Backup no longer working
I have had True Image (Windows) for less than 2 months, got about 1 month worth of weekly backups, and now it is not working. I am trying to back up to a NAS that has 1.6TB of storage available. Here are my issues:
1) I get an error popup in my system tray saying "Operation paused 9:55:22 AM Error occurred while opening the file. If you do not make a decision, the operation will fail in 10 minutes. Clicking on this gives no useful information (what file? why did the error occur?)
2) I get an error dialog popping up saying, "Error occurred while opening the file. Click Retry to try to read from the same location. To create a new version according to the current backup scheme, click Ignore." And there are two buttons: Retry and Cancel. No Ignore button!!! Clicking Retry causes the same error to pop up. Clicking Cancel just closes the dialog.
3) When I look at the Acronis True Image 2016 main window, I see my backup type (Entire PC) listed on the left, an orange exclamation point in the middle, and my backup location on the right. If I click the exclamation point, I get a dialog with a message saying "The last backup failed. It will be restarted at 11:04 AM Cannot open the backup." and offers 2 choices, "Edit connection settings" and "Check for a solution". If I click "Edit connection settings", I get the credentials dialog. I click "Test Connection" and get a checkmark with the phrase, "Connection established". If I then click the "Connect" button, I get a dialog saying, "Failed to open backup \\NAS\Volume_1\Backups\Ayrshire\Entire PC (AYRSHIRE)_inc_b1_s5_v1.tib. Make sure the backup location is accessible and contains all versions of the backup. This backup may also be corrupted." There is a "More details" link on this dialog that gives an event code, but when I copy and paste the event code into the web page suggested, I get a message saying there is no information available on this.
4) In the above dialog, there are two buttons, "Knowledge Base" and "Ignore". If I click "Ignore", the dialog closes. Then if I click the orange exclamation point, I get the message, "Failed to change connection settings." How am I supposed to try to change the connection settings at this point??
5) The file reported in the dialog in 3) exists and is accessible. It is certainly possible that the file is corrupted. How am I supposed to fix that? Or how can I work around that? It would be nice if I could ignore the corrupted file and go back to the last good backup file and base my next backup off of it.
In despiration, I attempted to delete the backup project and the files. It would not delete the files, but I did have the option to delete the backup project, which I did. Then I deleted the files on my NAS manually and set up a new backup project. This is running now.
There are several significant problems above that I have outlined. It would be nice if these were fixed.
JAB
Also, I have a hunch the persmissions or password were changed... or if not, that they need to be entered again. Please take a look at the following as well and give it a shot to force the application to rerquest the credentials again and then test the connection before attempting the backup again.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/58004
As I mentioned in my original post, I tested the connection successfully but then couldn't connect. That tells me there was no problem with the credentials.
I am very concerned with the way Acronis True Image reacts when a backup file gets corrupted. There appears to be no way to recover from this. That is not very convenient. As I mentioned, I had several successful backups, and then had a problem. In spite of all my efforts, the only way I could rectify the situation was to delete the backups and start all over. If I had needed the backups, I would have been out of luck because it kept erroring out when I tried to connect. This is unfortunate. In a pinch, I would have been happy to go back a week to a previous backup, but I didn't have that option.
I have since used an IP address instead of a machine name for the location of my backups. This is working (for the last 2 weeks anyway). Fingers crossed that I won't have a corrupt backup.
JAB
John, backing up to network shares, is probably the most difficult to troubleshoot and is probably one we see the most. That may still be something to try and troubleshoot, but if using IP instead of the hostname is working better, keep at it and let us know.
As for the backups - unless there is a problem with the disks on the NAS, the backup files themselves are most likely still fine and don't necessarily need to be deleted. The local database just houses the information that the applicatoin is using to keep track of a backup taks like version schemes, names, schedules, etc, but is completely separate from the backup files themselves (once the backup files have been created). You can delete a backup task and keep the backup files by deleting "settings only". You can then restore those backups with your offline recovery media and/or after importing them back into Acronis by clicking the drop down arrow and "add existing backup" (see attached screenshot). Whenever I do a full system restore, I always do so with my offline recovery media as it is the most reliable and complete independent of your OS where there could be issues with third party applications, malwarey, antivirus software, etc. The occassional offline backup is a good idea too - those are my go to whenever I need to restore and have never let me down. I like the autoamted backups in Windows, but let's face it, software and OS's have there own share of problems so the less they can interfere in the backup process, the better the chances of backup and/or recovery success.
If you have never attempted a recovery, you really should. 1) you want to be familiar with the process in a non-emergency situation. 2) This is the only true way to validate your backup and the best way to do so. 3) if you've never used your offline recovery media, you may find that you need to configure your bios differently to get it to boot... and, if your OS won't boot, you need your offline reocvery media to do the restore anyway.
However, don't take the risk of recovering to the original disk. Instead, remove the original to keep it safe and exactly "as is". That way, you can return to it when you're done with your restore test that was done on a new/different disk. If you have an older or spare drive, this is a great way to get some use out of it. If not, and your data is important to you, investing in a drive for this puropse is well worth it. Heck, get yourself an upgrade (perhaps a new SSD) for your main drive, restore to it and if it works, keep it as your new main drive and then hold onto the old one for the purpose of testing recoveries from time to time. You can't really go wrong testing if you remove the original (to keep it safe) and restore to a different disk to make sure things restore as expected.
Also, did you ever download the logviewer app as Steve suggested? It will help you look for the logs and may point to the issue. You can upload the log files here as well for additional review.
Thank you very much! A very in-depth reply indeed!
I will try a test restore as you suggest. I just recently replaced my drive with a SSD, so I have a spare.
I appreciate the information about the separation of backup tasks from the actual backup files.
JAB
Hi John,
Let us know how the restore went when you get the chance too. Always happy to try and help out.