TIB file / randomly empty
I created a full backup (all drives) onto an external USB drive before converting from Win 7 to Win 10. I made (x2) incremental backups to this full backup, so I have (x3) TIB files.
I can double click on the TIB files and take a look at the contents. However, some of the time, the folders are EMPTY, other times they have data. I have tried many things to get a consistent response: reboot, eject / re-insert the USB driver, ... and nothing seems to produce consistent results. Some of the time I can see the files and some of the time I cannot.
To put a finer point on it, this is at the root level of the drive (e.g. c:\). It is not purely a permissions issue because I can see it some of the time.
I have tried to 'mount' the drive. This doesn't help because Windows permissions won't let me see much of the drive (in particular I'm trying to get to My Documents). I tried resetting permissions on the Security tab, but Windows complains that the 'drive' in read only.
I've read many other posts on this issue and NONE seem to be resolved for the posters. What is the use of the backup if I can't get the files?
You should attempt to take owership of the external drive for administrators on your Windows 10 installation. This should allow you access to the files on that drive.
See this link for a good number of ways to do this:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2808-take-ownership-file-folder-dr…
Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply... Upon installing True Image, Windows Explorer can open TIB files with a simple 'double-click'. What I'm sensing from your reply is that perhaps I shouldn't use this interface. I should use the interface from inside True Image. Correct?
As far as I can tell, I am the 'same user' that created the TIB file. Bear in mind, the 'creator' was the same user name under Windows 7. Now I have the same user name under Windows 10. Does that make them the 'same user'?
None of this quite explains why accessing these files is sporadic. In my experience, Windows users permissions are very consistent. I can't access something one day and then not access it another; it is all or nothing. I suspect that this is not a simple 'permissions' settings problem.
I am attempting to validate the TIB from inside of True Image. I will also try to restore the directory from inside True Image.
bcat - even the using the same username, when you build an OS from scratch, each account gets a unique UUID which is what the permissions are based off of. It is very likely that even though your user account is admin on the new OS build, the permissions for the USB drive are no longer valid because the UUID of the account is not the same as what was originally populated on the external drive.
You may be able to check the "security tab" at the root of the drive and see if there are any unknown accounts and if your new user account still has permissions or not (perhaps read only currently). As Enchantec suggested, i would also take ownership of the root of the drive and populate the ownership to all subdirectories again. I would then be sure to add your existing user account and "administrators" to the root of the drive with Full access and repopulate the permissions all the way through. If there are also share permissions, check to make sure your local account and "administrators" have Read/write access to the shares and repopulate the share permissions again. You shouldn't need to do this again, but may be why you're having issues now.
Hello bcat,
Indeed, using True Image interface to access, browse, manage and restore your backups is more reliable way compared to double-clicking on .tib files. Acronis integrates into Windows Explorer by providing it a special driver to see contents of .tib files. However, the main application in this case remains Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) and if there is any conflict between Acronis and some other drivers or an issue (lag) with Windows Explorer itself, .tibs contents will not show.
When you have Acronis True Image interface opened, it is TrueImage.exe that holds control of all operations with .tib files.
Expanding this comparison further, even TrueImage.exe works through Windows operating system which is hosting Acronis application and if anything goes wrong with Windows, you can always use isolated environment to work with backups: Acronis rescue media, which runs live Linux or WinPE environment, totally independent of Windows OS.
Regards,
Slava