How to resolve persistent VERIFICATION errors?

Go to control panel, system, device manager, expand your disks, double clisk on your drive, under the policies tab there should be a check box for enable write cache, uncheck it, hit ok, etc, you may have to reboot. In fact I would reboot and see if it comes back up with the write cache disabled. I am fairly confident that this will solve your problem. Once you make this change, create a new backup and verify it. Let us know how it goes please.

 

I just saw the mem problem part of the thread. That sounds like it could cause problems too. However, if you were having so many mem problems I would expect the system to have major problems, not just problems in 1 application even if this app drives the system hard. Can you look in your system event logs to see if there are any mem errors? Do you have problems with reboots, crashes, etc? Also, if your mem is getting errors, if you have ecc, I believe it retries the operation (the read from or write to mem) or the mem module auto corrects it on the fly but I am not an expert on this so there is a chance I could be wrong. But my point is, if my above statement is true, the mem test program might be reporting errors, but the errors may not cause a system problem due to ecc on the mem module. Look at the event logs and see if there are any errors (mem or otheres) around the time you are doing the backup and restore. I don't know if xp home edition has an event viewer.

 

Hi mm00659,

In theory you're absolutely right. However, it's been proved time and time again that True Image reveals memory/memory timing problems that the OS and other applications just do not see.

Regards

 

ACT8192, can you please try my suggestion before replacing the suspect memory? I'd like to see if my suggestion will fix your problem.

Thanks for the info Menorcaman.

 

mmm00659, thanks for neat ideas. However, as we speak, I'm in repair and running the test with the replaced RAM. So far so good, it's chugging through test6 - zero errors.

Yes, I did have several BSODs, several bad clusterd on the hard drive, and few other problems. It wasn't till here that the RAM idea started making sense.

If ecc is error correction, I don't think this computer does it.

 

If they are all in the upper stick pull it out and try TI again. I think you have found the problem. Assuming it is, give your replacement stick a good run with memtest after you install it.

 

In general, only high-end boards typically used in server applications use Error-Correcting Code, ECC. ECC memory has 7 or 8 additional bits in addition to the data bits that contain a code derived from the data bits in that location. The code is able to correct on-the-fly errors of 1 bit (only) in the data bits and will flag as an error when there is more than 1 bit of bad data. HDs also use ECC for the data in each sector but in this case it can correct several bits.

A memory diagnostic should never see any errors and RAM with bad locations should not be relying on the ECC 100% of the time.

 

Act8192, sounds like you found the problem, but I would disable the write cache anyway.

Thanks Seekforever.

 

mm00659, I didn't find it. You guys did And an expert par excellence, on the Zone Labs forum, said as much but I guess I didn't hear it at the time.

Now onto business at hand.
Write cache - for use of TI, and perhaps other applications, I need two clarifications:
1. do I do it just on the USB external drive or or should I include the C drive (system) as well
2. external drive's instructions say they have 8 mB cache. Do I do anything here? At the moment I have no idea what the state is or whether I can even look into the drive.

RAM issue - replacement RAM passed all tests on two runs. I'll run overnight, but it was nice to see zero errors.

When I installed TRIAL, I made the bootable CD for rescue. Foghorne suggested Test 3 earlier, and I still would like to do it. Good idea? Should I make a new such CD considering that the first one might be broken by those RAM problems? Could some one suggest me a valid workflow for this? In the next 2-3 evenings I'd like to convince myself it'll all work.

 

My approach since you did find a very serious source of errors would be:

Just fire up the trial installation, both Windows and CD, just as it is and create an image and then validate it. Do this on your USB drive. If it works you are laughing.

If not back track and make a new CD, try storing and validating on the internal drive again etc.

 

Hi act8192,

Hopefully you'll find that replacing the dodgy RAM has cured the problem of corrupt images.

The option to disable write cache is only available for removeable drives. Open Windows Explorer, right click on your C: drive, select Properties > Hardware > Properties > Policies and you will see that the "Write caching and Safe Removal" options are greyed out.

No need to worry about it. The 8MB cache you are referring to has nothing to do with the Windows Write Cache that mm00659 is talking about.

With my system it makes no difference whether I enable or disable Windows' Write Cache for my external USB drive - the image always verifies o.k. However, I guess it could make a difference for someone with a less than omptimally performing USB sub-system or USB to IDE bridge chipset.

Regards

 

*** S U C C E S S ***

Maxtor One Touch III drive, Restrospect never installed. I only used their CD once to see the manual.
Write cache in Windows was and is disabled for external drives.
With the Maxtor drive already spinned up and connected and recognized, I made a new IMAGE of the C: drive, Normal compression, all defaults, estimated time for 15gig was 16 minutes, it took 14 minutes (23 under broken RAM before!).
Validation estimated at 11 minutes, took 9, VALIDATION passed.

With The Maxtor drive already spinned up and connected and recognized, I booted to the CD Acronis recovery made under the broken system.
I selected Full version which includes USB drivers, thank you Acronis!
I attempted to validate the IMAGE just made, but until I pay my dues that function is disabled. Am I wrong?

Recovery manager (I don't yet know really what it is) was also willing to work.
Files are visible, I'm sure it'll all work now, though I wish I could go through the real recovery process. Acronis says TRIAL is fully functional, I think not..

Previously made archives are visible as well. The entire tree structure is preserved. Might be possible to go recovering individual files. I haven't yet reached that stage.

The user interface is fabulous even in the non-Windows mode. True Image for dummies. You cannot make a source-destination mistake. It just talks you through it. Very impressive.

YES, I'm SMILING Thank you all. Except now that this fun is over, I have to pay real money for it

I have to now scrap and reinstall the entire computer because I can't trust it anymore after a month of bad RAM. TI will come handy in making images at the various steps of reinstallation and, most difficult, configurations. I suppose I should not use it until I bring in Service Pack2, is that correct? Suggestions?

Other than Acronis TI, Winzip appears to be another good RAM diagnostic. I didn't know it before, I do now. Three of my large (1.5gig) zip files had CRC errors. I ignored that fact earlier, as the zip format was not essential to what I was doing, but I'm connecting the dots now.

 

Great news indeed!

TI will create, validate, and restore an archive but not all of the functionality is available on both platforms, Windows and Linux.
I can't really remember now but I am not surprised the CD validate is unavailable. You can restore an archive made in Windows with the CD but not create one with the CD. This is done to protect Acronis from people just creating and using the trial CD forever. The Windows version is time limited.

Startup Recovery requires you use the Secure Zone for your archives and the MBR is modified. It allows restoring an archive when Windows won't load (without using the CD).

Apparently TI10 is listed as running on XP SP2 but I don't know if it is essential. Obviously the safe method is to get to SP2 either by loading and updating or by slipstreaming your pre-SP2 installation disk before making an image.

The WinZip CRC calculation is indeed like the TI checksum calculation. Cyclical Redundancy Check, CRC, is one method of calculating a checksum.

 

Really pleased for you.

F.

 

Since I can't practice everything in trial, could you, please, help me understand one more thing.
Let's say I want to start over.
I'd like to do a long format of the system drive, not that 2 second job XPHome recovery disc has.

The TI manual has a chapter on "destroying old data", and I suppose that's the long format and much more. Correct?
Will that run from the rescue CD made during non-trial TI installation?
If so, once the formatting is done, I should (in the non-trial version) be able to restore the data after reinstalling windows. Correct?
BTW, any chance of being able to restore the data which was backed up just yesterday, under trial or do I toss that?

I can't slip stream SP2 into XP home-OEM edition. Toshiba recovery DVD is a funny thing, contains a bunch of N. ghost images, and I haven't found anything telling me it can be done. Few googled references say it cannot.

Finally, if I'm to redo the computer, if I buy TI before, it won't do me much good, will it? As you see I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the workflow, so I hope someone with experience in such matters can clarify.

 

I have to make a correction to be fair. Using the TRIAL version, when I initially tried validation and complete image restore from backup using the recovery CD it failed. But then later, true to what Acronis says, it worked very well. So I'm in business now with the real version, non trial. Very nice stuff.
Thanks again for all the help.