Unable to create backup after Vista SP1 upgrade

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by RAAR, Mar 15, 2008.

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  1. RAAR

    RAAR Registered Member

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    Using True Image 11, build 8053 with Vista Ultimate SP1 32 bit on Intel D975BX2 motherboard.

    True Image 11 has worked perfectly in both backup & restore prior to installation of Public Release SP1. SP1 upgrade went smoothly and system works great. Now trying to create a fresh full backup of system state with True Image and found that it takes an extremely long time to show any progress (+/-45 minutes) then slowly runs up to 17% (1 hour 36 min. remaining) and stays there. Destination HDD writing creases and origin HDD barely blinks any activity. The directory that it's "working on" is C:\windows\winsxs. Systray animations work and PC runs fine during this "freeze".

    When I try to cancel, it continues and I have to reboot / stop process in order to fully exit True Image. When I try to close using Task Manager it stays that it can't because there is a dialog box open, but none is visable. Ultimately Task Manager does, visually at least, close the program.

    Has anyone else upgraded from Vista to Vista SP1 and successfully created either a new System State backup or Complete backup after the upgrade?

    Thank you
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2008
  2. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    Oh boy! I hope this isn't what's in store for everyone when they update to Vista SP1, but it might be.

    Have you tried uninstalling True Image and reinstalling it?

    You probably can make an image of your system now using the TI Recovery CD just in case the uninstall and reinstall creates a problem.

    If the uninstall/reinstall doesn't get TI running as fast as it did before SP1, please send a report to Acronis Support. This may be an isolated event or it may be a disaster in the making when SP1 is automatically installed for thousands of users.

    Please keep us posted here on your progress!
     
  3. Bruce Mahnke

    Bruce Mahnke Registered Member

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    I find this strange in that to my knowledge the ‘final’ release of Vista SP1 hasn’t occurred at this time. I hear that it will be posted on the Windows Update site March 18. Is this current posting a reference to a release candidate?
     
  4. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Bruce:

    Vista SP1 has been available on MSDN and on TechNet for subscribers since February 11.
     
  5. Bruce Mahnke

    Bruce Mahnke Registered Member

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    Thanks Mark,

    I was not aware of that. I’m not following Vista closely. Any migration to Vista will be very costly for me.

    Thanks for your input.

    Bruce
     
  6. Joseph Zorzin

    Joseph Zorzin Registered Member

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    I purchased the boxed version of Acronis 11. I have 3 PCs- 2 with XP and my newest with Vista. After reading the entire manual and seeing how sophisticated the program is, and worrying about possible unknown bugs- I installed it on the XPs. On one XP, the PC wouldn't hibernate, on the other XP it would. An Acronis tech person suggested disabling the Try and Decide feature- I did and I can now hibernate. I then played around with the program to get a feel for it and was getting ready to install it on the Vista system- but before I do that I wanted to read this forum (and yes, I will uninstall it on the XP systems, to stay legit). Now that I've read about a possible problem with Vista's SP1, I just may have to wait this out some more.

    I do like the program- it seems awesome, but I want to be very careful before installing in on my Vista system from which I run my consulting business- which of course is a bit ironic as we install such programs to protect us- but I still want to see what problems are out there. Now that SP1 will be released soo, perhaps others will report the same problem with it and Acronis 11.

    Joe
     
  7. Ray Clare

    Ray Clare Registered Member

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    You don't have to install Acronis to use it with Vista, or anyother Windows, if you don't want to. Simply boot on the disk and then make your backups and restores from there. You lose many of the bells and whistles that way, but it works fine.

    I can tell you I installed V11 on my Vista Machine six months ago, with virtually no problems. I had been using V8 on my Win98SE machine. I know many have had problems, but that's what you hear about in these forums. Happy users don't usually show up here.

    I have restored two different partitions, including the Vista Boot partion at least twice each in those months with no problems. I don't think I am the exception, but mostly the rule. After all they sell hundreds of thousands of copies and only a few hundred folks end up coming here. I'm sure some more hundreds wind up getting help in other places or just give up without making any noise, but the bottom line for me is I have never had a single program written by anyone that didn't have some rough edges, or even bugs.

    It's just the nature of the business, and I have been running various systems since the early 1970's.

    For now, just use the Acronis disk to begin the process of backup on you Vista machine far enough to be sure it can find the disk drives and partitions you are trying to back up. If it can find them, you will probably do okay.

    Good luck
     
  8. RAAR

    RAAR Registered Member

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    After more research, here's what I've experienced;

    First, True Image worked perfectly under Vista Ultimate 32 until SP1.

    SP1 was downloaded from Microsoft Technet yesterday and is the exact same upgrade that will be available on demand March 18th via Windows Update and what will be pushed automatically April 18th via Windows Update.

    SP1 upgrade went perfectly, no error messages and no other programs (yet) seem affected.

    **A full True Image backup of my "C" drive worked fine post SP1. Exactly like it did pre SP1.**

    A full System State backup does not, as explained in the top post.

    I uninstalled True Image automatically then followed that up with a manual clean up per the manual uninstall document on this site. There was quite a bit of remnants left that required manual deletion.

    I reinstalled True Image and it went as smooth as pre-SP1 install except that near completion I received an error message stating "System Settings Protector has stopped working". Option was to close program and let Windows notify you if there was a solution. I ignored and True Image completed the installation and requested a re-boot. I did not get this error message on the original pre-SP1 install.

    After reboot, True Image appeared to work normally, but again couldn't get beyond 17% on a System State backup. I then disabled all startup programs but True Image via msconfig and rebooted. Again, System State backup hung at 17% at the c:/Windows/winsxs folder.

    Interesting to me that a full backup of "C" works but a system state of "C" doesn't. Isn't the system state backed up during a full "C" backup anyway?

    Given that a system state backup bailed me out once before I'm really interested in regaining it's full functionality under SP1.

    Thanks......
     
  9. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    RAAR:

    Thank you for the clarification. I read your original post too quickly and missed the fact that it was the System State Backup that was problematic with Vista SP1.

    It is not surprising that TI can make a full partition backup but have trouble making a System State backup. When doing a full partition backup, the program does not need to understand the Windows operating system; it just copies everything in the partition. You can have anything in the partition (a Linux OS, for example) and it will still work.

    However, to do a System State backup you need to have complete knowledge of the Windows operating system, the registry, and the files important to having the system work properly. It is not too surprising, then, that Vista SP1 may have changed something that is not currently accounted for in the Acronis System State backup. If so, I'm sure that this will eventually be fixed.

    IMHO, the most reliable form of backup is an image of the partition, which apparently is still working fine post-SP1, from what you have stated.
     
  10. RAAR

    RAAR Registered Member

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    Thanks Mark,

    This makes complete sense. Also explains why there isn't a Backup "System State" option from within the CD Boot version of True Image.

    I can live with it but still look forward to the SP1 System State backup ability. A fresh system state recovery post an install of bad software or a registry screw up seems less intrusive and time consuming versus a full drive restore.

    Thanks again,

    Ron
     
  11. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    That's true, but it leaves behind all the garbage that the bad install left even after an uninstall.

    Personally, I do a full partition backup before an installation. If it goes badly, I do a partition restore, and then I can try the installation again or have an "undamaged system to continue with.
     
  12. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    Ray Clare is correct that you can run TI from the Recovery CD that you made on an XP machine. All Recovery CDs from the same build of TI are the same. They don't use anything from the system they are created on.

    I would go further and say that you should always try the Recovery CD before installing TI when that is possible. If you can't boot from the Recovery CD and see all your hard drives both internal and external, you won't be able to restore the boot partition in the event of a problem.

    You should also boot from the Recovery CD and verify a few backups to get greater confidence that a restore will be successful when needed. I would also make a backup from the Recovery CD and compare the time needed to a backup in Windows because that gives you a better idea of how well the Linux drivers support your system and gives you an idea of how long a restore should take.

    If the Recovery CD fails, there is the possible alternative of creating a Bart PE disk for XP or a VistaPE disk for Vista, but that is an additional step that may or may not be available to you. So, it's important to know whether the TI Recovery CD will work on your system.
     
  13. Bruce Mahnke

    Bruce Mahnke Registered Member

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    Note that Mustang’s VistaPE disk can be used on WinXP, SP2 also. I’m doing it with both TrueImage 10 and 11.
     
  14. winders

    winders Registered Member

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    Not to sound ignorant, but what is the problem with using a Bart PE disc made using XP SP2 and Mustang's True Image Home 11.0 Plugin on a Vista 32-bit system?

    S-
     
  15. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    BartPE with TI 10 or 11 works fine with Vista. You can use either BartPE or VistaPE or both. Whatever works best for you.
     
  16. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Helo RAAR,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Backup software.

    The System State backup freezing can be caused by many reasons and installing Vista SP1 is not the only among them. As a workaround we recommend you to try to perform backing up with the compression level set to "None". This can make the trick. You can change compression level in the following way:

    - Please go to Tools -> Options
    - Choose "Compression level" in "Default Backup Options" and set it to "None"

    In order to let us investigate the reason of the issue we would recommend you to submit a request for technical support with the detailed issue description and attached Device Tree screen shots and Windows System Information file. You can find out how to collect mentioned files in this post and Acronis Help post accordingly.

    Thank you
    --
    Nikita Sakharov
     
  17. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

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    Also, don't forget that, being as large as it is, sp1 can easily have something go wrong with it's install. Best bets these days are to install via Micorosoft update (to only get the junk you need) and if things get weird afterwards, the do a system restore to the pre-sp1 state (sp1 creates a restore point just before it installs). and then try re-updating sp1. BE sure to set you no-windows security software to idle or off before attempting the update. If you had one of the RCs on the machine, you should either scrub your machine clean of it first or do an image restore of a pre-RC image before trying to install the release aversion of sp1.
     
  18. winders

    winders Registered Member

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    shieber,

    While the standalone SP1 update is larger, I prefer it to the Windows Update version for a couple of reasons. One is that I don't have to worry about downloading it again if need to install SP1 again. Another is that running it locally instead of over the internet means there is much smaller chance of the process being interrupted. The fact that the local version is bigger does not mean it somehow installs more stuff. It doesn't. Like Windows Update, it installs only what you need.

    I could not get Windows Update SP1 to install on my basically virgin 32-bit system. It would try but could never finish. The standalone version installed the first time with no issues and has worked perfectly.

    S-
     
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