Problem Testing My Restore

Many of you convinced me that I should test my restore capability at least to the point of validating my TI 10 backups (and maybe later an actual test restore).

So I started first steps toward testing my restore capability. Got as far as using the TI Trial 2009 rescue disk to verify that TI could read all my drives, including external, on both of my computers (Vista-32 and Vista-64).

TI could see all my drives, but not see the actual TIB images themselves. They are very visible when I use My Computer to view the contents of my drives, including the little Acronis icon.

Why do you think it is that these images can't be seen when using the rescue disk? I do give the image files long descriptive names, e.g., Vista-64 Backup on External Drive. Would that make a difference?

Any help appreciated..........

 

Not totally sure I'm following this but:
Is the My Computer the one using the Acronis CD (ie, not Windows)?

TI2009 uses a database that keeps track of the archives and it displays what is shown on the first screen. If they were made by an earlier version they are not in the database so they won't show. If you click on Browse then you should get an Explorer style Window with all the drives and folders and you should see all the tib files.

Long filenames should not be a problem unless the paths are ridiculously long and you are nowhere near that based on your example. I don't think spaces or hyphens are a problem either.

I do strictly manual one-time backups with my own filenames with TI2009 and I notice that not all my backups are in the database so I frequently use Browse to get to what I want.

HTH.

 

This is a longshot, but make sure you are looking for the TIB files on the proper drive. Remember, the drive letters may be completely different when booted from the restore CD.

 

Sorry for the confusion. What I was trying to say is that if I click on Start and then Computer using Vista, I can see all the TIB image files, so I know they are there.

I don't have TI2009 installed on my computer, only TI 10. When I was having trouble restoring a few weeks ago, it was suggested that I use a TI2009 rescue disk. So a friend burned me the rescue disk, and indeed it allowed me to do my restore. Now I am trying to use that same rescue disk to test my restore capability.

Not sure what screen you are talking about - the one that pops up when I'm using the rescue disk? I did a browse and found all my drives and files, except for the TIB image files.

So if I created my backup images using TI 10 you are saying that I must re-create them using TI2009 to get them in the database? But won't that require that I purchase/install 2009 if I want to do automatated backups. Bummer.........

 

Good point, but I was careful to do that. Plus my drives have unique names so that I don't have to worry about the drive letters themselves.

 

You don't need to worry about the database when just using the TI 2009 CD.

These are the screens you should be seeing. Is this what you're getting, but no .TIB files are showing up in the list?

 

Yes, I get those screens, but no .TIB files show up. Yet I know I have some on both my internal and external drives.

So I decided to lay aside the TI 2009 rescue disk and boot from my bootable TI-10 disk. And guess what - it saw all my drives and the TIB files. I am currently in a 1-1/2 hour validation test of the image file residing on my external drive.

This is the same bootable installation disk that WOULD NOT restore my image file two weeks ago, causing me to obtain and use the 2009 rescue disk. Now it won't work, but the TI-10 disk will.

I mean this Acronis behavior is enough to drive a mad scientist mad.........I don't see how you all prevail, lol.

 

I agree but if you look at the Allbackups tab screen, not all the backups are displayed even though they are all in the same folder. Comparing dates it isn't clear that this is totally caused by some not being done by TI2009. It is necessary to do the browse to find all the tib files in the folder. I am assuming Allbackup screen data is from the database but maybe that isn't correct.

To bbarry, no you don't have to recreate you backups using TI2009 since the browse will (or in your case, should) find them.

Remember TI10 cannot handle TI2009 archive formats when validating.

Do your files all have a .tib extension on the filename? This is very strange if it can see non-tib files in the same disk/folder. I suggest you double-check where you are looking.

 

Version 2009 does not guarantee being able to restore archives which are older than the one prior version. Verizon 2009 will restore a verson 11 archive but may or may not restore a version 10. So, it would seem to imply an existing v10 archive which is not visible, would be because v2009 cannot restore it.

 

I know from personal experience that it will restore full images back to TI9 without any problem. Also, Acronis has stated that there is no way to tell which version created the archive (which seems silly) and if so, TI wouldn't know that it can't handle the archive unless it opened each one and tried to read the format. I don't think that is happening.

 

I have never created any TI2009 archives......only TI-10.

But your 2nd question is a good point. No, the files don't have a .tib extension per se, as Vista doesn't typically affix an extension. But if I do a properties check of the archieved file using Start/Computer, this is what it shows:
Acronis True Image Backup Archive (.tib).

I have done nothing to change this nomenclature. And as I said earlier, as we speak my TI-10 rescue disk is currently validating these same files that TI2009 suddenly can't find.

 

Actually, the extension is very likely there but your Windows Explorer is set not to display extensions of known files or something like that.

I always set my Windows Explorer up to display system files, hidden files, extensions and whatever. I want to see what is in the folder but I can understand the rationale of hiding such info from people who have no need to know - especially the hidden and system files.

 

But TI2009 saw the TI-10 version a couple of weeks ago when the TI-10 rescue disk could not. That's how I was able to restore after my hard drive crashed.

So on the very same backup images that TI2009 could see a couple of weeks ago but TI-10 couldn't, things are now reversed. TI-10 is working but TI2009 is not.

 

Very true. I just went into Folders/View options and unchecked the box to hide known extensions. So now all the backup image files show the .tib extension.

Reckon I need to tell TI2009 that I just unhid the .tib extensions?

 

It just doesn't make sense especially when you are booting up the same TI CDs.

No offense, because we've all been there before, but I suspect it is a problem of not being where you think you are.

Can you put a text file in the folder saying something descriptive in filename or body like this is Folder ABC on drive XYZ which contains my archives ... . I believe you said it is displaying other files but not the tib files and this would pin down that you are where you think you are.

 

No offense taken, and you are absolutely correct. MY ERROR....PROBLEM SOLVED. Totally embarassed. Brain dead.

Unlike my internal backup drive where I keep only TIB files, my external drive had folders AND files....it's where I keep my backups performed by Vista Ultimate, some Garmin GPS backup folders, as well as TIB files. So my problem was that I was not clicking on the drive root itself so as to also expose/list the single TIB files.

I have now gone full circle in my PC development.....those were the kinds of stupid errors I made 20 years ago when I started playing with PC's.

Thanks much.............sorry

 

Don't worry about it.

How did the TI 10 validation come out? Was it successful?

I have a thought on why TI 10 may be working differently than before, but it depends on what you did...

 

I have now successfully validated a backup image on both my internal and external drives on my Vista-32 computer.
And I have used both the TI-10 and TI2009 rescue disks, so both nust we working OK.

Next I will boot and validate on my Vista-64. If that goes well, I will consider my restore capability to be 99.9% OK, and I am going to put my Acronis disks away until I have another true emergency. I need for my jello brain to harden.

What is your thought? I'll try to remember what I did if you have any questions.

 

Before you booted to the TI 10 CD and it worked, you had booted to the TI 2009 CD and couldn't find your TIB files. The problem with finding the files had been resolved.

After you booted to the TI 2009 CD and gave up and decided to try the TI 10 CD again, did you do a normal reboot of the computer or did you do a reset or power-down?

The reason I ask is this: Linux can leave a computer's hardware in a state that is not the same as the "cold-boot" state. I can cause this problem very easily on my test computer by booting between TI 10 and TI 2009 and just doing normal reboots. In my case, it causes TI to error on boot-up. I'm wondering if, in your case, by booting to TI 2009, the hardware was "pre-set" Linux-wise and when you booted to the TI 10 CD it saw things differently than before.

Of course, if you did reset the computer or do a power-down between booting the TI 2009 CD and the TI 10 CD, this wouldn't be a possible explaination.

 

The first time I did a normal reboot, and not a power down. In fact, what I did was to eject the TI 2009 CD, insert the TI 10 CD, and then close out (red X) the TI 2009program. When I did that, my PC rebooted directly into the TI 10 configuration.

As of this writing, I have successfully validated all four of my TI 10 backup images, so I am satisfied that the restore capability on both my PC's has been adequately tested. Both Acronis rescue disks now appear to be working fine, so they have been put back on the shelf until such time as I need to do an actual restore. Thanks to the help I received from you and others on this board, my confidence in my ability to successfully use Acronis has been restored.

 

I love happy endings. You've really stuck to it to get there, but it may pay off if you ever need to restore again.

Just remember to always make a TI backup before installing new hardware or software. Then you have a clean way to go back if there is a problem. You can also make a new backup after the install when you are sure it is working correctly, so you won't have to repeat the installation.

 

Yes, it was finally a happy ending. And thanks for all your help John. I feel like I've made a lot of progress in the last few days, so for now I'm going to keep Acronis as my backup program. But I did do some investigating, and there are some other good ones out there. This forum is another reason I'm sticking around....you guys are awesome.

I never did mention, but while I was trying to work out all the TI 10 kinks, I was regularly doing image backups and file/folder backups using the capability of Vista Ultimate.

 

It could be the high-frequency electromagnetic interference coming from the PC power supply affecting brain matter! My question did not come out of divine intervention or a wild guess; it came from personal experience. On some forums they use DAMHIKT! which means Don't Ask Me How I Know That!

The only person not making any mistakes is the person who is not doing anything.

Glad you got it resolved and I admire your perseverence.

 

Thanks........I feel like I rode the bull for the full 10 seconds. One of the reasons I wanted to retain Acronis as my backup software of choice is because of this forum. I got much help from guys like you, Mudcrab, JMK94903 (John), GroverH, et al. Not any help from Acronis Tech Support.......can't say I'm impressed with Acronis as an entity, but the members of this forum are awesome. From the problems I read on the forum, Acronis seems to take two steps backwards for every step they take forward.

Thanks again to everyone.............Bill