'Check archive' failures, "...partition 0-0..." and error 0x700020

This may be of use to someone, as I see I am not alone in having this problem.

I have had a lot of problems with failures to recover, and failures to check archives successfully using TI 9.0 home (2337).

The PC was 100% reliable (excluding with TI) even with other backup applications, not overclocked, had no RAM faults, no disk errors, no filing system errors and no controller errors. It was an ABIT KT7A, Athlon XP1800+, 768MB RAM running at full rated speed (133/1533MHz). Disks were UDMA100.

I could not get consistent results. Partitions would backup OK, check OK, then later, fail to check and fail to recover. And so on. For a backup solution, that is disastrous. When you come to need a backup 'in anger', it isn't much use if it doesn't then work.

In the end, the only thing that solved it was to slow up the PC clocks. It is currently running at 100/1150MHz, and I have had no bad checks or recovers since. I assume therefore that the issues are with the PC hardware - clocked within spec or not - not with TI itself. My suspicion is that the backups were really always OK, and it was the check or recovery that failed.

Why TI 9.0 finds these problems I do not know. One must assume it is exercising the chipsets - no doubt quite legally - in ways that other applications do not. It would be nice if Acronis could provide a utility to 'stretch' the hardware and thus indicate if reliability is likely to be present or absent.

Nonetheless - slowing it up was the answer. If you have this issue - try it.

 

Thanks for posting your results, Nick. In day-to-day use of your PC how much of a performance hit have you taken by reducing the speeds? Often numbers, be they real bad or real good don't actually show up to the same extent in real life.

Your message sounds like reducing the overall clock speed to 1150 was the thing that did it. Does this mean changing the FSB from 133 to 100 didn't or do you have to do them together, ie, can't run 133 with 1150?

Have you considered adjusting the memory timings rather than using the defaults? May be able to back off on the timings and get the other speeds back up although I can't say just where you win or lose on this strategy.

Even though you ran Memtest86+ without errors I still wonder about memory being the main issue. Not so much a chip failure but rather a marginal design from the vendor. Nontheless, if that is the case, it makes you wonder why TI would choke on it and Memtest doesn't. Naturally, there is more to the memory sub-system than just the plug in sticks.

Anyway, glad you found an answer to your problem.

 

Hi Nick,

Did you check to see if there was an updated BIOS available for your motherboard as I suggested to you in this previous thread titled <Acronis True Image 9 and backup corrupt message>?

Regards

 

The PC is running at 100/1150 because that is as fast as I can get it to go with a bus speed of 100MHz. It may well be unnecessarily slow. I see little performance change in everyday stuff 9mainly disk limited), but I would expect on image processing, audio processing etc, which are computationally intensive, that it will be 25% slower, as everything is slowed up pro-rata.

I shall experiment with other 133 based settings (but slower CPU clock), but at the moment, I'm just pleased it is going!

Yes, there is a later BIOS (still 3 1/2 years old!) which I have downloaded. However I'm not about to use it right now because (a) the changes don't seem to be significant, and (b) risk. This motherboard does not have dual BIOS, and therefore there is some slight risk of rendering the system dead. If so, I'll end up changing the motherboard, RAM, CPU, and having to reinstall everything into the bargain - expensive and time consuming, even if the end result would be better. I use this PC for work - can't kill it right now.

I think backup is all about risk management, and so is this. So, for now, I'll stick. Thanks to everyone for your help, including Acronis support (one good thing about TI is Acronis support - just try and get the same from the well known competitor).

 

Nick, out of interest, what BIOS version are you in fact running? There have been 12 updates for the KT7A motherboard since first released, so it seems to have had its fair share of problems!! If you're not keen on flashing the BIOS, then at least make sure you are using the latest VIA chipset drivers.

Regards