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Unable to recover my full backups created with Acronis 2019

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I have been unable to recover my full backups created with Acronis 2019.  This has been going on  for about three weeks and I haven't been able to determine why.  Below I will provide

information pertaining to what I was able to do in the past, and what is happening now.

 

I have a desktop computer running the latest version of Windows 10 Pro.  On this computer

my main drive is named SATA 01_C (C:) 1585.69 GB NTFS.  Another drive on this PC is

named SATA 04-F (F:) 1863.01 GB NTFS.  All of these drives are Western Digital (02TB)

Black Disks.  The file system on everything is NTFS.

 

I actually have two hard disks for the (C:) drive.  In my PC each of these drives are mounted in an Inner Tray. In one drive bay I have mounted a Caddy into a slot where a hard drive would normally be mounted.  I can slide either of the drives that are mounted in an Inner Tray into the Caddy.  Normally I would change out the two Inner Tray mounted hard disks every week. I

named these two Inner Tray drives No. 1 and No. 2.  If No. 1 is in the Caddy for a week , then I will remove it from the Caddy and replace it with hard drive No. 2.  Then I would boot my PC using my Acronis  Bootable Rescue CD and recover the latest Acronis Full Backup to drive

No. 2 and I would be back up and running.  In the event I could not recover my Full Backup

(like I am experiencing now) then I take No. 2 out of the Caddy and replace it with Drive No.1.

So I have two disks that are basically the same, both can operate individually, but I can only use them one at a time.  One is being used as the working drive (C:) and the other is waiting to be swapped the next Sunday.  I have checked all disks with Chkdsk and Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics program and have not found anything wrong with these disks.

 

I have 6 Full Backups stored on the drive named SATA 04-F (F:),  this is a 02TB drive.  When I do a recovery I use the latest Full Backup on this disk as my source.  This drive is installed in

my PC case, but if you have to service it or change it out you have to open the case to access it.

On this drive I create a Full Backup of my System disk every morning at 4:00 AM.  When the seventh Full Backup is created, the oldest backup is deleted.  So I always have 6 Daily Full Backups.

 

I have a Western Digital Elements External Drive.  Once a week I make a copy of the latest Full Backup that is located on SATA 04-F (F:).  These backups are not scheduled , but they are configured so that no more that 6 of these weekly Full Backups are saved, when the seventh backup is created Acronis deletes the oldest Full Backup.  The reason I keep these Full Backups on this drive is that the drive is taken away from the inside of my house to another location, so if I was to have a fire or my computer was stolen, I would still have a Full Backup in a safe location.  I am also able to recover these Full Backups.

 

NOW TO WHAT MY PROBLEM IS

 

I am unable to restore the latest backup to the drive that should be used next week.  I am doing everything the same as I always have but something has happened and I have been unable to determine what the problem is.   Below I will describe the method I use and what now happens.

 

When I want to swap out the two drives No. 1 and No. 2 here is what happens:

 

I click on shut down, and when shutdown starts I insert my Rescue CD.  When the shutdown is complete I take out Drive No.1 and insert Drive No. 2.  Then I restart the computer.  Then the

Recovery image opens and I chose Recover My Disks, the latest date shown is 8/29/2019.

 

It looks like this:

Under name it shows FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1_v1

Under created it shows FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1_v1 (8/29/2019 1:00:02 AM)

Under Method it shows Full Backup

Under Path it shows C:\FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1_v1.tib

I choose the above and click "Next".  This takes me to the Recovery Method and I choose

"Recover whole disks and partitions", and I click next and it takes me to the "What to recover" screen.  On this screen at the top it says "Select the items to recover".  Within this screen at the top it shows headings of  PARTITION  F1  CAPACITY    USED SPACE  TYPE.

Under the Partition heading it shows Disk 1 and undo and squares that could be checked.  The first is NTFS(SATAO4_F)(F:), and below that is another line, it is  MBR and Track 0.

Under F1 it shows Pri,  Under Capacity it shows 1.819TB, and under Used Space it shows

259.6 GB, and under Type is shows NTFS, and below that MBR and Track 0.

In the bottom right-hand corner it shows two rectangles, the first rectangle is grayed out and Next is in this rectangle.  The other rectangle is not grayed out and the word Cancel is inside it.

The problem with this is that this is the drive that all my Full Daily Backups are installed in, and I have always been able to recover the files like  FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1_v1.

 

So how has it managed to want to recover my NTFS(SATA04_F)(F:) disk when I have selected

FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1_v1?

 

I am at a total loss as to what has happened and why.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  I don't know if I should redo the backup, reinstall Acronis 2019, change to a different backup program, or what.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  I do know that each day it is still creating new

Full Daily Backups, the latest being b1080.  This b1080 file was created on 8/29/2019.

 

Here is another quirk I have discovered.  I got to thinking about the Weekly Full Backups that I have installed on my Western Digital Elements External Drive.  I don't usually try to recover from that drive because it is a little more difficult to do than the procedure I've described above.

So I plugged in my External Drive, shut down my PC, inserting my Acronis Bootable Rescue CD as it was shutting down and then swapped out the Drive No.1 for Drive No.2.  I then was able to install the latest Full Backup for that date on Drive No.2.  No problems, no trying to change what file I had selected or anything else.  Go figure! 

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David, sorry but not sure what to advise here given the conclusion to your lost post above, i.e. that you were able successfully restore your selected backup image from your external backup drive?

I would recommend creating the MVP Custom ATIPE version of the rescue media to use for your weekly recoveries, as this would also allow you to capture screen images of the panels where you are seeing an issue.  See the link to the tool in my signature.

The other check point would be the Log file for the attempted recovery but as you had not completed the action of selecting the source and target etc, then it is unlikely that the log will contain any information.

ANSWER TO QUESTION

 

First, I want to apologize for taking so long to send this reply.  I have been especially busy with other projects that were more important than this.

 

You are going to get a big kick from what I am going to tell you.  I FEEL SO STUPID.

I am very embarrassed to tell you that the whole problem was my fault, and it shows that people can do wrong things and not even realize it.

 

What i did was changed my Backup Source.  I chose my SATA 04_F (F:) drive instead of my SATA 01_C (C:) drive.  Don't ask me why I did such a stupid thing, because I have no clue.

What makes this even more stupid is that I got a notice that said "it is not recommended to back up a partition to itself."   I totally ignored this, wondering why I was getting an alert for something "I thought" I wasn't doing.

 

One day after I submitted the above question, I received the "it is not recommended to back up a partition to itself notice again and I finally realized the message was related to my problem.  I checked things out and sure enough correcting this solved my problem.  This also answered my original question  "So how has it managed to want to recover my NTFS(SATA04_F) (F:) disk when I have selected FULDAILYWIN_full_b1080_s1-v1".

David, couple of points here:

1st, you have solved this issue by yourself regardless of having made a mistake.

2nd, you are 100% normal, as we all can do exactly the same given opportunity!

For myself, they get called 'senior moments' and get attributed to my senior years, but if you get an opportunity take a look at one of the other MVP's signature (Karl) who has a very apt quote that about sums this whole situation very well!

Steve Smith wrote:

For myself, they get called 'senior moments' and get attributed to my senior years, but if you get an opportunity take a look at one of the other MVP's signature (Karl) who has a very apt quote that about sums this whole situation very well!

Like Steve and am increasingly prone to senior's moments. From time to time we all do something which in retrospect is inexplicable.

Ian

I'm a senior, but doubt I have senior moments... at least I don't remember any.

That's a little like going upstairs for something then wondering what it was?