major fail at first hurdle

What type of restore are you attempting? A disk/partition restore, or restore of data files?

Disk/partition restores should be performed after booting from the ATI bootable Rescue Media, not from within Windows.

Not sure what you are attempting to restore either but your reference to "cannot find version 10" appears to indicate that the incremental version 10 backup file cannot be located by the application. Where are your backups located, external drive, NAS?

Use signature link #3 below, it may be of some help for your restore.

Inside that #3 link, use either item 3 or 2 or 1--whichever is appropriate.

When selecting which file to restore, select the most recent PROVIDING all the sequential "sX to sX" numbers are listed for the backup task being restored.

Restore should be from the user created TI Recovery CD.

Spent a long time on chat last night with one of Acronis support people as well as giving him access to the laptop via Team Viewer, who was completely less than helpful and told me my backups were corrupt. "Who corrupted them?" I ask "I used the product to back up as per instructions", no answer, etc, etc. The weird thing is I can mount the first full backup and look at individual files in it without any problems so I am at a loss to understand how it is 'corrupt'. It appears from the above posts I have to create a recovery CD, not sure how I do that, and why didn't the Acronis guy suggest this?

Full story is I have been using Acronis True Image 2014 since March 2014. I did a full, initial state backup at that point. In April once everything was loaded I did a full backup, since when it has been doing scheduled incremental backups. I have TIB files going from ....full_b1_S1_V1 thru to ....inc_b1_s10_V1 backed up directly on my NAS (Synology Disk Station)

Thanks to all who responded. I have created bootable media, but what is not clear is how I use the bootable to access and restore the .tib files. do I have to move everything to the USB bootable stick? (or I can create a bootable DVD but what do I load on it)

As Edward Lear might have put it, 'it is just as I feared'. I have multiple Acronis 2014 back ups, some full, some incremental. I often wonder if these will work when they are needed. The OP's experience is less than reassuring.

I wish now to check, in advance of any disaster, that my backups are viable i.e. that the files/folders on them are easily retrievable and usable.  I do not wish to actually recover anything, as my system is ok at the moment.  I just want to know that this will be possible if/when the time comes.  Does Acronis 2014 offer this facility? If so, I could not find it. 

Long ago I convinced myself that the only safe way of backing up anything is to use the simple 'Copy' command in Windows. I should have taken my own advice perhaps. Given the speed of modern HDDs copying and pasting is perfectly feasible. The fact that each 'Copy' is a full copy I find reassuring since I cannot be sure that Acronis incremental backups actually do what they are supposed to do.

The CTRL-C and CTRL-V commands are cheap and reliable. 

Ron,

Hope I can be of some help to you. The bootable media contains the ATI application along with a linux bootable environment to run in. This allows the user to boot to the created media and run the ATI application. It was recommended to use the boot media you created to perform a restore operation because in doing so you are greatly limiting the chance for data corruption by not attempting to perform disk level functions on a live (booted) hard drive. From your backup files and using the boot media you created you should be able to perform a complete system restore of your machines HDD as long as your initial backup was in fact a full disk mode backup that included all partitions on the disk. This includes hidden partitions as well as lettered partitions. Your incremental backups would allow you to restore up to and including the most recent incremental backup date and time.

Now from your original post it sounds like you have already replaced the failed drive and performed a clean install of the OS along with ATIH 2014. It also sounds like the ATIH application could not find or verify the existence of the inc_b1_s10_V1 file which you say is the last incremental file that was created. The application tracks all backups via a database file so since there is a problem with this file of some sort the application complains.

Having said all that I am not certain of how to advise you to proceed. I believe there is a way that you can restore up to the last incremental the program sees as a good file. Since your original disk failed that may have contributed to the last incremental backup being corrupt and that is the issue here. My gut tells me that if you access the incremental files on your NAS using the bootable media application and use the explorer to locate the s9 file, right click on that file you would get an option to restore that incremental version. Now I also think that in doing this the application will delete your fresh install on the new disk and will then restore the full backup and incremental files up to and including s9.

Now not knowing that you indeed have a full backup to work with can in fact produce a fully working bootable drive I suggest that before you attempt anything you make a new full disk mode backup using the installed version on your new disk. In the backup window simply choose the disk mode option and all partitions on your disk will be backed up. In doing this at least you will have a good backup to restore if for whatever reason the above suggestion fails.

Enchantech,

Many thanks for your input. I am trying the following at the minute - I've created an Acronis boot disk, and copied all the backups the full plus subsequent incrementals to an external HDD (USB). Due to the size of the backups this is taking quite some time. My plan then is to boot up with the Acronis disk and try and restore (as up to date as I can) from the HDD. I don't think the last backup was actually corrupt though there may be locking issues with the data on the NAD, the last backup was done on the 13th before I flew out, and the HDD failed along with the video memory (may be connected I suspect) on the evening of the 16th. If the worst comes to the worst I can mount the full backup from April and copy data over, at least that way I only lose 3-4 months of data, mainly emails. Fortunately my accounts I backup separarately and that's OK and I have pdfs of important documents on the NAS. Not ideal, but better than nothing! I'll post back when (if) I get any result.

Nope, nothing I do seems to work, so I guess I am screwed. Thanks a bundle Acronis. I follow your instructions to the letter, back up religiously, and when I need to restore, nothing. Needless to say I am delighted...............

Understand your frustration! Mind if I ask how what you tried failed? As info recovery support is unlimited.

I do not believe Acronis defaults to having backups validated. I think that is a deficiency, because for one thing your backup media can be defective. I always try to have both my file and my disc backups validated.

Also, FWIW, I never use incremental, but instead differential (or better yet just full if it comes to disc backups).

Ron,
A review of my signature link 3 may be of assistance doing restores. My signature link 2-A could assist in future backups.

GroverH, why do you not like start with system delay?

Kary,

I assume you are are referring to a running a missed backup following a reboot or startup and kick off the backup after a delay.

First, in order for it to work, target must be attached before bootup and I don't like the computer in use while I am using as it slows and is a pain.
If it works, fine. but often times, there are other ways to create a reminder so backups being started at startup is not necessary.

The option only available on scheduled backups.

This may help but why is the option needed?
GH4. Illustrate Manual Backup Now option or Repeat backups.

Added:
I believe the validate setting defaults to "validate after backups", or you can set your validate choice and choose the "save as default" option.
My preference in backups is the "disk image" or "disk mode" image as illustrated in first part of my signature link 2-A below.

My preference for backup schemes is using the automatic cleanup method as illustrated by these examples:

GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains). The 4 is user choice.
GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains. The 6-4 is user choice.
GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme. 2 Diff, Keep 2 chains. The 2-2 is user choice.
GH14. Custom Differential Backup Scheme . 6 Diff, Keep 4 chains. & folder

Thanks. I usually set it to start several minutes after startup and haven't really had an issue (and I always have the backup drive attached). But it does annoy my wife on her machine.

Enchantech what I did was to create a bootable Acronis disk. Then I copied the full and incremental backups to an external hard disk, took almost the whole day. When I go into recovery and select any of the incremental backups I get an errror saying cannot find Version 10. I have no idea where this comes from or what Version 10 is, there never was any Version 10. I have to press cancel about 40-60 times in all (about four or five, maybe more times and the dialog box vanishes, but comes back again). This seems to indicate a bug ridden piece of software if ever I saw one. Eventually it goes into 'recovering partition sector by sector' on the Data Recovery screen and about 20-30 later the laptop restarts with a 'can't find OS' message.

I am really baffled by this 'Version 10' message, and where it is coming from.

What makes is so frustrating is that I used the product as instructed with a scheduled incremental backup (which I now find is a BAD idea though incremental backups on other machines are pretty common) and when I try to restore after an HDD failure, I get nonsensical messages, a guy on the Acronis chat support who clearly didn't have much of a clue so I haven't tried that again, and in the meantime I am having to put my business on hold as I cannot invoice customers (fortunately only 2 or 3 a week), use my accounting system, use or refer to emails, access documents and presentations I am working on and so the sorry tale goes on.

Ron,
Would you post a screen capture of your storage folder where the tib files are stored. Before doing the capture, sort the files in date and time seqence, like example GH14 in post #13.

Ron, the reason I don't like incremental backups is because you have more backups necessary for a restore to work, AND the savings in speed and space in doing that backup isn't that significant for most users. It's more risk with little reward. For full disc backups I don't even bother with differential backups--I just do full, and leave the differential backups to file backups. And I'd be doing that regardless of which backup software product I was using.

Also I'd point out that you face risk of not being able to restore with any backup software. I've been using True Image for longer than I remember, probably since at least 2008, and have never had a problem recovering my backups that I recall. I have had problems in the past with other software, but it's typically been media related, particularly back in the days of tape. And I suspect your problem is media related. One of the things I like about True Image is you can go to your backup media in Windows Explorer and see if it works. You can't test every file, but you at least have some idea the the backup is valid without doing a complete system restore.

Kary, my problem is I cannot understand the media issue, I have been backing up to a NAS with 2 mirrored disks, I can read and copy the original full tib file but cannot restore even that. I take your point about incremental backups but I have been working on larger machines where this is quite common as is backup whilst active. OK I've learnt a lesson and taken quite a hit, but I remain unimpressed by a piece of software that doesn't validate post backup and comes up with meaningless errors which the support staff do not even understand.

GroverH, screen print is attached. Files were copied from the NAS to an external HDD connected via USB in case there were locking problems around the NAS

Ron,

Looking at your screenshot and given what you have stated in earlier post I believe that the last incremental backup listed in your screenshot (131028_inc_b1_s10_v1) is either corrupt or contains errors, presumably this occurred just before your drive failure.

When you choose to restore the backup the application scans the archived backups and finding an error or corruption in this last incremental file then fails giving the various error messages.

To discover if in fact this is the case or not please perform a validation of the backup file.

Under bootable media, there are two ways to validate a backup:

To validate a backup manually, on the Recovery tab, right-click a backup and select Validate Archive.

Here is a link that describes the validation procedure:

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#…

This link describes the Validation process in greater detail:

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#…

Once we have established just where in the incremental chain the error is found then it should be possible to recover from the next previous incremental backup.

Couldn't you test the theory that it's the last one by moving it to another directory and then trying to do a restore? I've never tried something like that, but that's what I would try if it were me, because it would be quick and easy. ;-)

Ron,
Thank you for posting the screenshot. Its content is confusing as to what it includes.
Do you have two diffrerent tasks named the same default name and both pointing to the same storage folder?
You have many files which have a 2nd number as part of the v number such as v1-2 or v1-3.
Have you ever restored your system before using these backups and then added new backups to them?
----------------------------------------------
Are new tib files being added via the TI scheduler or being added via the "back up now" option?
GH4. Illustrate Manual Backup Now option or Repeat backups.

---------------------------------------------------

At this point, I would begin working with the July 6, s9_v1 backup file.
Select this file and lets see if it validates.
With trueimage closed, open Windows Explorer and browse to the storage folder where s9_v1 is stored.
RIGHT click on the the July 6, S9 listing
From the Right click menu, click the TrueImage listing
Click the resulting archive listing,
Click the resulting Validate option
That should cause TI to start or ask to start and the validation should begin.

As you go forward, I have other procedure recommendations to suggest but lets get you started first.
TrueImage will work for you but it is very touchy. I have seveal rules of procedure which I practice and recommend to others having issues with their backups but that will be for later.

Guys, thanks for all your help, but after more than a week without my laptop, and four days to try and restore I have cut my losses, reloaded OS and Software and copied over data from the last full backup which I could access directly. It means I lose three months of email in particular, and a number of other data elements, but at least I am more or less up and running again. It is clear I am going to have to review my back up processes including a tool to back up outlook every night independently. I will also move to full backups as at least I can pick data from there even if it won't restore.

Incidentally I have tried to validate the full backup, but it still comes up with the Version 10 message as it does with the incrementals. I have also copied the later files away and tried to backup from an earlier incremental, but still I get the Version 10 message so I cannot figure where that is coming from and assume it must be in the original full backup. I don't believe I had two different tasks running to the same folder but I have no way of checking that now, I certainly didn't use the backup now option. The multiple backups on the same day are baffling, but it cannot be two scheduled jobs as it doesn't happen every time. I have never restored my system from any TI 2014 backups, though I have used Acronis for years and have restored a couple of times using previous versions.

Ron,
Re. emails. My e mail client is Thunderbird. Messages are forwarded to it from my ISP, Virgin. All my mails are retained on Virgin webmail. I only discovered this recently - nearly 20,000 messages. I suppose I made a setting somewhere when I started with Virgin.

GroverH wrote:

As you go forward, I have other procedure recommendations to suggest but lets get you started first.
TrueImage will work for you but it is very touchy. I have seveal rules of procedure which I practice and recommend to others having issues with their backups but that will be for later.

Could we know these please, just in case?

John wrote:

Could we know these please, just in case?

My views are well known on the forum as I have included many in my prior postings. Until I a can gather more time, this link will give you access to all my past responses. A beginning point would be my signature link 2-A.

One recent posting
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/58244

A listing of my past responses:

https://forum.acronis.com/user/285/commented_topics

Thank you for the links.