Leftover Drivers?

The mere presence of the driver files themselves in your \Windows\System32\Drivers\ folder is not the problem. In fact, you could leave them all there and it wouldn't matter at all, IF they weren't being loaded and used to bypass the operating system's own hardware abstraction layer. The real problem is the Acronis "takeover" of storage device control in your registry, and that isn't reversible by normal uninstallation of the TIH application. That is the most likely cause of any "conflicts" you're seeing, not just the driver files themselves.

To avoid "blue screen" death traps, any cleanup MUST be done in the following order:
1) Removal of any residual Acronis device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries;
2) Removal of any residual Acronis "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) filter services;
3) Removal (optional) of any residual Acronis filter service drivers files.

The first step is the most critical for restoring normal OS control of storage devices. You'll find the relevant UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries under the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}

Do NOT remove any of the driver files until you have cleaned up BOTH the DiskDrive and Volume device class filters entries (step 1) AND the Acronis filter services entries that use those drivers (step 2). If you're not sure about any of it, don't guess. If you need additional details, please say which Windows OS version you are running. Also please indicate if you had any other essential storage device management software (e.g., for >2TB hard drives) previously installed.

__
P.S.: Before some Acronis defender jumps in here to remind us all, yes I know that other software sometimes leaves "stuff" behind too, but what Acronis leaves behind isn't just innocuous "stuff." It's system altering leftovers that, at minimum, irreversibly degrade OS control of storage devices and, at maximum, are totally deadly. Never install Acronis software without a validated full system backup and a thoroughly tested bootable recovery disc -- i.e., one that is fully consistent with your operating system's drive recognition and access capabilities.

This is non sense to have much problem to install a program for backup and keep safe our pc.
I have same problem than previous talk also the program are freeze my machine window system protect the dump and the message refer IRQL_not_less_or_Equal the note inform to contact the new software install of the problem. I feel to be left over Acronis to resolve this installation more friendly. If the software are not ready to limit the problem to user, why they not support more their client. If you install the free version I guest this will be comprehensible, but when customers paid it the system suppose to be debug from the crap and operational and not acting like non professional software of the beginners.

Thanks Richard,

I had pretty much already done all that you outlined above EXCEPT I did not do the steps in the CORRECT ORDER. All seems well now but time will tell for sure. Thanks for all the help. It is appreciated!

Best regards,
Kent

Richard Virtue wrote:

The mere presence of the driver files themselves in your \Windows\System32\Drivers\ folder is not the problem. In fact, you could leave them all there and it wouldn't matter at all, IF they weren't being loaded and used to bypass the operating system's own hardware abstraction layer. The real problem is the Acronis "takeover" of storage device control in your registry, and that isn't reversible by normal uninstallation of the TIH application. That is the most likely cause of any "conflicts" you're seeing, not just the driver files themselves.

To avoid "blue screen" death traps, any cleanup MUST be done in the following order:
1) Removal of any residual Acronis device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries;
2) Removal of any residual Acronis "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) filter services;
3) Removal (optional) of any residual Acronis filter service drivers files.

The first step is the most critical for restoring normal OS control of storage devices. You'll find the relevant UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries under the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}

Do NOT remove any of the driver files until you have cleaned up BOTH the DiskDrive and Volume device class filters entries (step 1) AND the Acronis filter services entries that use those drivers (step 2). If you're not sure about any of it, don't guess. If you need additional details, please say which Windows OS version you are running. Also please indicate if you had any other essential storage device management software (e.g., for >2TB hard drives) previously installed.

__
P.S.: Before some Acronis defender jumps in here to remind us all, yes I know that other software sometimes leaves "stuff" behind too, but what Acronis leaves behind isn't just innocuous "stuff." It's system altering leftovers that, at minimum, irreversibly degrade OS control of storage devices and, at maximum, are totally deadly. Never install Acronis software without a validated full system backup and a thoroughly tested bootable recovery disc -- i.e., one that is fully consistent with your operating system's drive recognition and access capabilities.

I recently did an uninstall of ATIH2010 and it failed rather miserably (didn't uninstall ANYTHING including the program executables in Program Files). I next used the Acronis Cleaner which (mostly) worked--there was at least one driver file left (timntr.sys iirc).

Bottom line: before rebooting one's PC, one has to inspect those two keys for any traces of Acronis filters (we should list them, at least snapman and tdrpmn273 come to mind for my setup) and then edit-out ONLY THE ACRONIS ENTRIES. Some here have misunderstood and deleted the entire key(s), resulting in disaster.

It's a bit widespread what programs leave behind when unistalled under widows. Few scrubbers are really complete.
Often the leftovers don't hurt, espeically when we relace the Os every five years or so. some leftovers are worse than others. Tuff that leaves drivers beyond can be messy to live with -- Nero, Adobe, Itunes are a few terrible culprits I've come across besides ATI.

Think of the leftover drivers like day-old meatloaf. Not the "reality TV" figure but the rehashed entree. You can tell them apart because one is slightly smarter than the other. ;)

Of course, if you leave meatloaf laying around, sooner or later it's going to ruin your experience.

tomf wrote:

... we should list them

Okay. You asked for it. Use at your own risk.

Here's a detailed listing, but only for those Acronis TIH 2012 registry entries that actually alter the normal functions and performance of the operating system itself. Any such HKLM\SYSTEM branch entries that get left behind in the registry, thus bypassing your normal OS HAL, are more like potential timebombs under your house than the "stale meatloaf" effect of a few HKLM\SOFTWARE branch leftovers.

__
List of device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries added by ATIH:
(NOTE: + indicates value inserted into REG_MULTI_SZ registry entries.)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Class = DiskDrive
UpperFilters + fltsrv
LowerFilters + vidsflt61 (NOTE: Last 2 digits of filter service name may vary.)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
Class = Volume
UpperFilters + timounter + fltsrv
LowerFilters

__
List of "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) filter services installed by ATIH:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\fltsrv
DisplayName = Acronis Storage Filter Management
ImagePath = system32\drivers\fltsrv.sys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\timounter
DisplayName = Acronis Backup Archive Explorer
ImagePath = system32\drivers\timntr.sys

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vidsflt61
DisplayName = Acronis Disk Storage Filter
ImagePath = system32\drivers\vsflt61.sys (NOTE: Last 2 digits of driver name may vary.)

__
List of other "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) services installed by ATIH:

afcdp - Acronis File Level CDP Helper - afcdp.sys
snapman - Acronis Snapshots Manager - snapman.sys
tdrpman - Acronis Try&Decide and Restore Points Filter - tdrpman.sys | tdrpm273.sys
vididr - Acronis Virtual Disk - vididr.sys

__
List of other "autostart" (start=0x00000002) services installed by ATIH:

AcrSch2Svc - Acronis Scheduler Service
afcdpsrv - Acronis Continuous Backup Service
syncagentsrv - Acronis Sync Agent Service

__
In addition, for Windows 7 only, normal Backup and Recovery control panel functions may be disabled by alterations or deletions of the following registry entries:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
ResourceID = 14 (as hexadecimal value or 20 as decimal value)
ResourceDLL = %SystemRoot%\System32\sdcpl.dll (as REG_EXPAND_SZ value)

__
EDIT: Autostart services added to listings.

Richard,

On your last point regarding restoring Windows 7 back and Restore Control Panel: I forgot to undue the ATIH "takeover" of Backup and Restore BEFORE uninstalling ATIH. This causes Win7 to be unable to launch its O/S delivered Backup and Restore function. There is a blog entry to provides instructions on how to fix this:

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/fix-w7-backup-restore-acronis-true-im…

The only steps I found that I needed to do in addition to making the changes in the sequence in that article was to Restart my system between the "ownership" changes specified.

Hi again, GG. Thank you for that very useful link. Much better than Acronis' own fix ( http://kb.acronis.com/content/26912 ) which doesn't cover its possible "hijacking" of registry key ownership and permissions.

Richard your posts are/have been much appreciated. If I'd had a couple more cups of coffee this morning I would add that for folks who are upgrading from an older version of ATIH, the Filter registry entries are different (and must also be edited-out, OTTOMH I can think of snapman that I've seen in there).

Someday Acronis will make a spreadsheet with the critical driver and Registry entries for the various versions and builds, so those of us who have installed & upgraded various versions over the years will have one place to look. Or not.

Thanks again RichardV.

You're welcome. I edited the post to specify more clearly that those listings are for Acronis TIH 2012 registry entries. That version introduced the new fltsrv service and driver (along with all of its current deficiencies in USB/NAS/SDD and other storage devices handling, etc.). Earlier versions used the snapman service and driver directly as a device class filter.

PLEASE REMEMBER: To avoid "blue screen" death traps, any cleanup MUST be done in the following order:
1) Removal of any residual Acronis device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries;
2) Removal of any residual Acronis "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) services;
3) Removal of any other residual Acronis services, drivers files and miscellaneous leftovers.

THE DRIVER FILES THEMSELVES SHOULD ALWAYS BE THE LAST TO GO! That way, you can still use F8 - Last Known Good Configuration to recover from any intermediate registry cleanup errors.

Perhaps the most disgusting part of this whole mess is the fact that the Windows OS provides built-in capabilites for tracking and restoring previous device driver versions and thus reverting to the status quo ante, if Acronis would only get off its fat lazy ass and learn how to use installer/uninstaller MSI and INF packages properly. But they'd rather rely on "some other people leave stuff behind too" excuses. Feeble! I always thought Russian software developers were supposed to be better than others. Prove it!

P.S.:
С Рождеством Христовым! Merry Christmas!

Hello all,

The "never ending story" of problems with ATIH2012...
Some days ago I upgraded to ATIH2012, well at least I tried to. I installed the Dutch version, but that ended in an 'unknown' error. I tried to uninstall it, but that also did no go OK. I tried to reinstall again but got the same error in the end. Finally started Revo Unistaller to get rid of ATIH2012 and saw that an enormous amount of registry entries were left behind, most of them also not clear if these were leftovers of the programme. I left them as they were and ran a cleanup of the registry with CCleaner and all seemed to be OK... until this evening when I tried to read a memorystick... No USB-port was working and I noticed in the device manager that the device driver was installed OK but saw the following message "A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)".
I have downloaded the so-called "clean-up" Utility from Acronis and thought that would do the trick, but I still have the same problem. Even have tried some workouts which were mentioned in this forum as making changes in the registry which gave me even more problems, including the "blue screen of death"... So for now, I have a system with no ATIH2012 installed, and a lot of 'leftovers' I can't get rid of, and USB-ports not working any more.
Only thing left now is to restore the system to a day before the installation of ATIH2012 :-(

My conclusion: Acronis TrueImage Home 2012 is a DISASTER !!!
My recommendation: DO NOT USE the software and look for an alternative !!!

J Nieuwenhuis wrote:

Even have tried some workouts which were mentioned in this forum as making changes in the registry which gave me even more problems, including the "blue screen of death"

The way ATIH installs itself, that is bound to happen if the registry entries are not removed in the correct order, or if the driver files are deleted before the registry entries are removed exactly and precisely as noted above. The specified device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters enties MUST be removed first (which will restore normal OS handling of USB and other storage devices), the Acronis services entries next, and the driver files last. One missed removal item, or one item removed out of sequence (whether done manually or by some automated "cleanup" quirk) will cause a problem every time, which was the reason for that "use at your own risk" warning.

As for alternatives, there are some backup and recovery applications that work quite happily without making any changes at all to the OS HAL control of any device class, that can use Windows own VSS snapshot images to back up to ANY device supported by the OS itself, and that remove themselves completely and cleanly when uninstalled in the normal way. Not too hard to find if you search for them.

Yes I know Richard, and I probably also did something wrong... It is of course very strange that for people with no IT-background (though I'm fortunate to have it) it is almost impossible to get rid of the software... Especially when the 'clean-up' software from Acronis also does not do the trick :-(

Well, you've read my conclusion and recommendation... I'm finished with Acronis!

I just have restored my PC to a situation a few days back and everything seems to work OK now; I only need to re-install two (large) programmes from Serif, a company that makes working software!

As I see it, Acronis' longstanding failure to properly track and provide straightforward reversibility for their "system takeover" installation methods is leading them deeper and deeper into a black hole. Not all of the consequences are immediately apparent to every end user, of course, but the cumulative results are probably responsible for more current issues than any other single factor already, and the remainder won't remain undiscovered for long. Even some magazine "reviewers" might figure it out eventually.

It is probably beyond serious consideration to even think about the kind of fundamental redesign that would allow their products to work cooperatively on top of the operating system's own hardware abstraction layer. But, if they don't soon do something about the growing mess, they're heading for oblivion as far as I'm concerned, and no amount of semi-functional gimmicks and gewgaws will stop that precipitous slide. It's a damned shame. They were "pack leaders" for quite a while.

I can assure you that you're not alone. This end user is also looking hard at other options. Just a matter of choosing which one. At the moment Germany and the U.S. are in a tight race. :^)

Scott Hieber wrote:

Of course, if you leave meatloaf laying around, sooner or later it's going to ruin your experience.

Laughing out loud! My coffee has sprayed my monitor... :)

@ Richard, tried you suggestions but causes 7b bsod on restart, system restore fixes it fortunately.

I have had several other Acronis TI products installed-uninstalled over the last year or so, TIH 2012 was the last one I just uninstalled, but cannot seem to get the drivers cleaned up per your instructions. Deleted the following filters and services=reboot bsod

Autoruns only shows 2 Acronis drivers still loading

filtsrv.sys
vidsflt58.sys

{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Upper: PartMgr apmwin gpt_loader fltsrv
Lower: vidsflt58

{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
Upper: mounthlp EUBKMON EUBAKUP hotcore3 fltsrv
Lower: fvevol rdyboost (tried leaving this one and deleting it, no help)

Services present
fltsrv
vidsflt58

Services Not present
tdrpm273.sys
timounter
afcdp.sys
vididr.sys
AcrSch2Svc
afcdpsrv
syncagentsrv

Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Any suggestions before I cave and pave? TIA

.

Wow! Looks like you've been very unfaithful to Acronis and have been experimenting with some other OS HAL-bypass proggies as well. I think I recognise EaseUS and possibly an Apple(!?) partition mapper (apmwin), but I'm not sure about some others. I think some older Paragon software releases also used to use that method at one time, but not the latest versions that now run cooperatively with Windows own OS HAL. Our system management chores would be much easier and safer if they all did.

That's the problem with all such "bad actors" that don't uninstall themselves cleanly and completely. At some point, even if you only install them "on trial", you end up with a cumulative mess that's extremely difficult to untangle, if not utterly impossible. I don't think I've ever seen so many DiskDrive and Volume device class filters in a single Windows setup before.

In the circumstances, I think the best I can do for you is to tell you what definitely should be there in a clean Win7x64 installation. For my own "virgin" Win7 setup, those UpperFilters and LowerFilters values are as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
UpperFilters = PartMgr
LowerFilters =

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
UpperFilters =
LowerFilters = fvevol rdyboost

PLEASE NOTE VERY CAREFULLY: That "virgin" Win7 setup of mine is minimal. It is barebones (no RAID, no >2TB drives, etc.) and, therefore, its CurrentControlSet makes no provision at all for hardware configuration variants that may possibly require some device class filters of their own. But it should at least be bootable.

Thanks Richard, yes I install a lot of software : -<

Currently installed software, forgot I had all this stuff installed, my bad.

Easeus Partition master
Easeus Todo Backup

Paragon Drive Backup 9.5
Paragon HFS+ for Windows 9.0 (explains the apple entry?)
Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 2.0

Oracle Virtual Box

I will try uninstalling Easeus and Paragon software, then recheck what is left behind for Acronis.

Follow up, uninstalled Easeus Todo and Paragon HFS+ and Paragon Drive Bckup

now I have

{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Upper: PartMgr fltsrv
Lower: vidsflt58

{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
Upper: fltsrv
Lower: fvevol rdyboost

Aurtoruns still shows the 2 Acronis drivers/services (vidsflt58 and fltsrv) loading at startup.

What should I do now?

.

Well, at least in theory, it should now be okay to complete the process by getting rid of those other leftover Acronis "filtsrv" and "vidsflt58" filters. Just follow the original instructions above in this same thread.

If that succeeds and you really do want the Paragon stuff, I'd suggest getting the paid version of their latest Hard Drive Manager 11 Suite rather than re-installing the previous items. The current version does not insert any device class filters. In any case, best to choose only one brand.

Thanks Richard, finally got it cleaned up, Acronis is Gone!

I really wish they had not ruined Acronis TI, last version I really liked was the old TI 11, 9 was great also, still use that on XP machines.

Acronis 9 and 11 was so flexible and just worked flawlessly for me, 2012 was buggy and crashed all the time on W7x64, 2010 and 2011 the interface was horrible.

Do you have any recommendations for image software that is flexible and allows you to resize partitions when restoring? free or paid.

No, not really. Still looking, comparing and evaluating myself, in the early stages with some of them. So far none makes me completely happy. I do like Paragon for the specific reasons mentioned, but it has a few quirks of its own. I've also been looking very seriously at StorageCraft ShadowProtect and like its relatively straightforward focus on backup and recovery without all the other gadgets and gimmicks, but it also "lives in the past" to some extent, although less so than Acronis.

To be perfectly honest, I'd really like to stay with Acronis if only they'd get their act together, stop living on past glory, and get on with re-thinking their stubborn insistence on doing things in lazy and dangerous ways that no longer make any sense, if they ever really did. They act almost like a bunch of prehistoric *nix weenies who've never really made peace with the Windows operating system and its own progress as such. And their almost complete lack of any real application data management smarts is utterly atrocious. They can't even seem to manipulate stored integers without screwing something up.

I like PING, but its just too bare bones for me and is a boot disc only. I tried it for a while and worked flawlessly for me.

http://ping.windowsdream.com/

I had the problems with disk drivers etc. mentioned above after an uninstall of ATI 2012. I have been using ATI since 2009. 2012 is a bust.
The above procedure is well written and I am sure it works. Except I had hunted down the driver files and deleted them prior to reading this thread. Results for me continued with BSOD's. I done a complete clean reinstall of Win7 to get out of it. I requested a refund for 2012 and moved on to some other backup software that works fine and is not as bloated. Acronis has a problem. For their own sake I hope they are not in denial.

I want to get 2012 off my machine but have several previous disk .tib images of two machines (I don't use the Acronis file backup, but keep my data on a different HDD). I intend to make a current image of my OS disk before I start. One thing that I would like to know is that If I use the Acronis 2012 backup/recovery boot CD after removal of 2012 from my OS disk, will the prog running from the CD still stamp all over my PC or am I safe to use it to make an image of my cleaned OS disk?

Running the program from the bootcd does not affect the drivers--whatever drivers it uses are on the bootcd already. If you restore, you get get on the target whatever was in the image that was backed up.

e.g., If you made a backup of your disk before installing ati2012, then restoring the image would make the disk just as it was before, wtihout any trace of ati2012.

If you use a backup from another machine, be absolutely sure that the other machine is not only the same model, but has the same hardware.

Thanks for the reply Scott.
What I intend to do is make an image of my OS disk (just in case I screw up the removal of 2012) on to a different internal HDD. Remove 2012 and its leftover drivers etc. Once I am happy it's gone, re image the drive using the Acronis boot CD. Hence my question.
Re. 2 machines, I would only restore an image to the same machine that it came from :-).

If you clean up the drive and then use the bootcd to make a backup of the disk image, that disk image won't have anything in it that isn't on the source. ATI won't add, eg.g, drivers to the backup.

Thanks for that then. That reassures me. I'll get on with it then. :-)

Hi. Sorry about the long post but I don't wand to BSOD (or is it 'bork'?) my PC.

I feel that I am getting there but still have some Acronis dross hanging about. The state of my W7Ultimate x86 system is as follows:

__
List of device class UpperFilters and LowerFilters entries added by ATIH:
These two keys are as below so appear to be OK:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Class = DiskDrive
UpperFilters partmgr SiRemFil
LowerFilters  {empty}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}
Class = Volume
UpperFilters  {empty}
LowerFilters fvevol rdyboost

_______________ List of "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) filter services installed by ATIH:
This key does not exist HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\fltsrv
DisplayName = Acronis Storage Filter Management
ImagePath = system32\drivers\fltsrv.sys

but this one below does. Is this right as it refers to fltsrv.sys?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\fltMgr
Description = @%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\fltmgr.sys,=10000
DisplayName = @%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\fltmgr.sys,=10001
ImagePath = system32\drivers\fltsrv.sys

This key does not exist
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\timounter
DisplayName = Acronis Backup Archive Explorer
ImagePath = system32\drivers\timntr.sys

This key exists and appears to be the one that’s loading the vidsflt61 driver
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vidsflt61
DisplayName = Acronis Disk Storage Filter (61)
ImagePath = system3\drivers\vsflt61.sys

__ List of other "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) services installed by ATIH:

Checked in services.msc:

afcdp - Acronis File Level CDP Helper - afcdp.sys     Not running
snapman - Acronis Snapshots Manager - snapman.sys   Not running
tdrpman - Acronis Try&Decide and Restore Points Filter - tdrpman.sys | tdrpm273.sy Not running 
vididr - Acronis Virtual Disk - vididr.sys  Not running

__ List of other "autostart" (start=0x00000002) services installed by ATIH:
AcrSch2Svc - Acronis Scheduler Service  Not running
afcdpsrv - Acronis Continuous Backup Service  Not running
syncagentsrv - Acronis Sync Agent Service  Not running

__ Windows 7 only, normal Backup and Recovery:

This key is as follows, so appears OK and B&R does run [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
ResourceID = 14 (as hexadecimal value or 20 as decimal value)
ResourceDLL = %SystemRoot%\System32\sdcpl.dll (as REG_EXPAND_SZ value)

A Driver check in autoruns shows:
This driver is still loaded
vidsflt61 C:\Windows\System32\drivers\vsflt61.sys Acronis Virtual Disk Storage Filter

The drivers that are not loaded are:
fltsrv - C:\Windows\System32\drivers\fltsrv.sys - Acronis Storage Filter Management
drpman273 - C:\Windows\System32\drivers\tdrpm273.sys - Acronis Try&Decide and Restore Points filter
vidsflt58 - C:\Windows\System32\drivers\vsflt58.sys - Acronis Virtual Disk Storage Filter

Should I delete the two keys that still exist in the ‘List of "required for boot”’ section above highlighted in red, one of which is loading the vidsflt61 driver and the other of which seems to do nothing untoward but does refer to fltsrv.sys?

Will it then be OK to delete the actual drivers and delete the Acronis dross from C:\Program Files

You should be OK based on Richard's guide. Just make sure you do a backup of your system using the recovery CD. This is the best way to tweak your registry and have a chance to go back.

OK, Here we go then.

It Black screened. :-(
I was not astute enough to write down all it said, but it did mention hardware changed. Glad I made a disk image before I deleted the keys, so recovery was not much of a peoblem.
Any other Ideas anyone?
Trev

Thread Resurrection!

I installed 'Acronis True Image WD Edition Software' as a download from the Western Digital site, and used it to clone an existing system onto a new disk on my Win7-64 Home system. After uninstalling Acronis, I noticed that a device driver: vsflt53.sys was still running, and if I tested it with Windows 'verifier.exe' then it gave me a BSOD on boot every time. I then read all this. Aaargh..

Thanks to those who have given advice on how to remove the registry entries left behind I have successfully removed the entries and the driver doesn't load anymore. For those new to registry edits, here is what I did:

1) Created a Windows 7 Repair disk.
2) Make a system backup, including a system image (this creates a 'Restore point')
3) Next day, after some normal use, I then booted with the Repair disk, and checked out its functionality by restoring my system to the Restore point made the previous day. At that point I knew I could recover the system if my edits didnt work.
4) Using the advice above, I opened Regedit and identified the Upper and Lower filters in the Classes mentioned. I only needed to delete one value - a lower filter reference to vsflt53.sys
5) Rebooted; everything worked (Note: at this point, the driver 'vsflt53.sys' was still being loaded. I'm not sure, but I think it does nothing once its removed from the filter, even though another registry entry loads it as required for boot)
6) Opened Regedit again, found the subkey entitled 'visflt53' (the folder with that title under /services/ ) and deleted it in its entirety.
7) Wiped sweat from brow, rebooted. Success! Now the driver isn't loading but the system works. Done!

Thank you to all who contributed. BTW, I think the Acronis software did a really great job of helping me set up my new system. If they did a bit more work on ensuring a clean uninstall I'd use it again.

Peter, it is good that you deleted the filter first. If you had deleted the service first, your system may have been unbootable again.

The proper order of removal of the filter drivers/services and the related registry entries are:

Delete the Registry entries of the Filter(s) first - Reboot, check that everything is okay

Delete the Registry entries of the service(s) second. - Reboot, check that everything is okay.

Delete the driver files from your system last - and this is optional.

The driver files can be left on the system, as they will not be active after removing the filter entries, and the service entries, from the Registry.

The 2013 version of True Image cleans up after itself much better than any of the previous versions. The filters, services, and drivers are correctly removed (in most cases) when un-installing.

Sounds good, thanks. Can you make sure the freebee version that Western Digital supplies its users gets updated so that the uninstaller does it all?

Boy, this thread really knows how to scare a guy.

I'm about to uninstall ATIH 2012 (build 7119) and switch to Windows Backup and Restore. I'd rate my computer skills as "moderate" and don't like messing with the registry, but previous attempts have been successful and I have made a copy of the old entries to return if needed. But this business of possibly having a computer that is unbootable has me wondering if I should just leave my mess alone.

My reason for wanting to uninstall ATI is a recent clean install of Windows 7 pro x64. So far my ATIH 2012 backups are not resuming. because of previous problems with ATI I've decided that I want to switch horses and use the native Windows product rather than troubleshooting current ATIH difficulties.

Has Acronis solved the problems cited in this thread with build 7119?

Thanks for your advice. My knees are shaking....

It's not surprising that your backups did not resume after a clean install of Windows. You would have needed to create new backup tasks. Even editing backup tasks is not recommended, as sometimes the task becomes unreliable. It's always best to begin with new backups tasks with your desired options, rather than to edit tasks.

Thanks. That makes sense. If I continue with ATI I'll reformat my backup drive and start from scratch.

Also very relevant to where I now am with my choice of Acronis or windows is whether win b/r will backup a second internal HDD. I've heard som rumblings that win b/r only backs up the boot drive. If that's the case I'll stay with ATI and make it work.

Check the MS boards. I recall reading over a year ago about Windows Backup. Some MS MVPs said that it does not capture everything, and they recommend Acronis True Image as a more complete backup.

Hi,

Is this "leftovers" problem fixed in ATI 2015 ?

Thanks.

Samoreen wrote:

Is this "leftovers" problem fixed in ATI 2015 ?

Actually, I want to know if installing ATI 2015 will automatically remove ATI 2012 without having to care about this driver problem.

Thanks.

Samoreen wrote:

Samoreen wrote:

Is this "leftovers" problem fixed in ATI 2015 ?

Actually, I want to know if installing ATI 2015 will automatically remove ATI 2012 without having to care about this driver problem.

Thanks.

Bump!

I think I have a problem with some leftover Acronis drivers that is preventing me from installing a new motherboard.  I would like to remove the vidsfit.sys and fltsrv.sys drivers from my new SSD boot drive.  I see the drivers in the registry using regedit but am not sure what keys to remove or edit.  The instructions above point me to the right keys and I do see the drivers listed as lower or upper filters.  What am I supposed to do to remove or disable these drivers so they no longer load?

Thanks in advance.  My email address is macnair@us.ibm.com.

I realize this post was started a long time ago, but am really glad I found it and hope someone can help.

I installed Acronis on 3 computers, didn't like it, and thought I'd uninstalled it from all three computers. What I see now in my Device Managers on all three computers is shown in the attachment. When I right-click on any of them I do have the option to simply uninstall them. Will that be sufficient or do I risk BSODs if I do that? 

Thanks for any help! FWIW, I'm not a complete novice, but any instructions will need to be fairly detailed as I have never been confident enough to mess around in my registries just for giggles.

You can uninstall all the Acronis stuff.  Use the cleaner if you need to :

https://kb.acronis.com/content/48668

After running that, if there are any leftovers, delete at will.

regards, sh

Thanks so much, Scott! This just seemed too easy after reading about some of the ordeals other folks have to go through. But, everything uninstalled without a hitch.