Conflicting error messages opening backup file and unable to open backup files

I am using Acronis True Image Echo Workstation with Universal Restore. I use a 1 terabyte external USB drive solely for backup storage. About 2 weeks ago my computer began behaving badly and sensing something was going to happen I made a complete backup and created a recovery disk. In addition to my C drive being backed up, I also backed up another external drive that was for storage of all the software i would buy on line which I kept along with the receipts, order confirmations, access codes, user keys, etc. My system did fail and after getting it back up and running again I encountered a sick to my stomach situation with the backup files from the external drive containing my software and the related information. I am able to open the C drive backups from within the Acronis program. However, when I tried to open the other backup I get an error that says: The selected file is not an Acronis True Image Echo Workstation archive. Clicking "next: generates the following: Acronis True Image Echo Workstation backup archive file is corrupted.
If the backup is an image, you may try to restore data from it by mounting the image and restoring intact data. I did those backups at the same time i did the C drive backups and checked to make sure there were no errors after the backups completed. There were none.

I looked through the help information I could find and tried the few that seemed to apply. I tried copying the files to my C drive to open them. It didn't help as i got the same messages from Acronis and from clicking on them directly. I tried the recommended way of opening them by clicking directly on them where they resided on the backup drive. The C backups opened flawlessly but with the software storage external drive I still got the message that the files are passworded. I honestly do not remember passwording them and don't think I intentionally did. There was/is no reason to since I am the only person who can access my computer and don't have kids, free ranging guests over, host parties or do anything where my security could be compromised so a password would be necessary. Just to be sure it wasn't a disconnected synapse blocking the memory of setting a password, I ran down the list of passwords I use to try to open the files. I have a system where I use certain passwords for certain types of applications and keep a document of them (encrypted and passworded and stored on a flash drive). None worked. I did not use any type of administrator password ever for any drives, C or any of the externals. The only such thing is my network passwords and the backup drive is not a network drive. I have thousands of dollars worth of software that I need and activation data for a lot of other software that's on disks.

As a final awful thing migraine inducing thing to happen, when I reconnected the drive that had all the software on it, it wouldn't come up. It blinked and went on clicking over and over as the head loaded but never was able to start reading. I tried turning the drive over, standing it on its side, letting it run and every other one in a million chance trick to try to coax it to life one last time.

My last desperate act I am considering attempt is putting a fresh drive in the computer for the C drive and doing a total system restore using the boot disk to see if maybe that would somehow help me. My first question is would doing this possibly have ANY effect on the files I can't open?

Question 2: Is it possible I am seeing the password request box as the result of an error or is it likely I did password the file?

Question 3: Can anybody offer any other suggestions or hope?

Question 4: If it is passworded does anybody know a good hacker for hire that could find it?

 

Are you now using the same version and build of TI that you used to create the images?

Do you get the same error message if you try to access the images when booted to the TI CD?

Are there multiple backup sets or only one?

Does each backup image consist of one file or are they split?

Is the backup a Full backup or is it an Incremental or Differential?

It has been posted several times before that TI will ask for a password when there isn't one so it's possible that it's an error. If you're pretty sure there isn't any password (you sound like someone who keeps track of things like that), then there probably isn't one.

 

Hi! Here are the answers to your questions:

Yes. I do not think I ever upgraded because i had a bit of trouble navigating around the site. I copied the original software download to a CD-R which I reinstalled Acronis with after repairing my PC. It is build 8.076.

I am not sure what you mean by "booted to the TI CD". I didn't use the recovery CD, but was thinking about doing a restore with it as an option. I have another hard drive i would do that with if I thought it would help. I replaced the motherboard in my PC and the hard drive. My PC is a Dell Dimension 8200, old but still serves me well. The replacement motherboard was from a later version of the same computer and had some enhanced features, but the basic board is the same. The new C drive was identical in brand and size to the original, Seagate 500GB. I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP3 just as what my OS was when I did the backups with all driver updates, software updates, and Windows updates applied. I hadn't really planned on doing a full C restore from the back ups as I had a bunch of junk that needed cleaned off anyway. My main concern was restoring the software storage external drive with the Acronis backup software. I tried doing a restore both from opening Acronis in Windows and using the commands there for restoring files and by clicking on the backup files where they resided on my backup storage drive. In both these situations the C backups opened and were accessible and the external hard drive backups did not open generating the aforementioned errors. I did a type of mount where the external drive backups appeared in My Computer as drives. I was unable to open either of the external drive back ups that way although I am not sure what error I got. I think it was the password error.

The back up sets for C and the external drive were done consecutively on Friday, June 5th for both. They are as follows: MyBackUp_C Drive which is 418,267,450 KB. Clicking on it shows the backup done on that Friday and the next one done the following Monday the 8th. Next is MyBackUp_C Drive 2 which is 2,443,224 KB. This also opens into two backup files from that Friday and the following Monday. The backups that won't open at all are MyBackUpExt1 which is 31,893,571 KB. The second is MyBackUpExt2 which is 10,553,906 KB. Clicking either one generates the password window and i can't get beyond that. Clicking on the icons and selecting properties shows the dates they were created correspond to June 5 and June 8 respectively. I believe they were incremental or whichever one is the recommended one to use. I can never get them straight in my head. I use whichever one uses the least space. The larger backups for both C and the external drive were the full backups. Over the weekend of June 5th I had migrated some files to the external drive for easy access when I put everything back on the hard drive. Following the initial full back ups I did on the 5th I had the backups updated before I tore into my computer when the motherboard arrived the next Monday, the 8th. I wanted to be sure I didn't lose any emails or any data entry I did in the interim and wanted the backups as current as possible.

Another kick in the teeth with this situation is that I was also saving the backup files to an online data recovery service I use. When I first went with them they had no restrictions on allowing data from external drives to saved nor were there any restrictions on .exe files like their competitor did. Somewhere over the past year they obviously changed their policy and and my Acronis backup files were no longer there nor were all the programs that I can't get to in the Acronis backup files. I had been backing up the entire contents of that drive as well. About 80% of the data I thought I was saving was not even there. I thought between my regular backups and saving my backup files on a dedicated external drive and in addition using online back up that included the original data backed up by my software plus the full backup files I would be covered. Silly me! I know regardless of how this turns out I will burn a CD of any and all future software I buy that I download. it's tedium, but considering my current situation, it's better in the long run. I will also have to look into an affordable online storage service that I can use to my own ends and store what I like.

BTW: I appreciate you trying to help me with this. 'Tis a dark period for me!

 

Hello jhand,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image Echo Workstation

I may recommend you to follow this KB article to find step-by-step actions on troubleshooting issues with corrupted backup archive.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev