USB backups are absolutely worthless..

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by parosgoat, Jun 1, 2009.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. parosgoat

    parosgoat Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2008
    Posts:
    2
    I find it unbelievable that Acronis produces a product that is unable to produce backups on USB devices that aren't corrupt or say they aren't corrupt until you try to restore or copy them to an internal hard drive.

    How this company gets good recommendations in the press is beyond me. I have been in IT for over 30 years and it is positively the most unreliable backup software I have EVER come across.

    If you rely on Acronis to backup vital information you are asking for trouble.

    It is a bad joke.
     
  2. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2007
    Posts:
    604
    Location:
    UK
    Backing up to a USB device is probably the favoured backup method - once you get ATI to 'see' your USB and other drives. If it isn't working for you I suggest you try a different USB port or device.

    Once you do get it working you will begin to understand why it is so popular.
     
  3. pinkwash

    pinkwash Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2009
    Posts:
    2
    Hello,
    I must give parosgoat legally. I was always very happy with ATI and it has always been reliable. Unfortunately, the version 2009 is unacceptable. When reading from a USB hard drive (Restore) ATI says "Bad medium". When writing to an USB disk to appear "Error in Sector xxx, file can not be written". I will downgrade to version 11.
     
  4. Hiker

    Hiker Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2007
    Posts:
    271
    Rather than start another thread...

    I've been able to back up to a USB external drive and verify it with no problem. I've yet to need a restore. What's the best way try with screwing up my system if there's a problem?
     
  5. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    I was able to backup using ATI, but never could get a restore to work. Ever. FWIW, I went with Paragon Drive Backup Personal and it works everytime.

    To answer the prior question: The method I use, and I do use it at least quarterly just to ensure my backups can be restored, is to swap a spare drive into my PC and destructively restore to it. I then swap my real drive back in and it is like nothing ever happened.

    This method also works well for playing risky what-if configuration changes. I just restore to the spare, make whatever changes I want to try out, then either leave the drive in, making my other drive the new spare, or swap back.

    BTW, if you have never done a successful restore, you had best consider all your backups to be no better than write-only data.
     
  6. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2005
    Posts:
    4,751
    As was said in a previous post, put in a spare HD and do the test restore.

    If that is not possible for any reason then:

    Create the TI rescue CD if you haven't.

    Boot the PC with the CD and create an archive. This will demonstrate the Linux environment on the CD can see your source and target devices and create an archive.

    Validate the archive using the CD. This will demonstrate TI can read the archive into RAM and recreate the 4000 checksums/GB of archive and compare them to the ones stored in the archive when it was created. If every one compares properly the archive is good. One bad one and the archive is declared corrupt.

    Go through the Restore Wizard as if you were going to restore the archive. This will show that you can select the archive, the partiton contained in the archive and on the target HD, etc. When you get to the last screen where you have to click on Proceed to do the restore, Cancel out.

    Not as good as doing an actual restore but a very respectable second choice. It is very important that the Linux environment be tested on your PC because it may have a driver issue. Once you know it works then you can just create and validate in Windows until you change your hardware.

    TI is a very good test of the disk sub-system and RAM and often will uncover marginal hardware problems that don't show up with normal use.
     
  7. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2007
    Posts:
    604
    Location:
    UK
    There is an alternative way of proving that restoration works, without the hassle of switching out hard disks. By keeping a spare partition on your hard disk, and using a boot manager that enables isolated installs, such as Grub or Grub4DOS, the restoration can be completed and tested without any risk at all to the original system.

    Obviously you have to have a means of non-destructively partitioning disks in order to use this method.
     
  8. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2007
    Posts:
    3,335
    Location:
    Florida - USA
    I recently came across a similar situation at a friend's place where you don't get a corrupt message until you try to restore. Long story short, the cause turned out to be the usb enclosure. We put the drive in another enclosure and the corrupt message disappeared.

    In general, True Image is very unforgiving when it comes to hardware, especially with memory and/or bad clusters on a drive.
     
  9. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2005
    Posts:
    4,751
    Do you know if a Validate was done with the TI CD and showed the archive to be OK before the faulty restore attempt?
     
  10. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2007
    Posts:
    3,335
    Location:
    Florida - USA
    Yes, in fact when we started to get those corrupt errors on the restore we did a few validates with the Rescue CD (ver 2009 latest build) - came out ok. This one really had me puzzled ... I even did chkdsk on the usb drive, chkdsk the source before making the backup, changed the usb drive, and finally changed the enclosure - as a last resort, and bingo.
     
  11. regstrat

    regstrat Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2009
    Posts:
    1
    I have a new 1GB USB harddrive that my old TrueImage version 10 CD can't find, so downloaded TrueImage version 2009 this weekend (2009May29). The new version reads the 1G USB harddrive, makes a .tib, verifies the .tib, and appears to be working ok until I actually do a restore. The problem occurs only with the rescue CD. The .tib can restore OK from WinVista.

    There were several .tibs on the 1G harddrive. Some were made with version 10 and some were made with version 2009. All of them verify ok when using the rescue CD. All of them fail when doing a restore using the rescue CD. All of them restore ok when using WinVista.

    The Acronis.com site leads me to this forum. I find no other way to report it. I have full backups on hardware I know and trust using version 10, so I can work with Acronis to track down this bug. The version 2009 trial is uninstalled now, but will reinstall to work with Acronis if a tester is needed.
     
  12. nb47

    nb47 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2006
    Posts:
    183
    Well , one thing you have to do , is hook up the USB HD FIRST ,in case you didn't. Mine works that way with Ver. 10. Good luck.
     
  13. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2004
    Posts:
    25,885
    Hello all,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please check this article in our Knowledge Base for troubleshooting issues with corrupted backups.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexander Nikolsky
     
  14. Guerito

    Guerito Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2009
    Posts:
    1
    Actually last night I did a full system restore from a USB drive without any problems (from the TI CD). Worked like a charm and saved me from reinstalling my system. I am using ATI Home 2009.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.