New User - HELP!!!

Hi there
I,ve just installed True Image 10 on the recomendation of a friend. So this is the trial version. On the face of it it does exactly what I am looking for.

I just cannot get it to work. At various stages of a attempted backup from Hard drive to DVD the software simply holds and about 10 seconds later I get the "Not responding message" This happens a different stages of the backup process and I got it to look sucessfuly at the blank DVD. I've done a reinstall a couple of times and removed registry entries before the re install. I have Nero in CD running if that makes a difference.

Any ideas

Thanks

Stephen

 

Hi Stephan, welcome to the Forum

Backing up directly to CD/DVD is not recommended mainly for the following reasons: -

• Time. The time taken to backup to CD/DVD is at least 10 times longer than to hard disk
• Monitoring. The backup has to be monitored because you need to insert new disks
• Reliability. Disk burning is a very precise activity. Experience shows that specialist software such as Nero or Roxio are much better suited to this task

The recommended process is to create your backup on hard disk and then use Nero or Roxio to burn the complete backup archive to CD/DVD. This is both faster and considerably more reliable.

IMPORTANT : Remember, when you create the backup to tell ATI to split the archive into chunks that will fit onto your media.

.

 

Thanks for such a quick Response!

I take your point. I have a large digital Photo collection thats constantly being added to. Currently it only exists on my Computer hard drive which is why my friend got so alarmed and recomended this software as it will constantly track and back up new additions.

Since I have a large number of Flash cards maybe thats a good route for the back up. unless someone can suggest a cheap but better alternative for such a large amount of data? The great thing about recordable DVD its large capacity but Cheap! I want a backup away from the computer so to speak.

Thanks again

Stephen

 

Though I use TI, personally I wouldn't use it to backup photos. I would simply burn the photos as data to dvd. To track new additions, simply make a note of the last date that you backed up and next time backup photos taken after that date. Or put the "next to backup" photos in another folder.

By doing it this way it is easy to view the photos on the dvd if needed. If you use TI to backup, you will need TI to mount the image in order to view the photos. Also you cannot insert the dvd into another computer to view the photos unless that other computer also has TI.

Another reason: if just one byte of the backup image is bad, it may render the entire backup useless.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I agree with Ralphie. I use TI all the time for OS images but for data I prefer straight copying. I back the files up by copying to a USB HD and DVD as well. I don't make as many DVD copies though.

As Ralphie said if you are backing up using a proprietary format you are adding complexity to the backup where you don't really need it and you are increasing the risk that everything might be unreadable.

I will admit that I do make an incremental of my data file area every night so I have something to fall back on if the drive dies before I make the real backup copy. Right now I am using BackupMyPC for historical reasons; you could do the same with TI's Files and Folders option.

When backing up to DVD using Nero I always use the Nero verify since optical media can be bad even when new. I also put the burned DVDs into an old spindle box so if a DVD turns out to be unreadable I may well have it on an earlier disk.

If the files/pictures are important to you, I recommend you have more than one backup. It is great to backup to a big USB HD but if it goes bad then all your backups are gone. For this reason I think having DVD backups is good although I consider optical media to be the least desireable in terms of quality.

 

I'm afraid I need to back track!!! And start again. I've decided the most sensible option is to install a seperate Hard Drive in the computer. It seems a relitively cheap but safe option apart from the computer being stollen. So I will do a nero backup as well.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!! Big back track. Acronis still is completly unstable at all times. I cannot do any kind of backup without the system stalling. But in particular
If I do any kind of Backup location manament the system hangs (Create and configure backup locations) = Not responding.

Does anyone have any ideas? The only resident sofware thats seems to be around is Nero In cd and Norton Antvirus/Spyware?

Thanks again.

Stephen

 

Hi Arnold BaxI "have Nero in CD running if that makes a difference."

I read the posts here quickly and I didn't see a response to the above quote from you. I am not sure about version ten but I am sure Nero incd does interfere with TI in the older versions. ( reading in other posts some time back)
I am sure you have tried disabling Incd by now. But just in case.
Some windows updates seem to cause trouble also. Have you done an update lately.

 

Yes, InCD is known to interfere with previous versions. And you also have Norton AntiVirus, one of the most intrusive of applications (right behind AOL) which causes conflicts when least expected. Try disabling both temporarily and see if the problem persists. Better yet, if it hasn't already been suggested, make the bootable Rescue CD, boot the system with it and try your backup from there.

 

Thanks to both of you.

I'm now sitting in front of my computer at work and have installed and run Acronis completly sucessfully. Back home yesterday I decided it was time to do a spring clean and installed a fresh copy of windows on my computer. I did install Norton anti virus first then acronis was the only other piece of sofware on my computer but I still got a crash when any kind of drive management was evoked. So it's either my computer (only comprisining a dual partition hard drive and a writable DVD/CD drive!) Or Norton !!!.

Is norton making my computer that instable!!! Any recomends for a alternative.

Thanks once more

Stephen

 

This is one of those things that can degenerate into flame wars but I have personally seen the removal of Norton do wonders for curing all sorts of ills. Usually this is the suite of security products not just the AV.

I abandoned Norton and McAfee a long time ago in favor of AVG free which is less intrusive and is simple to update. I was always rebooting with McAfee. Another good free one apparently is from AVAST and there are others. If you are using a Norton firewall there are also good free alternatives to it as well. I use Sygate but I think they have discontinued their free version.

I wouldn't deny that it may be possible to configure Norton to stop any unwanted behaviour but I never felt like taking the time when the obvious didn't work.

Having said all that, it is possible you have a problem with your PC that is unrelated to Norton. If you haven't done so, I would suggest that you:

Ensure you are not overclocking or using aggressive memory timings.

Run chkdsk X: /r on every partition. Substitute the drive letter of the partition being tested for X. Reboot required for C.

Run a memory diagnostic preferably overnight if a few passes shows no errors. Good free one is memtest86+ (note the +, version 1.65) available at www.memtest.org

 

Another vote for AVG over Norton. You couldn't pay me to use Norton, not when there is a better alternative out there which also happens to be FREE.

 

I have used AVAST for a couple of years and recommend it to customers. Very nicely done.

F.

 

Agree with Foghorne, AVAST is probably the best free AV product around. When used together with ZoneAlarm free Firewall the two products comprise a strong defense which is adequate for many home systems.

http://www.avast.com/

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

 

Hello Stephen,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it and see if the problem still persists.

If that does not help, please do the following to collect additional information that will help us to investigate this issue thoroughly and provide you with a possible workaround:

- Replace C:\WINDOWS\system32\snapapi.dll with the one from the downloaded SnapAPI archive;
- Reproduce the problem;
- Get the log file without closing any application windows (including the error message windows if there are any). The log file will be created at C:\ . The name of the log file will be snapapi [date-time].log.

Please make a screen shot of the Device Tree application the way described in this previous post.

Collect the logs of failed operations:
- run the program;
- select Show log on the toolbar or from the Tools menu;
- select the log with error messages;
- click "Save the log entry to file" (the diskette icon).

Please also create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please try disabling Norton Antivirus, as Ralphie and others suggested.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach the saved file to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov