Enough with the "sector read errors"

Hi All,
I have recently started using True Image 9 build 2273 to do both backups and clones, and am very unimpressed with it's apparent "disk errors" and more unimpressed with their support responses....

My system has two identical 200GB WD SATA drives and my plan is to clone from one to the other since I know single backup files can oft be dodgy and I much prefer just swapping in another recently cloned hard drive if something dies and I'll fix things from there.

I keep getting "Unable to read sector 300...etc. from Disk 2" and looking through this forum MANY MANY PEOPLE HAVE THIS PROBLEM. I have scandisked, disk doctored, spinrited, etc. etc. rubbed my stomach and patted my head and my disks are fine. They run beautifully. They have no bad sectors. This I know beyond doubt.

My question is....Why does Acronis not seem to recognise this as a bug of their software, and keeps suggesting people check their drives!? And no, I don't want to reformat my drive just for the sake of "maybe" fixing a problem that only True Image thinks even exists. Again, LOTS OF PEOPLE WITH LOTS OF DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS HAVE THIS PROBLEM. For the time being, I wont be using Acronis due to this one problem. Everything else in the software appears to be very good, so well done to Acronis for that.

And if Acronis could introduce an ability to schedule cloning as well as backups, especially without me having to touch my keyboard or mouse once it's started, then I'll come back. Thanks for listening to my rant...

 

Your sector read error problems would be more likely to be addressed if you were to report the same thing ocurring with the most recent build: 2302. (assuming you run the English version)

 

That's true.

But it has still been ignored by Acronis from version 6 i believe, so would it really make a difference....

 

Hello aob1,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please create Acronis Report (please see Acronis Help Post for the instructions) and contact us from our web-site: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/support/. Please don't forget to send the link to this thread. We will try to investigate the problem and certainly fix it.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I guess that's a valid point -- I just had no idea it had been there since version 6.

Oh well, anyways, Support is here now -- and I've seen them say 1st thing make sure you're running the latest build, presumably to avoid addressing problems that have already been fixed.

 

Thanks for the offer Irina, but I've already spent enough time with it to waste more.

maybe seeya in 6 months
Good luck

 

That's interesting, but the only drive that gave me this error had one bad sector and another developing.

It may be that Acronis TI is more particular than normal programs about the write / read activity.

 

I, too, have started getting "Sector not read Disk 2" errors. I downloaded from Maxtor (the maker of my external drive) their drive-checking software. I ran a quick check (no errors), a full scan (no errors), and a four-pass burn-in (no errors). In short, this testing certified the drive as beeing error free. Even after all this when I opened Acronis, it started making a backup, and virtually immediately the "Sector" error appeared.

Looks like I will have to abandon this software unless the problem that apparently many of us are having is definitively solved.

 

lost most control of my fingers so pleaqe bear with me, it hurts like hell 2 type.
Damn now im getting em too and i hsve 2 - 300 gig drives on ichr raid config drivided into2 partitions now one patisions can see the files under your new version 10 disk director but refuses to rstore the parition and onthe 2nd partition it turnd it into primary pasrtition although the 1st one is stilllogical whgeitry 2 trun it backtherequester/winblow in blank..
being a raid0 user f course i have most bcked up buti don likthis stuff

 

Hello michael_in_atlanta,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please do as I have suggested in my post #5 made in this previous thread.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello RTShaw,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please make sure that you use the latest build (2302) of Acronis True Image 9.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please also check each partition of your hard drive by Windows utility:

- For Windows 9x please use Windows menu Start\Run
then enter the command "scandskw" and test all drives;

- For Windows XP please use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command
"chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drives.

If that does not help then please download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it with disabled logging and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists then enable logging by running the Acronis drivers installation package once again, reproduce the problem and collect the c:\snapapi.log file.

Please also collect the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

- When exactly you receive that "failed to read from sector..." error message?

- Describe actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I just purchased this software 30 minutes ago after reading rave reviews...

It looks great..
However I am getting unable to read sector 63 on my Maxtor 200Gig drive.

Now..
I know the partition table is corrupt. I do NOT want to repair it first as that can cause more damage. I wanted a sector by sector copy that I can attempt to fix and not damage the original drive.

In the specifications on the website this is a advertised feature.

BeDammit

 

OF TI 8, NOT TI 9.

 

The proper way to test a drive is to first use the tests provided by the drive manufacturer.

Then, if the drive is connected to a separate controller, such as a SCSI card, use the diagnostics that come withte controller.

Then, use the Hitachi DRive Fitness Test at http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Last, use the tests supplied by Windows,

 

problem solved.. moved on

 

I seem to find the same thing....if a drive is really good, TI has no problems reading it. The only time I got a sector read error was when TI8 found that my Toshiba 80GB drive was going bad BEFORE any other tests did. This was later confirmed and the drive was replaced under warranty.

When I do a Windows XP scan/repair disk and the volume is clean I never have troubles with sector read errors.

 

In my previous life I used to be a Systems Manager and we always said the only real diagnostic was the operating system and apps. There were various cases where the diagnostics would run but the OS wouldn't and the problem was indeed bad hardware.

I had a similar situation on my PC a few weeks ago. I had installed new Corsair memory (not pushed, just running the SPD settings) and Memtest86+ would pick up the odd error and in many cases the passes were error-free. XP either would not boot or if it booted would hang as soon as I started Windows Explorer.

 

The only reason an app/OS would find problems with a drive that are not identrified by the diagnostics I listed would be becausem, generally, folkes run the diagnostics in read-only mode, whereas an app/OS has to actually write to the drive.

If one backs up the drive, then uses the destructive diagnostic tests, an error, if one exists, would be found before an app/OS had to write that particular sector.

Most of us only run destructive tests when (re)formatting a drive, so we are stuck relying on an app/OS to find the errors.

 

I think I understand what you're trying to say but......

1) If the most reliable test of a drive seems to be (as in the case of Windows XP) the OS scan/repair disk tests, then why waste time running drive manufacturer diagnostics which miss sector read errors like we're talking about?

2) Shouldn't TI users be glad that TI turns up these sector read errors like the OS does BEFORE they rely on a backup image? I know I am.

 

It is the WRITE errors, not the READ errors, that can be missed by the diagnostics, unless you have the diagnostics do destructive testing.

You want to run the diagnostics periodically to detect problems IN ADVANCE if their iccuring with an OS/app.

READ errors would be detected by the diagnostics. If you wait for the errors to cause problems with an OS/app, the problems get exacerbated.

 

We're talking about the same thing. I guess I should have clarified that a TI sector read error means (to me) the same thing as an OS write error.

When I have run XP's disk tools they have found sector read(write) errors even though the manufacturer diagnostics passed the WRITE tests. TI also caught the bad sectors.

I'm glad TI catches these sector read(write) errors before the image process proceeds. It would be very disappointing to find that a restored image failed to function because of TI missing the error at creation time.

 

My comment on the the OS/apps finding errors where a diagnostic hasn't certainly was not to imply diagnostics were useless and don't have a place in maintaining your system. But, like everything else, some are better than others and sometimes the sequence of events that can occur in operation may cause a marginal device to fail while the diagnostic never tested for that sequence of events.

A perhaps equally thorny problem is the diagnostic that reports something is wrong when it really isn't. It is best to run any of your standard diagnostics when the hardware is working so you'll know what to expect when you have a problem.

 

Using Version 8 and having struggled through many Read Errors myself in files that seemed OK when written, I have learned as follows:

(a) After running Chkdsk many times, I finally discovered how to read the results of these tests (Control Panel/Admin Tools/Event Viewer). With my new-found ability I saw that my external back drive (a 15-month old 40GB Maxtor) was showing a rapidly increasing number of bad sectors (Nov 18 - 4kb, Nov 30 - 884 kb, Dec 17 - 1564 kb). I sent a note to Maxtor support - they promptly wrote back that the drive was failing. So I got a new one (a 60 GB Western Digital)

(b) I understand the importance of checking (using WD's software) the state of the backup drive. Now, if I get an Acronis Read Error, I will probably format the drive to lock out any bad sectors.

My routine is to create full (not incremental) backups "A" and "B" on alternate days - Acronis is set to over-write each succcessively during the small hours of the morning. This way I have a complete set even if something goes wrong with one of them.

Perhaps Acronis could modify things so that a few read errors in a 15GB file would not automatically bring things to a halt - looking at the big picture, if I were relying on this system to restore a hard drive, a few errors would be acceptable.

======================
A minor problem solved: I found that Acronis has started one of these backups and locked up midway (or maybe I cancelled it while I was tinkering). Anyway, the program showed a backup was running even when it wasn't - and it refused to let me cancel the operation. I solved this by removing the program in its entirety and reinstalling it.