Terrible Support from Acronis

I have been struggling for several weeks with an ongoing problem using TrueImage 8.0 (build 937). When trying to run a scheduled backup, I get a "Trueimage has encountered a problem and needs to close" message. This stops the proccess cold.

I sent the following to Acronis tech support via their website:

Private email correspondence removed - Ron

Huh?!? How about at least an attempt at helping your customer?!? I am a very suprised at the Microsoftian response. Very dissapointing, for sure.

For those who might be able to help, if I run a task manually from within the program, it works fine. Here, by the way, is the log for a failed attempt (it never logs the failure):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<log uuid="D37AA291-9070-4290-AD83-5DC21FC276D5">
<event code="2" id="1" message="Creating the image has started" module="100" time="1149235262" type="2" />
<event code="503" id="2" message="Analyzing partition 0-0..." module="1" time="1149235270" type="2" />
<event code="503" id="3" message="Analyzing partition C:..." module="1" time="1149235270" type="2" />
<event code="503" id="4" message="Analyzing partition 0-0..." module="1" time="1149235272" type="2" />
<event code="503" id="5" message="Analyzing partition K:..." module="1" time="1149235272" type="2" />
<event code="1008" id="6" message="Imaging operation summary:
&lt;bold>Create Incremental Image&lt;/bold>
&lt;tabpoint value=30>&lt;indent value=4>From: &lt;indent value=10>Disk 1&lt;/indent>&lt;indent value=4>
To file: &lt;indent value=10>&quot;K:\DirectoryName\CIncremental.tib&quot;&lt;/indent>&lt;indent value=4>
Compression: &lt;indent value=10>Normal&lt;/indent>&lt;indent value=4>
File Split: &lt;indent value=10>700 MB&lt;/indent>&lt;indent value=4>
&lt;/indent>" module="1" time="1149235278" type="2" />
<event code="504" id="7" message="Pending operation 101 started: &quot;Saving partition structure&quot;" module="1" time="1149235279" type="2" />
</log>

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Cheers,

 

What you're doing Ron, is preventing the gist of my message from seeing the light of day. The second message I placed in this thread, which you also deleted, removed all contact information.

For those reading, the content deleted from the first message can be summarized as follows:

1. I sent a web-based request to Acronis regarding the failure of their software.
2. Acronis responded two days later by not providing any ideas toward a solution but instead simply provided a link to the newest version of the software.

Ridiculous.

 

“I have been struggling for several weeks”
How is that “Terrible Support from Acronis“? Once you finally got around to contacting them, you received a reply in 2 days.

“How about at least an attempt at helping your customer”
They did. They put together new version/builds to address problems and add features. Maybe one of the fixes will solve your problem.

“not providing any ideas toward a solution but instead simply provided a link to the newest version of the software”
See above. The newest version may be a solution. Have you tried it? If the new version does not solve the problem, then contact support again (just don't wait several weeks).

 

1. The terrible support comment is in light of their response, not the two-day turn around.

2. They did not. I have the latest build. More importantly, they made NO EFFORT to troubleshoot the problem at hand. Instead, they simply said, "Buy an upgrade". (BTW, buying an upgrade may or may not solve the problem. They made no mention in that regard.)

3. A customer should expect that that software they have, which is relatively new, should function as advertised (and paid for).

 

“I have the latest build”
You have the latest build of an old version.

“buying an upgrade may or may not solve the problem”
That’s why they offer free trials.

“which is relatively new”
Huh? Relative in what terms?

Bye.

 

I find this discussion very painful - probably because I'm sitting on the (picket) fence.

I do think Acronis could have perhaps provided a suggestion or two on how to attack the problem but on the other hand, if there is a newer version that may not have this problem why do they have to waste time chasing it with an old version. More info is really needed such as: did it work before and now it doesn't, is the hardware new such that V8 may not understand it, etc. Also, of all the problems posted on this forum the infamous "X has encountered a problem..." is not common at all. This suggests something else may be causing the conflict and given they symptom I would be looking at scheduling.

I notice that Acronis support on this forum seems a bit lighter than last few days and may well be because everybody is feverishly creating coasters and bird-scarers with direct DVD burning investigations. BTW, I heard if you put a DVD on top of a pop bottle in a warm oven you can make a kind of neat decoration when it gets soft and sags.

Everytime I've had a software problem and find my version is not current, the first thing I do is try the latest.

 

For the record, the latest version is :
Acronis True Image Home version 9.0 (build 3.633)
That is not the same as your version :
TrueImage 8.0 (build 937)

 

"That is not the same as your version : TrueImage 8.0 (build 937)"
Which was released 08/09/2005. Not what I would call "relatively new".

 

I tend to agree with that, especially in light of the following:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=588431&postcount=9

 

That thread is also from October of 2005; when ATI 8 wasn't that old and 9 was coming out.

 

Don't you think there was a commitment there on the part of Acronis to fix whatever is wrong with TI8 or else provide a free upgrade to TI9? At least that's the way I understand the post by Irina Shirokova.

 

I'm not an expert yet in ATI, but upgrading from v8 to v9 might cost about $30.00

 

What difference does that make? Here's the Acronis quote:

"We will certainly fix all the problems with Acronis True Image 9.0. Please note that if you have the issue with Acronis True Image 8.0 and it cannot be resolved in this version we will provide you with a free upgarde."

He's still having the problem, regardless of how long he's been having it. So if their promise was good 6 months ago, why wouldn't it still be good now?

 

And this quote by Alexey Popov

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=575189&postcount=14

 

I found that their support response time was good but did not care much for their answer.

My problems surfaced when I tried the Version 9 trial after running Version 8 for a long time.

Unfortunately, I did not know of problems with Version 8 because creating backups worked perfectly.

After a problem that required reinstallation, I tried the last 5 backups I had made with Version 8 and none of them would work.

~Snip~. Wish I had not depended only on Acronis after that.

Their support team responded quickly and I was also told to try the trial Version 9 to solve all my problems. I did try it (twice-two different versions) and the same probems remained ie Corrupt images. Their next solution was that I had a hardware failure. ~ snip~ I tried MemTest and other things with no problems found.

If I had not seen how many others are having the same problems as I did with their Version 8 and Version 9 software I might have bought the hardware problem even though I can't find one but there are far too many people having the same problems that I had.

~Snip~ I prefer Acronis and as soon as I find that they have it running properly, I will try a trial and then buy it if it works. It is a very smooth program.

Off topic non-support comments removed - Ron

 

It is an unfortunate consequence of a relentless quest for better/cheaper/faster hardware that things go out of date. You cannot expect any given version of TI to work indefinitely unless you continue to stick with hardware which was contemporary and proven to be compatable at the time it was current - any more than you might expect any new peripheral device to work with (say) a 1995 motherboard.

F

 

So very true, and it isn't only in the PC world either. I used to manage what was called then a mini-computer system and as a cost cutting action we tried to freeze the software. Worked for a while but then we wanted to do a hardware upgrade and that was the end of the software freeze.

 

2 Software plugs removed. I think we can do better than try to push stuff in a support forum, can't we?

make that 3 - I'll close down the thread since we have a bad apple or two trying to generalize and bash some things while trying to sell other things here in the Acronis forum.

 

Hello scaught,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please let me know your Acronis request # which was sent to you in autoreply to your letter? I will find out how the investigation of your issue is going.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov