snapman.sys and StorageCraft question

Hi,

I was wondering whether anybody knew whether the latest version of TI Echo's snapman.sys still causes issues with StorageCraft's imaging products?

I've seen the BSOD problem described as a "bug" in snapman.sys and wondered whether that "bug" may have been resolved. Or will TI and StorageCraft products never co-exist peacefully?

I'm not trying to install two imaging products on one computer per se. Iron Mountain's LiveVault (continuous internet-based backup) uses StorageCraft components, and I'd like to be able to use LiveVault in addition to TI.

Cheers

David

 

Hello dawhitters,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Corporate Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please notice that we are not aware of compatibility issues with Acronis True Image Echo and StorageCraft products. We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image Echo to see how the software works on your computer. With the trial version of the product you will be able to fully use the Windows version for 15 days. The bootable rescue media will be limited to restore function.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image Echo in the respective User's Guide.

Please visit Acronis online store to purchase the full version of the product.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Thanks for the reply. I actually already have True Image Echo Server, having upgraded from TI9. I just wondered whether anybody had experience with this new version and StorageCraft's products.

The past incompatibilities between StorageCraft's products and Acronis' products (particularly snapman.sys) are well documented. Snapman.sys causes a blue screen system crash if loaded when StorageCraft products commence a back up.

I might try virtualising the two to see what happens - not too keen to test it out on a production server.

 

Hello
Along the same lines I was testing Storagecraft's ShadowUser Pro application which crashed my system badly. This was the reply from Storagecraft Support:



The snapshot driver that is part of ShadowUser conflicts with the SnapMan.sys driver that's part of both True Image and Disk Director. Unfortunately the crash itself is provoked due to illegal behavior on the part of snapman.sys, and as that is not our driver there is no way for us to resolve this.

You cannot use Acronis True Image or Acronis Disk Director with either ShadowUser or ShadowProtect.

Worse, if you attempt to uninstall True Image or Disk Director they will often leave snapman.sys installed. Search this forum for "snapman.sys" for instructions on manually removing that driver.

 

Sorry for the large font.....

 

Hello capatt,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Software.

Please be aware that we have not heard about such problems with Acronis True Image before and so we would like to investigate this one with your assistance, if you have time for this of course.

Please enable Windows mini-dumps the following way:
- Right click on My Computer, choose Properties and go to the Advanced tab;
- Hit Settings in the Startup and Recovery box;
- Choose Small memory dump in Write debugging information ;
- Close all the dialog windows by clicking OK buttons;
- Reproduce the system crash;
- The small dump file will be created in the directory chosen in the Small dump directory box.
After that please reproduce the crash and collect created files.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information 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

 

I'd be happy to, but I no longer have ShadowUser Pro installed. Given a choice, I'll take Acronis. I'm not going to reinstall either, because it really trashed my otherwise stable system. Do you still want me to do this?

 

Hi,

You can use the boot cd to use ShadowProtect, until, the problem is fixed.


USAAlone

 

That would be a hassle. I found a better program that does just about the same thing as Shadowuser. Go here:
www.hdguard.com

 

Marat,
I sent off the dump and the required info. I look forward to an update when available.

Corey

 

I use the recovery disk for full images when I manually start the backup but with this conflict you aren't able to schedule any incrementals or differentials (or fulls) without a BSOD.

Another note, having Disk Director installed also causes this BSOD because it uses snapman.sys.

 

Similar problem seems to exist between Acronis and Drive Clone Pro.
Look at the thread for Drive Clone Pro in the Other anti malware section of this forum.
Hugger

 

Hello FBMachines,

Could you please let me know your Acronis request number (e.g. [Acronis #123456]) which was sent to you in autoreply to your letter? I will ensure it's forwarded to our Quality Assurance team. If you have not received an autoreply then please send us a Private Message containing your e-mail address.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Hello Peter2150,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Software.

Unfortunately, Windows Installer utility, which is used to install/uninstall Acronis products, does not remove drivers like snapman.sys from operating system. I have already requested creation of a custom utility for removing Acronis products, and it's possible it will be released in the near future.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Sure Marat. It's Acronis #1357862.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Software

The compatibility issue was forwarded to our QA and Development Teams and we expect to get some results soon.

Thank you.
--
Michael Levchenko

 

Hello
Just to make my earlier post clear, my issue was with the ShadowUser product which enables a rollback of all session changes upon a reboot, and not their ShadowProtect product which is for disk imaging. However, they say that ALL their products are incompatible with ALL installed Acronis products. Personally, Acronis has saved my bacon so many times I have no intention of user any other disk imaging program.
Thanks

 

Having had experience with True Image and Disk Director Suite on the one hand and ShadowProtect Desktop on the other, I feel somewhat qualified to offer some information here.

The snapman (Snapshot Manager) driver in Acronis products is incompatible with the snapshot functionality in ShadowProtect products. I don't think you can rightfully call this a 'bug' in either product.

Unfortunately, the incompatibility causes a BSOD - 0xB8 - in ShadowProtect software. There is no workaround at the present time.

I understand that Acronis products that install snapman.sys won't work without it, meaning you cannot have StorageCraft and Acronis products installed at the same time. (I don't know if this applies to every StorageCraft and Acronis product.) However, there is no problem when one is installed and the other is run from a product CD.

The Windows uninstaller does not remove the snapman driver when it uninstalls True Image and Disk Director, so a StorageCraft product will blue-screen even after the uninstall. You need to remove the driver manually, which involves editing the registry. (If you simply delete snapman.sys I believe your PC will crash at restart.) Following the manual uninstall procedure for Acronis software published elsewhere in this forum will safely remove the driver.

This last part is just my opinion: Given the high regard users have for both company's products, I would not be surprised if the developers eventually get together and come up with a solution.

 

I'll see if I can get a dialog going between our companies. We can provide the crash dump analysis to them that shows them where they're being naughty. I can't promise that they'll do anything about it. One can only hope. I'm getting very tired of telling people how to remove snapman.sys manually (due to the fact that their uninstaller generally doesn't remove it) so that their system doesn't explode.

 

Using the latest version of Acronis True Image 11 Home (which includes snapman.sys version 3.3.0.336), I can no longer reproduce the infamous snapman.sys+stcvsm.sys BSOD (which many report occurs if they install an Acronis product like True Image or Disk Directory at the same time as ShadowProtect, and then perform a backup using ShadowProtect).

Has anyone out there reproduced this BSOD using this version of snapman.sys (3.3.0.336) from an Acronis product when ShadowProtect 3.1 is also installed?

 

grnxnm,
I am getting the BSOD with the following apps....

> ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1.0.3
> Acronis TI Workstation Echo - Build 8072
> Acronis UR for Workstation Echo - Build 8072
> Acronis Drive Cleanser 6.0 - Build 691
> Acronis Disc Director 10.0 Suite - Build 2160

My snapman.sys and snapapi.dll are both version 3.3.0.352.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup software

We're investigating this situation and we need some additional information from the affected computers.

I would like to ask the people encountered this issue to create Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post and make a screen shot of the Device Tree application the way described in this previous post.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected files and related information to your request the link to this thread. Please also state that in your request that this information should be forwarded to Michael Levchenko.

Thank you.
--
Michael Levchenko

 

Just wanted to post a follow up...
The Acronis Team has contacted me several times asking for more info and luckily they were finally able to reproduce my BSOD with versions 3.3.0.352 of snapman.sys & snapapi.dll in conjunction with Storage Protect 3.1.0.3. Thanks for not letting this issue fall into the cracks. I am looking forward to an updated build down the road to be BSOD free!

Corey

 

Has there been any progress in getting ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 to play nice with either Acronis True Image or Disk Director installed? Other than running it only from the Recovery CD of course.