"Corrupt Backup File"

I'm running trial on TI 10 in XP SP2 using Maxtor USB external hard drive. Getting "Corrupt file" when I validate.

Have built file in Acronis Zone Partition on the Maxtor in Windows and Safe Modes, booting to Windows and booting from the Emergency Restore Disk from CD and from F11 on the USB Hard drive.

When I restore I get 3 or more corrupt files. When I read the files from my backup in Windows after "Mounting" the backup they do read.

I've run CHKDSK /f on my Maxtor USB hard drive without detecting any problems.

Any ideas what my problem is? Is this program reliable or any good?

 

The problem might be with your system. Is it a laptop or desktop and what brand?

 

Laptop - Toshiba Satellite P35-S629 - two P4 processors - 1 gig ram.

 

Just to cover these bases, I would run chkdsk /r and also do a defrag on the laptop then redo the backup. Might also be a good idea to clean out your Temp, Cookies, and Temporary Internet Files folders.

 

I've CHKDSK'd the backup drive. Don't know why I would do it on the source C: drive.

 

I've been reading other postings while waiting for comments. Seems there is no quarantee you'll get a good archive file. Someone mentioned XP's NTBACKUP and I've used that for years without ever a problem. Have restored 4-5 crashed disks and operating systems in the past several years without a problem.

Only thing is I don't have a Windows disk and have to load the Toshiba build disk (about 1 hour) and then run NT backup.

I thought TI 10 would give me the benefit of not having to build the operating system before loading backup data, but I get a sinking feeling about it after my experience and those of some of the posts I've read.

10,000 photos, DRM Music and hundreds of important documents are good reason to make sure that you have as close to 100% reliable backup as possible (without having to run a lengthy validate each time).

 

Running CHKDSK on the external drive will not find anything wrong with your secure zone on that drive. This is because CHKDSK cannot "see" a secure zone.
It is also not advised to have a secure zone on an external drive.
My advice would be to remove the secure zone using the manage secure zone wizard and allocate the space to the other partitions on that drive, that is if it is in fact partitioned. Then start over after running CHKDSK /R on the drive.
I would also convert the Maxtor to NTFS if it is still in its out of box FAT 32 format. You could partition the drive but a folder could be used to keep your .tib files tidy.

 

Not sure I understand. What you are saying about not putting secure zone on external HDD drive. That kind of defeats the purpose of backups. I have 30 g of files on my C: drive. Too cumbersome and time-consuming to back up to CD. If I make secure zone on C:, I've lost backup in a drive crash.

I guess you're telling me TI is not recommended for laptops, unless you want to back up to CD?

Have run CHKDSK on Entire external drive (before partitioning) and on the secure zone partition (after partitioning) with no errors.

 

Windows cannot see the Secure Zone created by TI so chkdsk can't check that portion. Just backup directly to your external drive. No need for a secure zone. The secure zone is just more trouble than it is worth. I back up my laptop each day directly to an external drive. My compressed backup file is about 18.9GB. I use TI9 B3677. I have restored many times and backup nightly. File corruption can be caused by bad memory.

 

Best way to back up is to partition your disk into two (C and E). Back up C onto E, then copy the file onto your usb for safe-keeping. To restore, try restoring from the secure zone (F11) using the file on E.

Acronis is potentially a great product, but mighty unreliable, especially if you make a backup then upgrade from say TI10 build 1000 to TI10 build 1025. DON'T EVEDR DO THAT. Stick to your safe reliable version, otherwise you'll get the dreaded "corrupt file" message.

1ondon

 

You mentioned 3 or more corrupt files when you restore which suggests to me you are doing a Files and Folders backup. If you want to have a bootable image of your OS you need to make an image not a Files and Folders backup.

I only use TI for imaging it it works very well and reliably for me. I don't put my data files, like photos, documents, etc into any program that writes them into a container file. I just do a copy of the the files to another device however, I have started using Syncback free to put a bit of smarts into the file copy.

There seems to be various posts about people having problems recovering data when they have had a problem and unfortunately, this is the first time they've tried to do a recovery. I'll say it for the hundredth time, you haven't backed up anything until you've done a restore. If you can't validate/restore then find out why. You may have a hardware error or you may have a software incompatibility. Once you have TI running properly you will find it is very reliable. Until that time, you have nothing.