Image corrupt - read this. I'm getting 000101F4 only in safe mode?

I thought I'd post my experience with Acronis in case it helps anyone else.

I am using Acronis 8.0 on an IBM 600e laptop running windows 98se with all updates installed. I back up to a partition on a Maxtor 80g firewire h/d.

Here's the info bit:
Recently made a backup - used defaults of normal compression -everything seemed okay, but when I tried to varify the image I got the dreaded 'image is corrupt' message. I tried to make another image on another partition of the h/d and the same thing happened. This is what I did:

a. Performed a hard drive and memory test which turned up nothing.
b. I then thought it might be a software conflict and tried to varify in windows 'Safe Mode.' When I tried this I got the error message E000101F4 'Acronis could not find any hard drives.' This message did not appear when I tried to verify in normal mode. [nb: in retrospect, this was probably to be expected as I do not think firewire drivers would have loaded in windows Safe Mode]
c. Puzzled, and still thinking it was a software conflict, I rebooted and turned off software running in the background one at a time. In my case, Superantispyware and RoboformFree Tried to varify image each time but neither worked still 'image corrupt'.
d. Finally, copied the tib file to another external drive - a IBM Travelstar USB and tried to varify - this time it varified no problem.

Here's my question:
Now to deal with the h/d error. Odd thing is, unless I'd tried to varify in Safe Mode I would not have had a clue I had a problem with my h/d re 000101F4 error. In normal mode Acronis seems open and find/view the partitions on the 80g h/d. But with it the 80g h/d not varfiying my image I odviously have a problem, but I'm not entirely sure of the best course. Should I follow the instructions given here and download the Acronis driver
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=170140&highlight=E000101F4

or would installing the Acronis 8.0 update ( which I downloaded from Acronis due to E000101F4 previously appearing while in normal mode and the programme would not open.) be the thing to do?

 

You should at least get the latest build of Version 8 which I think is 937. But also remember that even a successful verify does not mean that, if you have to restore, that the restore will be good. You have to do an actual restore (to a spare hard drive) to see if it will be good.

 

The Acronis Drivers only affect the operation of TI while running in Windows.

The fact that you refer to Safe mode makes me think you are using the TI CD version unless you are actually referring to Windows' Safe mode. The TI Safe Mode is not the same and it means it is using a form of DOS which does not include drivers for USB, Firewire and probably networking. If this is the case it is not surprising it doesn't find your Firewire drive.

The Normal mode on the TI CD is a linux environment and it could be that the linux driver is not handling your Firewire drive properly if your other hardware checks out. If so, upgrading to the latest version as recommended by DwnNdrty may help but make sure you create a new TI rescue CD from that version so it will be the latest too.

Do you have validation problems when validating from within Windows and from the TI CD? If it is a Firewire driver problem then it is more likely validating from within Windows might work. However, this wouldn't do you any good if you needed to recover using the CD.

 

Yes, I was reffering to Windows Safe Mode not TI CD safe mode. Might this explain the error as I am not sure the external firewire drivers would have been loaded in Safe Mode? Actually I've not tried validating from TI CD yet. Not sure how to actually as I've never had problem with Acronis 8.0 till now...Would reinstalling the firewire drive help - couldn't do any harm I suppose.

As DowNdrty suggests, I have a programme update I recently downloaded from Acronis - I'll install it an see if it's a bug in my original v8 install. I'll also try a restore to a partition on my HD to see if it's okay.

Thanks.

 

Don't know with total certainty but I'd say it is very likely that you don't have firewire drivers in Windows Safe mode.

Since you can verify with a different USB drive, it indicates that the problem most likely lies with the firewire drive sub-system. Have you sucessfully validated the archives on it before?

Remember that if you have a HD failure you are going to have to use the TI rescue CD version to recover. Make sure this works on your system. The rescue CD uses Linux and is not using the same drivers etc as Windows so something that works in one environment is not guaranteed to work in the other.

 

Yes, it has varfied and restored okay on the H/D before.

I updated the version of 8.0 to the latest one - varify still fails, but now when I try to create a backup I get this message:

E00640087 Failed to run the task
Failed to execute the task script error no 2 "The system cannot find the file specified."

The failed task appears in the main window with red cross next to it.

It's a new message - I'll search the forum - Found this http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-115507.html - seems an uninstall/reinstall might fix it - probably my mistake, as I over wrote original installation with update rather than uninstalling old one first.

That did it to solve the E00640087 error- I first uninstalled old Acronis via add/remove and reinstalled using lastest update to v 8.0 (you'll need a note of your seriel number) - now I can create images again.

I created another apparently successful image on my firewire drive - varify failed. Thought I'd try to restore to an empty partition on my firewire. When I went through restore image - only OS drive C appeared as a restore option - does this mean my firewire is not being seen by Acronis - actually I know it's being seen - Explore image shows all drives

 

Here's what I tried to enable me to verify my images:

From Acronis:
Thank you for using Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

We would like to make sure that the memory module of your machine is not corrupt as this can be the reason of the issue.

Please download one of the archives depending on what media type you are going to use:
diskette http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86 -1.70.floppy.zip
USB Flash drive http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86 -1.70.exe.zip
CD http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86 -1.70.iso.zip

Unpack the archive and create bootable media with the test. Instructions on how to do it can be found in README.txt in the same archive.

After that boot your PC from the media and memtest will start automatically. When it is 100% completed, create a digital photo of the screen and send it to us.

Could you please try to verify image archives booting from Acronis Rescue Media?

And also, could you please copy non-corrupted archive to your Firewire drive and validate it?

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Acronis Customer Service Department
http://www.acronis.com/my/support/


My reply:

Hi,

As per above - I did a Memtest and it came up with no errors - I did try to take a photo but it was too blurred to read.

I did create Acronis Bootable Rescue set and I then was able to verify my previous backups on the firewire while in Acronis Rescue mode with no errors. I also created another backup which I verified while in Rescue mode. I then rebooted into Windows and tried to verify, but once more, Acronis told me the media was corrupt. I do not believe this to be true and have come to the conclusion that the failure may be nothing to do with the image but more to do with a timeout and or Windows conflict issue on the firewire drive when in Windows - memory does not seem to be damaged, is there a chance that my machine runs out of memory when in Windows mode? This does not explain why images can be verfied when I move them to an external USB removable drive.

As I can boot into Rescue Mode using my disk set, I assume I will be able to restore any image from there, if I should need to in future?

Acronis reply:
Yes, you will be able to restore your image using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media. It seems, that the problem with verifying within Windows is related to your Windows firewire drivers.

Admittedly I have not tried to update the driver - when I try I'll report back.