Corrupt Archive with external USB-Harddisk

This week I got trouble with my new IBM Thinkpad T60. So I decided to install a backup which i created with True Image 9.0 (build 3.641). The first step was to boot from the Acronis BOOT-CD. The image archieve was saved on an external USB2.0 harddisk. After the boot process was finished I tried to verify the archive file but this was not possible, because I received the error message that the archive is corrupted!!! I closed the error message and tried directly to restore the backup image but without success- I received the same error message again.
Next I made an attempt with FireWire with the same result. The last trial was with an Ethernet connection and now it is possible to restore the backup over the network. But I don´t want to restore my backups with the help of a network connection. I am going to do this with USB or FireWire.

Is this an known issue with TI9

 

I have the same Problem with a Toshiba Satellite. Upon Validation (verification) I get the message that image is corrupt?? I uninstalled/reinstalled but same results everytime.

 

Some systems have problems with USB devices due to the chipsets on the computer or, to a lesser degree, the chipsets on the USB drive.

With a notebook, the only way to test the computer's chipset is by buying a PC card USB 2.0 adapter. I wouldn't trust any other brand than Adaptec unless you can verify that the card uses the NEC chipset.

Of course, if you can borrow or have a second USB drive, particularly Western Digital or Maxtor, that's an easy test of the drive chipset.

Interestingly, Firewire connections have been reported far less often as having problems, but that may be also because fewer people use Firewire.

Definitely, I'd make a new backup via the Firewire connection and try to verify that.

Of course, you should be using the latest build of TI 9, 3677 and the Recovery CD created from 3677.

You didn't say whether you made a new backup to a network location and verified that or whether you copied the backup from the USB drive to the network location and then verified it. I'd be interested to know which you did.

 

I tried it on 2 different external USB 2.0 with the same results on both, one of them is a Maxtor III?

 

USB 2.0 or FireWire ?

According my Seagate External Harddisk Manual the theoretical speed of
USB 1.1 = 12 Mbits/second
USB 2.0 = 480 Mbits/second
FireWire (IEEE 1394a) = 400 Mbits/second

According Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabit
1 megabit = 1,000,000 bits = 125,000 bytes = 122 kilobytes.

So the more comprehensive theoretical speed in kilobytes is :
USB 1.1 = 1,464 kilobytes per second
USB 2.0 = 58,560 kilobytes per second
FireWire= 48,800 kilobytes per second
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was the beautiful theory, now the ugly reality.

My latest backup using USB 2.0 external harddisk + normal compression + internet disconnected + no security softwares installed. So my backup was done in the best circumstances.

.tib-file on external harddisk = 4,908,468 kilobytes in 6 minutes 43 seconds = 403 seconds
So the real speed was in my case :
USB 2.0 = 12,180 kilobytes per second
Quite a difference with the theoretical speed :
USB 2.0 = 58,560 kilobytes per second

The time was measured between the "Proceed"-button and "OK"-button with a digital clock. So no estimated times were used.

 

A nice way to beat this "hurdle" is to create an BartPE bootdisk,(preferrably a Reatogo one). Then boot from that having the usb disk connected and
powered on before starting the comp.
Now copy the tib files over to your D: drive with BartPE's filemanager from the usb disk.
Shutdown comp and boot from the Acronis CD and restore from the D: drive
instead.

 

I recently bought PC card USB 2 adapter and an external 2.5inch USB enclosure.
I made sure that both had an NEC chipset. I excluded any product which had a Quality Assurance (or other) sticker strategically placed over the chip. If the chip was not visible I ensured the box stated it had an NEC chip (of course I checked Windows Device Manager after connecting the hardware).
I did not buy adaptec because I couldn't find info about which chipset was in their current products. I read various reviews about other manufacturer's products which stated they used NEC chipset but the actual product currently available did not have the NEC chipset.
I just didn't want the hassle of returning a product if it didn't have the NEC chip.
Note that there are two different versions of the Adaptec PC card USB adapter (see the adaptec website). Maybe they use different chipsets?
Anyway, both my PC card adapter and external box are working fine with TrueImage.

The adaptec website mentions a problem with older firmware on some Toshiba Satellite models. Perhaps this might be relevent to you:
http://adaptec-tic.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adaptec_tic.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=7803&p_created=1052148191&p_sid=RGoeWmei&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NCZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXRvc2hpYmE*&p_li=&p_topview=1

 

Hi jmk94903,

I didn´t make a new backup to a network location. I used the same archive which I created with the USB connection. What I did is I started my normal pc and connected it with the usb hdd and turned the hdd on. The laptop and the pc are both connected to a router. Next I booted the laptop with the boot cd from acronis and I was able to select the stored archive to make a validation and a restoration. I have a an official license and when I am logged into the homepage from Acronis I can only download the update version build 3.641- german version. I don´t know how to get a newer release, otherwise I would deploy it on my laptop.

 

OK, the backup to the USB was good, but attempting to read it for verification fails. That's really frustrating but it sometimes happens with USB. My guess is that writing to the USB drive was slower than reading, so the error is speed dependent. The network connection is slow, so the drive is read correctly. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell a USB drive to slow down a bit and not make errors.

If you could test with another brand of USB drive, that would be helpful in separating the notebook from the drive as the source of the problem. Similarly, trying a USB 2 PC card would be helpful.

How big is the backup file for your notebook? File size can affect reading as well as writing. On some systems, splitting the image when it is being created at 700MB, or 1,492MB (useful for copying to DVDs) allows verification. That is something you could try at no cost.

Certainly, you should try making additional backups to see if you can find a good workaround.

 

The file size is about 89GB and I am using a 100GB HDD in my notebook. In between I made another backup but without success. In addition I bought a pcmcia card with two USB2.0 ports (NEC) and it does not work too. I hope to hear from the technical support. I also opened a support request and waiting for answer.

 

Boy, that's a huge backup file. Do you have compression turned on. Even with 89GB used on a 100GB drive, I'd expect the image size to be less than 60GB.

Darn, I'd hoped that the PC card with the NEC chipset would be the answer, but it's something else.

Do you have another USB drive to test with?

Have you tried to verify the image iwth TrueImage from within Windows instead of by booting from the Recovery CD? Running in Windows uses different USB drivers, and may give a different result.

On occasion, bad memory is the cause of backup errors. You could download the MEMTEST utility and run it overnight to confirm that your notebook's memory is good. http://www.memtest.org/

 

I used two different USB's externals 2.0. Samsung and Maxtor III (300gigs) both will backup using ATI 9 3677 on my pc and validate the image. But after backing up to these external drives from my laptop using ATI, I get "corrupt image" upon validation. Don't know if this helps in the discussion but here you have it.

 

Hi,
I currently share the same problems as you. TI will back up fine to my 2.5" external HDD, but will not validate. The same image that it fails on the 2.5" works on the 3.5". I might venture to guess it has something to do with the HDD's chip or the power? This same problem is also happening with Norton Ghost 2003, my old reliable friend. In any event, I am on the road a lot and can not haul around a clunky 3.5" HDD with power cords and what not. Currently looking at other back softwares for an answer since my searches for a solution with T.I has not proved successful.

What I might do instead, is buy a modular drive bay that will fit my spare HDD into the CD/DVD bay for a 2nd HDD. If this works, my back up problems will have all vanished. I'll update if it does.

 

I don´t have any problems under windows to validate the archive file. The problem appears when I boot from the acronis cd. One time tried to restore the backup under windows, but that was not possible. TI9 told me to boot from the cd because the HDD is used by windows...The created backup is ok, that is not the point. Otherwise its possible to restore the backup with Ethernet- then its still working without any problems. I have an older USD HDD and I can start an attempt to store an image on it- I am going to do it in the next couple of days.

 

Hi all,

Just to add my voice. I've just purchased Acronis TrueImage Home 9.0, (the downloadable version from NewEgg) yesterday and I'm having the same problem. I can create an image but I can't restore from an external USB drive while started up from the Acronis CD, powered or not. I've tried several 2.5" and 3.5" drives. I haven't tried creating an image dirctly on a network share yet (I'll try it tonight), but if I copy the exisiting image from the USB drive to a nework share it still doesn't work, same error.

This doesn't seem to be a problem with Acronis alone. I have Ghost 9 which worked fine with my Dell Inspiron 700m (PentiumM) and previous laptops, and the same USB hard drives, but has exactly the same problem with my new Inspron E1505 (CoreDuo): I can create an image but I can't restore it from a USB drive: Ghost says the internal structure of the file is invalid (and I could never get Ghost 9 connect to a network share while booted from the CD, Acronis connects fine).

So this has something to do with newer Intel chipsets IMHO. I've emailed Acronis tech support. I hope they will find what causes this and come up with an update soon.

Adam

 

Update... I had some time at work to try and it works fine with network share. I was able to boot from the Acronis CD and save the image to a netwok share, then I nuked the partition using Windows XP installer CD, restarted back into Acronis CD and restored the image from the network share. So it looks like it is definitelly USB related and the disk image gets corrupted during the imaging process.

Adam

 

When restoring using the Acronis Restore CD, you are using either the linux or dos drivers for the USB i/o. My guess is that the linux/dos drivers are not working well with your usb2 chipset, whereas the Windows XP drivers work fine.

So you create the image fine under Windows XP, but the linux/dos drivers get errors.

Did you verify the image under Windows XP? Did it say it was corrupt or ok?

 

No, I haven't - I only did this while booted from the Acronis CD as this was my main reason for using this software. I'll do it later and post an update.

If this is jut a matter of drivers I hope there will be a patch allowing to create an updated boot disk.

Adam

 

In my case its no problem to verify the image under Windows XP. Acronis works fine under XP. There must be a problem using the linux drivers. I think when Adam verifies his image under Win XP its working correctly as well as in my case.

 

Negative... the image verification fails with the same error under Windows XP So it seems the image corruption occurs during creating of the image.

Adam

 

Then you have either a problem with the USB2 drive or your USB interface/motherboard. The cheapest way to debug this is to purchase a PCI card for USB2 (about $10 to $15) and then connect your USB2 drive to the PCI card.

Is this a new usb2 drive from a manufacturer (WD, Seageate etc.) or an enclosure you bought and then put some drive in? If it is an enclosure, then you can look for firmware updates for the chipset.

I've seen very few problems with name brand pre-configured recent drives. If you have this case, concentrate on getting a separate PCI card.

 

Here's just one example:

http://www.compusa.com/products/pro...duct_code=50311756&Pn=4_Port_USB_2_0_PCI_Card

$12.99

 

This is not a solution, the software needs to be updated. I've tried four different USB drives and these drives work fine in general. I've built them myself, each enclosure is different and each drive is different. The problem lies in the compatibility between the software and Intel chipset IMHO. This is a laptop and it has the new Express Card or whatever they call it slot, not the PC Card slot normally found in laptops and I haven't seen any USB controllers for that.

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OK. With 4 different combinations then it must be something else. I have a fairly recent motherboard (Asus) and had some problems myself with usb2 drives getting i/o errors, even with latest motherboard bios. After adding a separate PCI card, all my problems went away.

Obviously, your problem is different. I am really surprised though that XP had problems with all 4 configurations.

 

I haven't tried all four under Windows, just two of them, both 2.5". I tried to save to and restore images to all four while booted from the CD. I'm not really interested in doing this from Windows.

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