Acronis True Image Home 2010 Freezes Creating Backup
I evaluated a trial version of TI Home 2010 (build 7046) on one computer on a network. All the computers on the network are identical XP Pro (sp3) machines with a dual core 3.2Ghz processor and 4Gb of RAM (PAE Enabled in boot.ini). All the XP machines are configured identically, all with the same hardware and software, all with administrative rights.
The trial worked great! I was backing up the Documents and Settings folder to a shared network drive using an absolute path (\\server\etc.) running as an adminsitrator. Worked like a charm.
I bought the TI Home 2010 license and a Plus Pack license and installed both on six machines. Five were clean installs; one of them I simply registered the product then installed the Plus Pack over it. The five I set up with clean installs work perfectly.
All six machines are running nonstop backup to an internal hard drive and THAT works perfectly, even on the one machine which I can't perform a file backup.
However, one the one machine where I registered TI Home 2010, then installed Plus Pack over the installation is freezing after completing the Select Archive Location function. Once the archive location is specified, I can go no further. Clicking any button does nothing. I have to use Task Manager to close the program. When I do, Task Manager reports that "the program is waiting for a response from the user" but that isn't the case.
Another clue is that when selecting the archive backup location on the five machines which work, the left screen shows My Computer" "My Network Places" etc. However, on the one which isn't working, the left screen is blank and the right screen shows all the drives and shared drives on the network.
What is irritating is that when I was using the trial version, everything worked perfectly. It was only after registering and installing the Plus Pack that these problems began.
I tried running chkdsk twice, then defragmented the hard drive - no success.
I uninstalled and reinstalled - no success.
I tried using just TI Home without the Plus Pack - no success.
I tried uninstalling , then used the Acronis Cleanup Utility (with devcon in system32 and Windows Uninstaller loaded). The cleanup utility worked fine, but after reinstalling TI Home 2010, even without Plus Pack, still no success.
Incidentally, before anyone states I should be using the Workstation version - I did try it. We use the TI Server version on our server and that had problems requiring registry edits or validation failed. The workstation version has the same problem but that same registry edit (MaxMemoryUsage) cannot be done on our XP machines as unlike the server, the setting interferes with some intensive programs like QuickBooks Enterprise or several such programs running at one time on the workstations. We had used the TI Home 9.0 on the workstations in the past sucessfully, so I tried the home version and that ran fine until I registered and installed the Plus Pack.
Need help with this please. Any suggestions?
Hi David, I notice you are still on line and I doubt you will get a response from Acronis until the morning (I'm uk time). I find your explanations somewhat confusing as to what you are trying to back up to where and when and if these might have got TI confused, or may be I am confused.
I am trying to backup the Documents and Settings folder from my XP pro machine to a shared drive on a server using an absolute path \\server\Utility\Dave Backup\MyBackup.tib.
Ok, this is what finally worked:
I ran a System Backup to the shared network drive on the server which worked fine. I then edited that backup.
Lo and behold, after I changed the backup type to Data, then selected my Documents and Settings folder, I then went to select a new archive location and the left hand pane showed everything.
I selected My Network Places > Entire Network > Microsoft Network > Etc. and had TI generate a name (MyBackup.tib), and the set up went smooth. It created a new backup task and the backup executed, then validated with no problems.
So the problem is only occuring when I try to create a Data backup from scratch. The application hangs after selecting the network share archive location aned I can go no further.
If I first create and execute any other type of backup (System State, Application Data, etc.), then edit THAT backup by changing the type of backup to Data, it works fine.
I would say that the download of TI Home was corrupt except I used that same download to install to all the machines that ARE working. Just for kicks and grins, I downloaded another copy, installed, and the Data type backup creation hung. I then tried creating a System State backup, letting it run, then editing it by creating a new backup task for data, and again, that went fine.
Looks like the problem is simply creating the backup file on the shared network drive. The fact that My Network Places, Desktop, My Computer, etc do not show up in the left hand pane ONLY when creating a DATA backup archive location is just plain weird.
Could be!
I was going to say backing up to the shared drive might cause some probs as far as conflicts and weird things go!!
Could be!
I was going to say backing up to the shared drive might cause some probs as far as conflicts and weird things go!!
Well, yes, except that I have five other computers backing up to the same network drive on the server, each to an individual folder.
So why five work, but not the sixth is the mystery. TI Home does support backing up to network drives. Shouldn't be an issue.
The other mystery is that the only type of backup that I can't create and run is a Data backup. All other types of backups (System, Application Data, Etc.) work, EVEN ON a network drive. And the problem is not in running a Data backup; it's creating the backup to run.
The fact that when browsing for an archive location, nothing shows up in the left hand pane is the big clue. Something is corrupting the installation. I've tried with no AV or Firewall running, etc.
Thought I'd give an update here: The Acronis TI support team had a telephone support session with me. We tried all kinds of things, and the end result was the representative wound up saying "this will be fixed in the latest build" with no explanation of what might be happening. He did find a workaround which works, which is to either use the method I'm using or to use backup media to create the backups.
I appreciate the phone support but would also have appreciated an explanation of what he thought was happening.