snapman.sys prevents booting Windows XP in Safe Mode
Greetings to the Forum:
I am unable to boot Windows XP in Safe Mode with snapman.sys present. The system crashes when attempting to read this driver. According to the internet, the driver is necessary to Acronis. Is this correct? Can I run Acronis True Image without this driver or do I have to rename it and put it back before running Acronis?
I suppose I can do that, but it sure is a nuisance. One would think that a driver which works in normal mode should not crash and halt the system when attempting to boot in Safe Mode.
Any thoughts welcome.
Regards,
Jim T.
KB6GM


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Greetings to Bobbo_3C0X1 and the Forum:
I am running a 32 bit version of Windows XP:
Version 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_qfe.130704-0421 : Service Pack 3)
This is a new installation of Acronis.
I have successfully backed up and restored my hard drive already while trouble-shooting another problem. However, after doing the restore, I had to rename and move the snapman.sys driver in order to boot the system in safe mode so I could deal with another problem. The system has now been fully recovered, but I am loathe to leave this driver in place due to the fact that one never knows when one may have to boot in safe mode and it cannot be done while this driver is in place.
I only intend to do periodic backups of my hard drive which would be manually initiated. I don't understand the function of snapman.sys, but if it is generating restore points as I go, I do not need this capability. I could experiment and see if the Acronis full backup works without this driver but I thought I'd better check here first. Worst case, I can put the driver back where it belongs before I do a backup and remove it again thereafter, but I cannot be without the capability of a safe mode boot.
'twould be grand if Acronis would fix the driver, although I doubt they will invest the effort for an obsolete operating system.
Regards,
JIm T.
KB6GM
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James, please be very careful if you are considering deleting snapman.sys as this can result in an unbootable system.
See post: 9076: Snapman.sys deleted and now I can't boot and KB document: 1620: Removing Acronis SnapAPI Drivers for further information.
I would recommend doing a full uninstall of ATIH 2016 from your XP SP3 system including running the Acronis Cleanup Tool (link in my signature below), then test that you can start in Safe Mode without issue.
If all is OK at this point, then do a clean install of the latest build 6581 for ATIH 2016 that was release in the last couple of days, then retest your Safe Mode start again to see if the problem returns or is resolved by the clean install providing either an updated version of snapman.sys or restoring all the correct links & registry entries for it.
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Agreed - because snapman.sys is associated with Acronis backgroundn services, you don't want to just remove it on it's own.
I'd follow Steve's suggestion of running a cleanup - please see this thread for a little bit more USER-level guidance on how a clean should be handled to give the best chance of starting with a new install with the recently released update that you can download from your account.
FYI... ultimately, if you are going to be running backups manually, you can opt to not install Acronis at all, but instead create your bootable recovery media (before you uninstall) or download the .iso to burn to disc. you can then boot to the recovery media outside of Windows and take manual backups and/or recovery with it. This is my preferred backup/recovery method when I know I have a planned recovery or before I make major system changes. It's nice having the backup done outside of Windows as it limits issues in Windows (such as malware or antivirus trying to conflict) since it's all run outside of Windows and in it's own Acronis bootable recovery environment.
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Greetings to Bobbo_3C0X1, Steve and the Forum:
I kind of goofed. I brought up Acronis and it asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the latest 2016 version, so I told it to go ahead, thinking I would have the option to save the file and execute the upgrade later.
However, it went ahead with the update immediately without allowing me top do an uninstall and cleanup.
The good news is that I have a different version of snapman.sys in my drivers folder and it allows either a conventional boot or a Safe Mode boot.
The bad news is that I no longer have an Acronis icon in my system tray (don't know what that means) and the desktop icon for Acronis True Image is now a Windows generic icon.
I have created another boot disk and done another full backup with the new version and it went well. So.... now I just need to know where I can download the Acronis icon file so I can fix my desktop shortcut and I also need to know how important the icon in the system tray is and can I live without it?
Thanks to all,
Jim T.
KB6GM
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Interesting. You may still be able to find the originall installer in your temp files. If it's there, copy it somewhere safe to hold onto. You could then try to run by right clicking and "run as administrator" and hopefully get an option to repair the install which may fix all of the issues you're seeing. Did you also reboot after the install - that may fix things too if not.
As for the missing icon - also strange. Typcially, the icon is associated witht the .exe file.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImagel.exe
The tray icon is supposed to be there to let you know when a backup is running, but that's about it. I only see the icon when a backup is actually running so run a backup and see if it shows up then. If not, go to Control panel >>> administrative tools >>> services and see if any Acronis services are stopped. If they are, try setting them to "automatic" for the start type and then start it and run a backup and see if it appears. Might need to reboot first and then see how it goes.
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