ATI crying for removed differential backups when trying to perform recovery
Desktop Win10 64 bit, ATI 2019 with differential backuping on NAS, several differential versions removed from inside program during backup history.
Today doomsday after Windows forced update, desktop ruined, taskbar crippled, software configurations gone, etc. The moment for the backup has come. I can boot with the bootable CD and choose the differential backup I want to recover to partition C: in my desktop, but the then the program starts whining that it cannot find version 2, 3 and stops. Of course it cannot find them, I had removed them and chosen version 15 or something higher I had preserved. Choices "search, repeat, quit" won't bring me further so I cannot recover.
What can I do to make full backup + differential backup 15 work?


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Hi Steve, thanks for the swift response.
Unfortunately hitting the cancel button will just go some few backup versions further but I never can get the backup to start.
You describe it exactly as I see it. The reason why I finally decided to stick to the differential backup method was that one corrupt incremental backup file would make all backups beyond it useless. So one should be able to work with them also after removing some of them since there is only a dependency of the full backup.
I am thinking about recovering from within the program on the desktop but I am afraid I might get into even more trouble and end up with a system that won't start.....
Funnily earlier versions of ATI never made these problems.....
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I am thinking about recovering from within the program on the desktop but I am afraid I might get into even more trouble and end up with a system that won't start.....
The key downside for starting an OS recovery from within Windows is that a restart will be needed, which in turn means that ATI has to modify your BCD configuration to launch a temporary Linux environment from which to launch the ATI application for the recovery. This Linux OS may not have support for some types of newer drives such as NVMe M.2 or those using RAID.
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I found the same issue and reported it in 2019 and 2020. Luckily, even though I get a warning with the rescue media that the backup is corrupted, it still recovered just fine and booted so I think it's more of a bad error warnin because there is no real version chain dependency with differentials.
I'd press forward with the recovery and see how it turns out. Just make sure to start the recovery media in the same way the OS in the backup was installed. Try UEFI first if you're not sure.
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Thanks for all the input.
The hardware is not very new. I built the desktop 2011 and several years ago I put in a 2 TB HDD, partitioned in 2 partitions 200 GB for OS and programs and 1800 GB for data. It's the 200 GB partition I want to recover only. I think it is in non-UEFI mode but I haven't changed anything before backuping and recovering attempts.
At the moment I am trying to recover from within the program on the desktop, I started it yesterday evening, in the morning I found out it had halted with an error message that some files (didn't write down the name unfortunately) could not be accessed. I quitted it with "ignore" and now it is running again,
Just another error message: There is not enough disk space to recover file x.y.........Please free some disk space ....... but nothing big to be cleaned can be found with Windows own cleamgr.exe so I quitted it with "ignore" and it is running again Time left indicated for the 200 GB partition recovery 13h 39m (???) at the moment, probably caused b long halt overnight?
I would be really in even bigger problems if the backup should be used after a HDD crash! Then I would be forced to use a boot media.
In case I will not be successful with the recovery running - I will probably try older boot-media, I still have a 2016 CD and could make even older ones. Would they work with the backup files produced b 2019?
It's the first time an ATI version lets me practically completely down in the moment when I need it most. I have had a similar situation with earlier versions. It was easy to restore a partition with a bootable media and I actully regret having upgraded all my 5 older versions.
Again an error message "There is not enough disk pace to recover file 96F53................How else can I free disk space during recovery???? Why can the program not calculate its demands before starting the recovery?
I terminated the recovery.....
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I found out another peculiar behaviour of the bootable media software.
When it reported that it cannot find version 2 - I now pressed Cancel several times. One had to click on Cancel 6 times to get forward to the next demanded version 3 aso. But at version 8 nothing helped any more and I could not get further to version 15 which is the one I want to recover. Demanding absent version 2 started again thereafter......very frustrating. I have entered a support ticket yesterday for this issue. Next try will be with a bootable CD of ATI 2016....
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I got a reply from support - more than disappointing:
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The issue that you have reported regarding the differential backup restore, is currently a known issue with the product. Fix for this recovery issue will be released in upcoming builds. However, at the moment we do not have information about the release date. Once, the fix will be released, we will get back to you and will share build that contains the fix.
We would suggest you to recover the full backup. Then once the system is up and running, you can restore the files from the differential backup. Acronis True Image software must be installed on the machine. Double click on the backup and copy the files that you need.
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My answer to "support"
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The reason for attempting a recovery was that a recent Windows Update had copletely ruined my system, desktop ruined, configs of software ruined etc. For cases like that I had purchased commercial software. The 200 GB system and software partition on my 2000 GB could be recovered with earlier versions of the product without problem. Now it lets me down completely!
My full backup is much older. How would I know which files in the operating system and software I could import from the newer differential backup without causing a mess? There would be no problem, if it was only a data partition...
I think that this is such a heavy failure in a typical case customers buy the software for, that you cannot just tell the customers to wait for the next version. For me Acronis True Image 2019 has lost its value completely if it fails in a typical situation I have purchased it for and I definetely will search for another backup solution. That's not a little bug which can be fixed sometimes, that's complete failure in my view and I will not hesitate to warn potential customers of this problem.
I will try to recover with a bootable media of earlier versions I had purchased in the past.
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bootable media 2016 has the the same problem. So this is not a new bug which will be fixed if it has been such a long standing well known essential failure. It just means making fun of customers.....
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