many forum members do this and use a split size of 1492Mb when making the Backup. This size will let you burn three of them on one dvd with very little wasted space.
     
  7. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    A secure zone is a partition without a drive letter that is hidden from most Windows operations. It is formatted by design as FAT32.

    A secure zone has to be a certain minimum size for one to be created successfully. I believe Acronis recommend a size of one and a half times the estimated image size.
    My view is that is far to small to be of any real use because just one full image is not much of an insurance against disaster. IMHO it should be a minimum of three times the used space.
    Although a secure zone is designed to be made on the main drive it makes more sense to use a second internal drive if an additional one can be fitted. I use a secure zone on a secondary internal drive and it is big enough to store ten full images before they are automatically recycled.


    Xpilot
    BTW I asked where, not why .
    [​IMG]
     
  8. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    nmoralez & greenock girl,

    check out the thread Acronis Secure Zone & Startup Recovery Manager

    available via my signature link "Useful Forum Threads"
     
  9. nmoralez

    nmoralez Registered Member

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    Xpilot I am trying to use the secure zone because when using the "snap resore" feature or creating an exact copy of my entire hard disk,according to the instructions in both the user guide and when actually trying to create a full back up it asks you to. I cant continue the task without doing it. if you know a way to do it whith out the secure zone I am all ears. All I want to do is make a "recovery disk(s) with dvd-r's of the current state of my PC so in the case that I get a blue screen of death and cant boot to windows I have a restore disk set that not only will get my OS back and all of my data but all the windows updates and installed proggies music etc.. etc.. that is on the HD now at this point in time..sort of like a restore disk you get when you buy a PC and it gets to back to the point when you fist took it out of the box plugged it in and truned it on. Oh and by the way its a brand new Hard drive with a fresh install of windows XP SP 2 w all current updates and there are no partitions on the HD other than the OS
     
  10. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    Hello nmoralez,

    Thanks for the additional information. As your ultimate objective is to have backup images on DVDs you can forget about using a Secure Zone to store your images. This is because complete images cannot be copied to other media from a secure zone.

    It is a good plan to store and recover backups via a hard drive rather than directly to and from DVDs. If you want to avoid the expense of a second hard drive, which could be internal or external, your best bet would be to partition your hard drive so that the backup images would be in their own separate partition.
    It is then a simple matter to burn them to DVDs. Recoveries could be handled by copying the DVD images back to a recovery folder in your backup partition and then restoring from there.

    Xpilot
     
  11. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello nmoralez,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please notice that Xpilot is correct and Acronis Secure Zone is not needed to create a recovery disk. Acronis True Image 10.0 Home can write backups directly to removable media (CD/DVD/etc.) Please notice that when backing up to a removable media you can add an option “Acronis One-Click Restore” to the image. It will allow automatic restoration of the data to the original place by booting with the backup image media and clicking “Restore” button, no other questions asked. You can set this option at Tools -> Options -> Default Backup Options -> Media Components.
    Please also have a look at this previous thread describing some Acronis One-Click Restore peculiarities.
    Please refer to chapter 5.3.8 of the respective User's Guide for more details.
    You can also crease a separate Acronis Bootable Rescue Media and perform a restore of an image stored elsewhere using it. Please see chapter 10 "Creating bootable media" of the User's Guide for details.

    If you are willing to investigate the issue you encountered with Acronis Secure Zone, could you please collect some information?

    Please download the latest version of Acronis drivers, unpack the archive, install unpacked MSI package and see if the issue persists.

    If the issue persists, please do the following:

    - Replace C:\WINDOWS\system32\snapapi.dll with the one from the downloaded SnapAPI archive;
    - Reproduce the issue and collect the log file without closing any application windows (including the error message windows if there are any). The log file will be created at C:\ . The name of the log file will be snapapi [date-time].log

    Please clarify, where are you trying to create Acronis Secure Zone at?

    Please create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    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 and try to provide you with a solution.

    Thank you.
    --
    Marat Setdikov
     
  12. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello greenock girl,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please make sure you use the latest build of Acronis True Image. To get access to updates you should first register your software.

    Please check the hard drive in question for errors by running "chkdsk X: /r" where X is assigned partition letter (you might have to reboot the computer to check the system partition).

    Please also try creating Acronis Secure Zone using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media.

    Could you please clarify a few points:
    What brand is the hard drive in question?
    What is the full version name of Acronis True Image you use? You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

    Thank you.
    --
    Marat Setdikov
     
  13. InforMed

    InforMed Registered Member

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    Same here - given up trying to get Acronis 9.1 in this case to create a secure zone. It goes through the motions but never creates the partition.

    Rob.
     
  14. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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  15. nmoralez

    nmoralez Registered Member

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    first off I am trying to create the secure zone on my C drive .. my only HDD in the PC!! Im trtying to create it where acronis RECOMMENDS in the user guide where to put it!! why would you ask me where Im trying to put the secure zone!!?? ... to further clarify this is a brand new WD 160 GB SATA HDD just recently (last week) installed XP media center edition on SP2. All windows and security updates , fixes, patches installed. Now see here, I have CAREFULLY and FULLY read and re read the user guide, followed all the instructions to the letter. I should NOT have to run fixMBR from the dos command line at P.O.S.T. ,I should NOT have to download and install the snapapi.dll . I now realize that this product has a lot of bugs, plain and simple . I will not be replied to like I am a child, I can read very well and the last time I checked, Im fairly smart and competent in and around PC's , so please , just come clean and admit that acronis true image 10 is buggy and your working on fixes for the next release!!!! this product wont wrok on many PC's!! I am NOT the only one with problems.. in fact there are MANY!!! .. just do a google search and you will see!!!!
     
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