Office 2007 corrupted after image restore using TI 2009

Using the latest build of TI 2009, I tried to use the "Try and Decide" feature during an install of new drivers. After it went crazy and would not stop re-recording, I had to kill it and it of course my drive was corrupted in the process. No problem! I have two full image backups of the system partition from a few days earlier and couple of weeks back.

The 2 images will restore fine from the bootable CD (including boot record) but Outlook 2007 is hosed after restoring either one (both images created about 2 weeks apart when Office 2007 was definitely working). If I tried to run any Office app, it will try to restart the install and then fail. Re-installing from original CD failed and could not uninstall. Even using manual uninstall per Microsoft instructions failed. Finally found a new utility (September) on Microsoft that will remove any MS installation allowing us to reinstall and that got Office 2007 working again.

Questions:

1) Is this a known issue? Since two separate images created when I know Outlook, for example, was working, hoses all of Office 2007 after restore....makes you think this was not a fluke.

2) Has anyone else restored a full c: (system) image partition that contains Office 2007 using TI Home 2009 and if yes, did Office 2007 continue to work?

3) Like others have asked in these forums, is not an image backup supposed to completely put the disk back into the original state (bit for bit)? All partitions were backed up and restored. (system partition, small Dell partition of about 25 MB and master boot record). This does not appear to be true. Can someone from Acronis explain why the drive is obviously different after a restore than it was when the image was created?

We never had this problem using TI 11. Can someone at Acronis please test this? This is occurring on standard Dell Latitude D820 laptops with XP Pro SP3. The images are being restored using the boot disk created by the product.

Thanks,
Don

 

NOT a fluke! I did a restore after purchasing the original release of 2009 and when I opened an Office 2007 program, I was greeted with a "Please insert Office 2007 media in Drive D:" message. Once done, some files were copied to my hard drive and then Office worked fine, again! Not sure what's up...I am now on build 9615 and have NOT restored...so not sure about the later build...but the original had something going on

Bob

 

(Thanks to both ddraper and bobmitch for bringing this issue to attention.)

Oh My God, Acronis killed Office. YOU BASTARDS!

Yep, I too can confirm that this flaw applies to restores that include Office 2003 as well. Last week, while testing a restore with ATIH2009, no Office app would (re)start up after an Acronis restore -- Fwiw, 2003 belched the same dummy-spit errors as described above by users of O2007.

Note: In my case it was fatal destructive too, ie. you cannot simply run the Repair Office Installation routine and must rerun the O installation to rectify [all] the Acronis caused mayhem.

Drat! I only recently purchased ATIH2009 too and was disappointed to find this one, on top of a few other pretty serious flaws in the program that have reared their ugly heads. :-(

Although ATI has some nice appealing features, at this stage, so far, it looks like it ain't gonna to cut it in the usability~reliability stakes and I'll have to cower back with-tail-between-legs to trusty old Ghost (my stalwart since ~1996).
Oh well, was hoping ATI by now might be the Imaging/Backup saviour because Slymantec [sic] has taken the hatchet to some basic features in recent versions of G.

--
ltuae
Platform:
HW: The usual beige metal box chock-full of silicon and stuff.
OS: Vista Basic 32bits, ugly as a bulldog chewing a wasp but rock stable.

 

I emailed Acronis the following:

A new issue is cropping up on the Wilderssecurity website and I have partaken. My username is Bobmitch and it seems that many of us are finding that restoring a backup using TI2009 either corrupts or destroys MS Office v 2007 and 2003. Here is the latest text from the post

(Thanks to both ddraper and bobmitch for bringing this issue to attention.)

Oh My God, Acronis killed Office. YOU BASTARDS!

Yep, I too can confirm that this flaw applies to restores that include Office 2003 as well. Last week, while testing a restore with ATIH2009, no Office app would (re)start up after an Acronis restore -- Fwiw, 2003 belched the same dummy-spit errors as described above by users of O2007.

Note: In my case it was fatal destructive too, ie. you cannot simply run the Repair Office Installation routine and must rerun the O installation to rectify [all] the Acronis caused mayhem.

Drat! I only recently purchased ATIH2009 too and was disappointed to find this one, on top of a few other pretty serious flaws in the program that have reared their ugly heads. :-(

Although ATI has some nice appealing features, at this stage, so far, it looks like it ain't gonna to cut it in the usability~reliability stakes and I'll have to cower back with-tail-between-legs to trusty old Ghost (my stalwart since ~1996).
Oh well, was hoping ATI by now might be the Imaging/Backup saviour because Slymantec [sic] has taken the hatchet to some basic features in recent versions of G.


Any ideas...I think that perhaps a refund is on order and I have been contacted by Paragon offering me a 50% discount if I move from Acronis to them. Why should anyone want to stick with Acronis at this point??

The ball is in their court...From what I understand...Paragon does work with no issues...

Might want to check it out...I don't think Acronis is gonna do another build for awhile...

Bob

 

If the problem is TI's fault, I'd say they will be issuing a new build soon like they did for the disappearing drive letter problem. MS Office is too pervasive and important to too many customers for restore problems with it to be placed on the back burner.

But time will tell.

 

I can't recall this being an issue with TI10. I restored that version a few times with no issues. Thought moving up to TI2009 would be a good experience...with greater compatibility with newer programs, etc. Let's see if they fix this issue...you are right...Office is too important, and too expensive not to fix...

P.S. Did a live chat with Ilya from Customer Support. She helped me with the USB device issue and seemed to pass it on to the right people and it was solved pretty quickly. She now has this url and making sure that the engineers get to this issue. They will try to recreate it and then fix it. I told her that it would be appreciated that they fix this issue properly...however long it may take. At this point...I have deleted all my TI2009 backups and have reinstalled TI10. I wish that 2009 could be as good as 10!

 

That sounds fabulous! So, it's better than Microsoft Installer Cleanup? Do you have a link for that as I have never had any success searching the MS website for help - I usually get better results using Google search which then takes me to the appropriate page on the MS website. Thus if I went there to find this "fab" new feature from MS I'm sure I would fail.

I have never had a problem after restore with Office 2007 on any of my computers using TI 10 or 11 - and have to say you handled this well... for if 2009 (which I don't have) had screwed up my Office they would have heard me screaming all the way across the pond!

Sandy

 

Hello,

I'have have exactly the same problem with office 2007, it's sems that ATI 2009 don't restore the same path recognize with office 2007

 

An update. After uninstalling TI2009 from my hard drive....my machine was rendered unbootable. Restored my latest 2009 backup and found that even build 9615 doesn't address this issue. When I opened Word 2007...I had to put my installation disk in and watch Office restore some files. I am officially getting a refund on this version of True Image...NOT GOOD! I think it was rushed to market and we are basically paying for the right to BETA test some really "questionable" software

Currently trying Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Professional. Will let you know how it goes UPDATE...Paragon recovery disk won't even load. Boot into it...gives you choices...choose FULL Program and it just hangs...Such a waste. At least the Acronis recovery media works. I am most likely going back to TI 10 and be happy with it. I know it Works!

Bob

 

Gentlemen,

I find it quite disturbing to think that TrueImage 2009 Home might be conflicting with Office 2007 after a restore. Running Office 2007 Standard and have not as yet done a restore. I have mounted an image and from within it opened Outlook which opened correctly. I therefore have to believe that the image was created correctly. Validation was also successful.

Would certainly appreciate hearing from anyone else having additional comments.

Best regards,
Bruce Mahnke

 

I don't have an answer for you Bruce. I can tell you this. I did two restores today. 2009 Image with 2009 Recovery Disk. Office had to be repaired...when I opened Excel, it asked for the product CD and proceeded to copy files to the hard disk. Then I did a restore of a TI11 image using the 2009 recovery CD. Pristine thus far. Everything in Office worked as it should and didn't get the message asking for the product CD. Others having this issue with images made with TI2009 as well. There is certainly an issue at hand.

Bob

 

Bob,

Was the TI 2009 image created from Windows or from the TI CD?

Was the TI 11 image created from Windows or from the TI CD?

 

Was the TI 2009 image created from Windows or from the TI CD? Windows Vista

Was the TI 11 image created from Windows or from the TI CD? From the Recovery CD


Bob

 

MudCrab,

Excellent questions. This probably needs to be tested both ways.

1. Create an image in Windows and restore with the rescue CD.
2. Create an image with the rescue CD and restore with the same CD.

Bruce

 

I figure it this way...I did a backup using the 2009 CD prior to build 9615 and the Office issue was there. Then I did a new backup using 2009 after 9615 was released....and restored it and the Office issue was still there. I can attest to that part.

Restoring a TI11 image using 2009 Recovery CD, while the TI 11 image was done using the TI11 Recovery CD...had NO issues with office....

Only two remaining questions. Will a TI11 image taken in Windows still be OK using the 2009 recovery CD? The other question...what happens to Office when backing up using TI11 in Windows and using TI11 recovery CD?

Perhaps others can answer these questions

 

I am chatting with Tech support right now...volunteering to be a guinea pig for new builds to see if they can solve the issue. I always have the TI11 image to rely on when things go wrong

 

That one I have done - I have had no problems with Office or any program on 2 Vista computers using your above scenario. I also haven't had a problem backing up the image from Windows and restoring the image back from Windows using TI 11 (I used to roll that way until I read here it is better to use the rescue CD for restores - now I'm learning that backing up may be safer using the rescue CD.)

Thanks for sharing this info as clearly I have learned something here...

Sandy

 

Thanks Sandy...helps fill in a few more holes. Sounds like TI11 is OK. So far, with my discussions with Acronis...it is definately a 2009 issue that must be fixed...they are aware and hopefully will find a fix sooner than later. I know that there are a lot of people putting in for refunds...and frankly it is hard to recommend a program with the issues that 2009 has, to anyone

 

I dont' recall this problem coming up using ATI12 to restore an ATI 11 tib. Is it perhaps specific to ATI restoring an atii12tib that contains an Office installation?

 

I am talking about images since I never use the Files and Folders data backup option:
Assuming the Linux environment works well on your PC, there is a degree of safety in imaging with the rescue CD because the HD is static. When imaging is being done in Windows it is using fancy technology to lock the partition, queue up write requests, etc. However, there are very few reported problems that are definitely attributable to the Windows live imaging technology and it is considerably more convenient and faster.

Restoring an archive containing the active partition uses the same environment whether the restore is started in Windows or from the rescue CD. When TI causes a reboot from Windows to do the actual restore it is loading the Linux environment from HD rather than the rescue CD.

 

Oh my! Looks like I was not the only one with this problem. I am not surprised since 2 separate 2009 images restored with severe issues. BTW, several Microsoft applications including VS 2005, SQL Server tools and more also act as if they are being run for the first time. The lesson I have learned is...

an image must not really be a bit-for-bit image!

Does anyone happen to know if choosing the "sector by sector" option provides any better chance that the restore will be a true "image"?

Never had problems with v11 so I guess I have drop back until Acronis gets this resolved. I had already recommended to several people that they upgrade to 2009. Won't make that mistake again.

My Office install was hosed so badly that I could not un-install or reinstall. The only thing that saved me was this recent utility from the MS Office group that will uninstall just about anything. Although it says not to use it on Office 2009, it was a life-saver for me as nothing else had worked.

Here it the URL:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Thanks again.
Don

 

My experience of a TI 2009 recovery was all positive - very fast and Office 2007 restored without fault.

 

Thanks for this info it is helpful. I just want to make sure I understand. So, when I use the rescue CD to backup (or image - I also only do images - see last paragraph) I would be using Linux which makes things slower, but it is a "tad" safer. Windows is faster and it sounds like there are not overwhelming problems with doing it this way (I personally haven't had any.)

I understand why the rescue CD is so important as you could have your computer in such a sorry state that you would need the CD to boot with. That being said, from what you have written here is sounds like it doesn't matter if you go with the rescue CD or Windows - since it loads Linux no matter how you start the process... is this correct?

Thanks for being patient and ansering this (in the middle of this thread none the less.)

Just to add to the thread in regard to TI and Office. I knew I needed to reinstall my OS a while back so I used TI11 to backup my files and folders (this included Office.) I then reinstalled the OS and did all the needed updates for Vista including SP1. When I "restored" back the data (again, using TI11) it corrupted Office and I had to reinstall my OS again! So, in my past I have had trouble with TI and Office. I don't back up my files/data using TI anymore.

Again, thanks for the patience here...

Sandy

 

Yes, when you tell ATI to restore the system drive while in windows, the machine reboots into linux.

Some folks say that backing up from the boot disk (uses linux) is safger than backing up from within windows (uses windows as OS) but for my money there are more likely to be probs with the linux than the windows. You should certianly test on your hardware and see what does and doesn't work for you.

 

I doubt one could successfully backup Office by doing a file by file backup; you'd miss the mass of relevent registry entries, many of which are dynamic.
If th is is how you backed up Office, then I would be surprised if, after running a restore, Office went wonky.

If you need to backup/restore programs the best way is to backup/restore the whole system partition with the programs.