Qestion regarding System Report
Hi guys,
A couple of days ago I installed the Microsoft Spring Upgrade on my Windows 10 PC.
After the upgrade, the Acronis True Image 2018 backups to my external hard disk all fail with 'The backup location was not found on the destination drive. Make sure the correct storage device is connected to the computer.' The drive is connected and I can copy a test file to it using Windows Explorer. I have been through the suggested Acronis fix notes and they has not resolved the issue. That is not the subject of this post.
I want to raise a Support ticket. Acronis request that I include a System Report. When I open the True Image 2018 'Help' screen and click 'Generate system report' nothing happens. <Sigh>. I have tried this several times over a 4-hour period. I have not tried to generate a System Report before. From https://kb.acronis.com/content/58820#On_a_Windows_computer0, I believe the report should open in a new window.
Has anyone else been unable to generate a System Report and found a soution?
Thanks
Chris


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Chris, I have just generated a system report and it worked just as BrunoC has described. At this point, I have no suggestions on fixing your System Report problem.
However, I would like to research your problem with 'The backup location was not found'
In your original post, you state: 'I have been through the suggested Acronis fix notes and they has not resolved the issue' Could you please provide a link for these fix notes?
There are quite a few instances where other users have experienced the same problem you have. In virtually all instances, re-selecting the backup location, then performing a 'Backup Now' fixes the problem.
When you create a backup task, ATI stores the 'device instance id' as well as the drive letter. Following is from one of my backups: <volume_location device_instance_id="STORAGE\VOLUME\{DEB50FAB-FBF6-11E7-BA3B-185E0FB4F32F}#0000000000100000" uri="M:\RogCD_full_b1_s1_v1.tib" volume_id="2003773839" />
A device instance ID is a system-supplied device identification string that uniquely identifies a device in the system. The Plug and Play (PnP) manager assigns a device instance ID to each device node (devnode) in a system's device tree.
So, my belief is that the Windows update caused the PnP manager to assign a new device instance ID to your external hard drive. This then causes ATI to generate the 'The backup location was not found' error message.
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Chris, there have been some issues with the Acronis System Report which were meant to be fixed in the latest Update #3 for ATI 2018 but didn't fix this for me either!
Please see KB 2707: AcronisInfo Utility and use that utility to create the System Report instead of the one integrated with ATI 2018 (this is an older version of the tool that does still work!).
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Randy,
I think you are spot on with your assessment. I believe that the issue exists specifically with externally attached devices. I wonder if disconnecting such devices may prior to update may remedy this issue?
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I don't know if this would help in the analysis, but NirSoft's USBDeview application can tell you a lot about how Windows keeps track of your USB devices.
[I've used a number of NirSoft utilities to look inside of Windows, as well as the MS Sysinternals stuff.]
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A Device Instance ID is dependent on UPNP for assignment. An upgrade of the system OS conceivably could change this identifier to cause a mismatch due to Windows not using the same Device Driver after the upgrade of the OS.
UPNP queries the device driver for Hardware ID and then generates Instance ID for a device, it concatenates the ID strings to create a Device Instance ID. So a change in Device Drivers can effect/change a Device Instance ID.
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Hi everyone,
Thanks for your help. I re-selected my external hard drive, clicked ' Back Up Now' and the backup completed successfully.
FtrPilot, the 'fix notes' that I referred to earlier are at https://kb.acronis.com/content/60612. When my backups failed, there was an error message window on the Backup screen with a 'Check for a Solution' link. This pointed to the page above. It would be a great idea if someone from Acronis could add a point to the page to say 'try re-selecting your USB drive and click Back Up Now'. I was so focused on following the instructions, I did not think to try this :-) .
Enchantec speculated that disconnecting the external drive prior to the Windows upgrade may avoid the issue. My drive was disconnected during the upgrade. I forgot to reconnect it before the first backup ran after the upgrade. I saw that the backup failed and connected the drive. True Image 2018 would not recognise the drive and after several attempts I posted here. I suspected that some drive id had been changed in the upgrade.
Steve, thank you for the information about the AcronisInfo utility. I have downloaded and run it successfully. It's good to know that I was not missing something fundamental when the Generate System Report feature did nothing.
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Chris...thanks for the link and thanks for the feedback. I will start a thread in the MVP section and see if we can get the knowledge base link updated to show this fix.
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I have a Support Case # 3343956 raised for the ATI 2018 System Report tool issue (as requested by Renata in the MVP forum topic related to this).
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Good news Chris! Thanks for the feedback.
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