Image Creation Fails - Please Help!

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by GlynG, Mar 5, 2005.

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  1. GlynG

    GlynG Registered Member

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    I've recently bought Acronis True Image 8 and have been trying to use it to back up my system, however I’ve run into problems and can’t get it to create an image. I want to back-up my current C:\ onto my old hard disk (80GB SATA, Maxtor, currently E:\), but it brings up an error message about 80% of the way through the process telling me Error 4 (0x70004) – 'Failed to write data to the image archive file. A possible reason might be poor media quality.'

    Now as far as I now the old disk runs fine, I scanned it with both window’s scan disk and downloaded a disk checking utility. Both found no problems and told me the disk was fine. I've run Acronis twice now and had the same problem both times, I thought it might be something to do with my anti-virus/firewall programs perhaps getting in the way but having disabled them and left the computer running with just True Image it still happened.

    Any suggestions to help at all?...

    Thanks in advance for any replies!

    Glyn
     
  2. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2004
    Posts:
    25,885
    Hello Glyn,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

    We are really sorry for the inconveniences.

    Could you please create Acronis Report (please see https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=55317 for the instructions) and send to support@acronis.com along with the link to this thread?

    Also could you please do the following?

    - Start Acronis True Image and create a new task using Schedule Task wizard, but do not schedule it (on the Start Parameters page choose "Do not start automatically"). Set the name of the new task to "Test Task".
    - Download the following file from www.acronis.com:

    http://www.acronis.com/files/support/TrueImage8.0_dbg_s_en.zip

    - Unpack the files into the \Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage folder.
    - Open the \Documents and Settings\[User]\Application Data\Acronis\TrueImage\Scripts\ folder and find the script file with the following parameter inside: display name="Test Task". Please note that this folder is hidden, so you may need to enable "Show hidden files and folders" option in Tools\Folder Options\View menu.
    - Copy the script file to the \Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage folder.
    - Start Command Prompt from Start\Accessories program menu.
    - Type the following commands in the shell window:

    cd \Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage
    ti_demon /script: [script name] > ti.log 2>&1

    - Send us the ti.log file from the \Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage folder.

    Thank you.
    --
    Ilya Toytman
     
  3. Wes

    Wes Registered Member

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    Mar 20, 2005
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    Yeah. I've got a very similar situation except that TI was imaging to a network drive without any problems at first. Then, during a scheduled image it hung up mid-way with error code 4 (0x70004) which suggests bad media are the cause. I gave the error message the benefit of the doubt and checked the networked drive, but it came up clean.

    I re-installed (build 800 Russian version under XP Home SP2) to no avail. I uninstalled with TI's own uninstall utility and re-installed. Still no success.

    Now, I've sent in the ti.log and report.txt as Mr. Toytman has suggested.

    Let's hope we can get things working again.

    Wes
     
  4. GlynG

    GlynG Registered Member

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    Took me a few attempts to make the ti.log but I got there in the end. It's been passed on to their Development Team apparantly now, who should be getting back to me in a few days.

    Hope they can fix it for us both...

    Glyn
     
  5. I've had the same problem -- only with Build 800 it seems. I'm rolling back to 774 for now.

    I booted using rescue media, and was trying to create a backup image to USB HD, and received exactly the same error message -- 4x. HD that I'm writing to checks out as perfect.

    Looking forward to the fix on this one.

    Cheers,
    M.
     
  6. Wes

    Wes Registered Member

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    Another feature of this build 800 quirk I discovered today.

    I just built an external hard drive and made a successful image--went all the way through and passed a subsequent verification by TI. So, TI fails through the network drive but succeeds through the external (FireWire-connected) one.

    Doesn't make much sense, does it? Won't work for Glyn on his second drive, and not for me on a network drive. But it does work for me on a second external drive. But then it doesn't work for Established on an external drive. Is there something going on with the history of the images?

    To add still more detail. I had gotten good images on a network drive at first when I first purchased TI; then I added an external drive because I wouldn't have to restore from CD's in the event of a disaster and because it was wildly faster than via my network.

    That new drive failed after a few days. It was during that period when I returned to use of the net drive that the imaging to the net drive collapsed. Now I've gotten the replacement for the bum external drive, and TI works with it and without any hint of a problem.

    Go figure. Well, we've got the TI team going and figuring and that should turn the trick for us.
     
  7. GlynG

    GlynG Registered Member

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    Strange Error Message on Boot-up. Related?

    I don’t quite know whether this is relevant or not but I’ve been getting a strange error message when I boot my computer up. Doesn’t come up every time, just sometimes. The message says:

    VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT8237 Serial ATA Raid Bios setting Utility V2.01
    Copyright (C) VIA Technologies, Inc. All Right reserved.


    Scan Devices, Please Wait…
    Press <Tab> Key into User Window!

    Hardware Initiate failed, Please Check Device!!!
    The Bios does not be installed. Press <g> to continue!


    That’s exactly what I get, bad grammar and all. What I’ve been doing is just pressing g at which point the computer continues to load up as normal and both disks seem fine when I check them in windows.

    Does this suggest there might be something wrong with the disk I’ve been trying to back up to after all? What does “Bios does not be installed” mean? This was the disk I was using originally before I successfully disk cloned to my current disk, surely the Bios still should be ok for it if the system was running on it originally? Is there any way to install the missing Bios without risking damaging my existing (worryingly un-backed up) system?

    Glyn
     
  8. MiniMax

    MiniMax Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2005
    Posts:
    566
    Re: Strange Error Message on Boot-up. Related?

    I am not sure.... I think the power-on sequence goes like this:

    1) The motherboard BIOS loads and does an rudimentary self-test.

    2) The BIOS scans the ISA, PCI and AGP buses for controllers and devices (e.g. graphics cards, and in your case, the RAID controller).

    3) Some controllers contains BIOS extensions in a little EEPROM that needs to be added to the motherboard BIOS, if the device is to be usable from simple operating systems like MS-DOS.

    4) Together with the actual code, there is also an identifier that is to be displayed. In your case it is the "VIA Technologies, ...." string, in my it is some "NVIDIA Graphics Card ..." string that shows up shortly after power-on.

    5) The code from the EEPROM is copied into a reserved memory area, and the initialization routine is called. The code on your RAID controller obviously needs to scan the SATA buses to figure out how many disks you have on-line, and that is what it tells you. For some reason, the scan fails, or it finds the disks but for some reason one of the disks does not respond correctly to an initialization command.

    6) Because of this error the initialization code skips the part where the BIOS extensions are integrated into BIOS function table (also know as the Software Interrupt Table).

    7) The BIOS continues with normal system initialization and eventually boots Windows.

    :cool: Windows, being a much more advanced operating system than MS-DOS, only uses the BIOS for the initial loading from disk. Once Windows starts running, it loads its own device drivers (including a SATA RAID driver) and from there on totally bypasses the BIOS. This bypass is the reason why you can access the SATA drives without problem.

    Or something like that....
     
  9. VPTECH

    VPTECH Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2005
    Posts:
    18
    are you trying to do this image from windows, if so try creating the boot disk and do it from there.
     
  10. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Location:
    Menorca (Balearic Islands) Spain
    Glyn,

    Re your error message. Carry out a Google Advanced Search for "Hardware Initiate failed, Please Check Device" using the exact phrase option and you will see you are not alone. Did a quick scan of some of the threads but couldn't find anything relating to an intermittent fault such as yours. Still worth reading them all though as you never know.

    Probably a silly question but have you tried reseating or changing over the SATA data cables? They are small and perfectly formed but with such stiff cabling the connection can be a bit iffy.

    Regards
     
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