File Backups Work, Disk Backups Do Not

If your ticket was started before the 30 days, you should remain within free support until the ticket is resolved.

Let me undersand this, the installation worked unitl a few days ago and then stopped working? Usually, this would mean some problem reading the disk but you don't have any problems coming form chkdsk /r .

try running the installer, select install and then the select the REPAIR option and see if that helps. Also note anything you cahnge on yor machine at about the time the wonk appeared -- it could be related.

Yes, the backups were working after upgrading from 2009 to 2012. The only thing I can think of that has changed along the way was me deleting the task using the acronis scheduler (See http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28101), but even then, I didn't zap all tasks until sometime on the 2nd. I'm not sure that would cause the problem, though.

See Acronis report attached as text. Looks like E in column C, but have not been able to determine problem.

I cannot think of anything that was installed around the 31st that would cause it to stop working.

I highly suspect that you have a HD issue, e.g. it has started to fail. Seagate tools is not the best test application and often states that a drive is good when in fact it is not.

A couple of suggestions -
1) Go to http://www.hdsentinel.com/, download the application, install and see what it says about the health of your drive. This application has given me early warning on failing drives numerous times (I currently have about 50 hard drives in production). There are some non-destructive test you can run as well as destructive test. Make sure you don't run the destructive test unless you have a second working drive.

2) Go to http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm, read about SpinRite and make a decision if you want to BUY it. They DO NOT have a demo version. The documentation is rather limited but it is a great application, I've used it for years.

Have licensed copy of Spinrite, and have run it recently. Will run overnight tonight to see what happens.

Not familiar with HDSentinel, but will look into it.

HD Sentinel reports "The hard disk status is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found and there are no spin up or data transfer errors. No actions needed." Self tests in HD Sentinel reveal no problems. Randon seek test shows no problems.

The non-destructive read and read-write tests are apparently not available in HD Sentinel without spending $35.00. At that rate, I'd be able to 30% of a new drive (which is something I suppose I could do if I knew I had a good backup). Most of the other more intensive tests are available only with registration and activation, and as far as I can tell, that requires $35.00. Will run Spinrite tonight and get back with everyone tomorrow.

Les,

Make sure you run chkdsk /r, not chkdsk /f, the /r option include the /f processing.

If that doesn't solve it, try resintalling the SNAPAPI drivers from here:
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1515 under the disks are not detected section.

Ok, ran chkdsk /r today and didn't help. Ran SnapAPI 640 installation, and no help. Did not get to run Spinrite last night.

No reply from Acronis support ticket yet.

Edit: Spinrite revealed no problems.

FWIW, I just downloaded Paragon and VSS worked fine, and full disk backup has been made. Scott, yes, Acronis may still work on my ticket after the 30 days of support is up, but if I want to make my decision about requesting a refund, I need to do it before then. If they don't come up with something as the clock clicks down, they may as well give up.

I'll see what I can do about rolling back to 2009 or moving to something else.

Les,

That's fair. Watch out for the expiration of your money back guarantee...

Before you switch to another software provider, make sure you can restore from the recovery CD. Just like with Acronis's...

If you're cocnerned about the clock running out before nyour probs are resolved, request a refund. you can always repurchase later if you find that the product will satisfy your needs , which it as yet is not. If the chat folks sound resisitant, they cannot refuse you a refund. You dont have to do tests for them. satisfaction guarantee means theym must honr the request idf you indeed are not satisfied and only you can be the judge of that.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your comments and your help Scott and Pat.

Les, we are very sorry for the delay. I sent a follow-up to our Management team so that we can assist you with the issue and prevent such delays in the future.

According to the information and the logs that you have sent us, it appears to be a malfunction of Acronis low-level drivers. I am very confident that we will get this resolved and we will contact you shortly.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

I was able to make a disk backup when booting from the Acronis CD.

When in the CD version of Acronis, I cannot see the option of Disk Mode and Partition Mode for disk backups. Is this normal?

Yes, what you are seeing is normal.

Using the CD, the contents of the backup is user choice. If you checkmark the disk box, you will get a "disk mode" type backup and the entire disk will be included within in the backup.

Or, if you want less than a full disk backup, you can select a single or combination of backups. For most, checkmarking the disk box is the best choice--especially if you want a backup which can be used to create a new replacement disk.

Just to follow up on this in case anyone has the same issue and discovers this thread later. Even though I had uninstalled and reinstalled previously, moving to build 6154 in the process, support had me uninstall using the Cleanup Utility (see Grover's sig) and reinstall. That appears to have cleared it up. Disk backup running as I type this.

http://kb.acronis.com/content/24545

Thinking how much it would have sucked if I had run into this problem two weeks later and for them to tell me that solution after paying them more money for PPI.