Image Verification question for Acronis support

My image files tend to be quite large (10 GBs or more) and verifying them takes for ever - 45' or so sometimes. Far quicker than verifying an image is to try restoring a few files. If that works OK, can I assume the whole image is a valid one?

Martin

 

Hi Martin,

Forgive me for attempting an answer before Acronis (though I think you might have a 2-3 week wait anyway), but if you mean does the ability to successfully 'mount' an image indicate that it will validate and restore OK - the answer is absolutely not. I have a few images recovered from a corrupted disk which fail validation but still mount OK.

Another good reason to make sure you validate before you restore.

F.

 

How long does it take to make the image? What is the image destination, an internal or external drive? What version and build of TI are you using. Better to get a setup that will let you do an actual Restore/Recover. FWIW, I never do verification since I know my restores work.

 

Ralphie,

so far anyway

F.

 

What I meant actually was the ability to recover data (individual files & folders) from the image.

 

Your long verification times can be caused by storing your images in the Secure Zone. TI validates every image in the SZ when any validation is requested.

 

I don't have a Secure Zone though, just a folder on a separate hard drive,

M.

 

Hello Martin,

Is that 45 minutes to validate an individual "full" Disk/Partition image or is it a Files/Folders image or, perhaps, part of an incremental set.

Regards

 

It takes that long to verify about 25GBs, whatever kind of image it is. I can't seem to be able to verify just a differential or incremental image - if I select one, ATI automatically verifies the main image too (I assume - why else would it take 45' to verify a 50MB incremental image?), which is a bit of a waste of time, given that it ends up being verified over and over again that way.

Isn't there a method whereby I can choose to verify just the incremental image I make each time, rather than the whole lot? Am I missing a setting somewhere, or is this something Acronis should enable?

Martin

 

You aren't missing anything Martin. I'm afraid that's just the way it is - TI will verify the original "base" image plus all the incrementals in the set, irrespective of which incremental you may have selected.

I guess Acronis are just being super cautious because either the base image or any of the preceeding incrementals could become corrupted since they were created. In which case your latest incremental would be as much good to you as a chocolate fireguard!!

Regards

 

LOL. I usually test my backups on a spare drive soon after making them. I even have a spare drive for my laptop. To me it is worth the expense for the peace of mind.

 

Hi Ralphie,

at the end of the day you can never "guarantee" that your restoration will work. My principle tested backups are on an external drive too and two days ago, for no reason the partition became corrupted. I already have partition and file recovery software installed for such an occaision, and was able to recover my backups from the dead drive. However, even though they will mount, they no longer verify. So I won't be restoring them.

The bottom line is that just because they validate at the time you write them, it does not mean they will validate at the time you want to use them. My own philosophy is simply to reduce the risk by making copies on two or three different media - this still does not mean that the image will stay good on any one, it just improves the odds.

F.

 

Worrying that when I last tried to restore a whole image, I kept getting 'Operation has completed with erros' messages - after five attempts I gave up. I posted about this some time back (https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=149736&highlight=errors) but no replies have been forthcoming.

All very well backing up, verifying the image, testing it - if when it comes to the crunch ATI won't restore it!

M.