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Un-backed up folders un-expectedly appearing in Windows Explorer.

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Using Acronis TI 13 and a brand-new unopened My Passport Western Digital USB 3 external hard drive I backed up C: on my Windows 7 computer. Now multiple backups that I did not place on the new USB 3 hard drive and did not intend to go there, have appeared in Windows Explorer. Hopefully you understand without reading the rest of this but excruciating details are below. Please see attached.

After I plugged the device in for the 1st time I access it to see what was there. The 2nd time that I accessed the device was through the Acronis backup software to perform the backup. The 3rd time I accessed the USB 3 device was to discover the unwanted backups.

The files that I did not copy are the 1st 4 backup files below the recycle bin, "My backups", "PUGETImageof Mar3" and the next-to-last "WindowsImageBackup". These files originally were on either or both of my 2 other "My Passport" devices which I used prior to this purchase today or they may have come from the Windows 7 computers secondary hard drive which I have not yet backed up. However, while there may be duplicates of these files on the secondary hard drive on the Windows 7 computer and on the 2 previously used "My Passport" devices, the file "PUGETImageofMar3" refers to another computer (Vista) and that file has never been on either of my primary Windows 7 computer's 2 hard drives, only on the 2 other USB devices. PUGET refers to another computer and has not otherwise been involved. Therefore I conclude they did not come from the secondary hard drive of my Windows 7 computer and that they must've come from within the Acronis application on the primary hard drive. Previously Acronis had been used with these 2 other USB devices.

When I performed the Acronis backup I renamed the destination from within the Acronis application to "2013_05_26 My backups" which is presumably the 8th file down on the attached image. I don't know what happened to the date which I included in the name. The other files originally were on the USB 3 device.

The 1st time I used Acronis several weeks ago it deleted multiple old non-Acronis backups from Windows Explorer which I wished to retain so I have not yet explored the new USB 3 Windows Explorer for fear I will create some new catastrophe just by looking.

While I have not read every word I have turned all 243 pages in the manual. Still I could not find any reference to my problems here or in Google. I do not understand how or why Acronis does this. What am I doing? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

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Are there actually files contained in the newly created folders?

Thank you for responding. That's a great question because the answer is no, they are indeed empty.

Thank you for responding. That's a great question because the answer is no, they are indeed empty. Except "My backups" which contains the 27 GB of C:.

Someone else posted a problem where (mystery) folders were being created on the current destination drive after upgrading to build 6514, but I didn't find/see a solution (the problem was not clear to me until I saw your directory listing).

This is apparently a bug (special feature :) ).

The previous post about this issue was from a user running build 6514 after an upgrade.

I will notify Acronis about this thread to see if some additional attention to it can be had.

If you delete the empty folders, reboot, and then start True Image, does it re-create the empty folders again?

Yes empty folders are recreated on USB3 HD.

Would this be related to my original problem of ATI deleting backups I wanted to keep?

Sounds likely, as this is not the normal behavior of either build 5551 or 6514.

If possible, I would suggest removing True Image and the Plus Pack (first - if you have it), then running the 2013 cleanup utility.

After running the cleanup utility, then re-install 2013 and the optional Plus Pack (if purchased).

This will cause you to loose all of the backup tasks you have defined, but not the backup files you already have. *

* You can export your backup settings (tasks etc.) and import into the new install, but I would advise against it since you seem to be having issues that may be related to issues that would be resolved with a new clean install.

You can add each of the backup files back into your Backup and Recovery tab (listed only - not tasks) if needed.

I would suggest creating new backup tasks, pointing to new empty folders for each task (for safety as well as clarity).

The cleanup utility is here: http://kb.acronis.com/content/34876

Yes empty folders are recreated on USB3 HD. Would this be related to my original problem of ATI deleting backups I wanted to keep?

Thank you, I'll get back later.

I wonder if the fact the drive uses USB3 is of any significance. On the face of it there should be no connection, but as TI 2013 is known to have difficulty occasionally with USB3.0 drives, there might be something where it sends or misinterprets the bulk transactions algorithms for USB3.0 which differ slightly to USB2.

If you plug the drive into a USB2 port, does the same problem occur?

Solved.

Thank you.

After uninstalling, Cleanup and reinstalling ATI the phantom folders did not appear.

Thanks for the update.

This problem is not fixed or has reappeared in True Image 2016. I'm getting empty folders on both the destination drive and my system drive. Agreed, it is a "feature", when are you going to fix it, Acronis?

This problem is not fixed or has reappeared in True Image 2016. I'm getting empty folders on both the destination drive and my system drive. Agreed, it is a "feature", when are you going to fix it, Acronis?

Hello John,

Have you ever renamed, moved or deleted .tib files in Windows Explorer which they were in Acronis True Image list of backups? If yes, that must be reason why empty folders are getting recreated. Changes to .tib files outside of Acronis application are not reflected in program`s database. Even though old paths to .tib are not valid anymore, software stil looks in its database and recreates parts of paths (folders) according to its records.

To workaround this issue temporarily, recreate program`s database. To prevent the problem from occurring at all, do not rename, move or delete .tib files if they are part of backups listed in Acronis True Image GUI. If you remove backups from the list (choose Delete - Settings only), then you can freely rename, move and delete them in Windows Explorer.

Regards,

Slava

I can confirm with what Slava is saying.  On occassion, I wil get the blank folders, but they were indeed folders that once had .tib files in them.  Removing the settings in Acronis the proper way prevents this from happening.  Then move your .tib files as you see fit. 

Hello Slava

I think you're on the right track, I did use the Acronis interface to remove some old backups, but then I put in a new system disk which I loaded from backup. I guess that restored the database. Is there any way of editing the database?

Regards

John

John, if they show up in your backup tasks, just delete the "settings only" and that should do it.  If they're not there, then go ahead and manually add the backup to the tasks so it does show up.  Then delete "settings only" and hopefully that will prevent the blank folders from showing up again.  You may still have to delete one more blank folder as a result of this, but hopefully the same one won't return again after that.