Dual Boot - Win 10 & Ubuntu full disk backup error
I used the ATI 2017.8029 recovery disk to boot my HP 2570p laptop running legacy bios to perform a full disk backup. This is a dual boot computer running Windows 10 x64 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. The backup was saved to an external USB hard drive. I enabled Verify on the backup. On completion of the backup the following error message was displayed: "The backup is corrupted, but you can still try to recover data from it.".
Is TI 2017 capable of backing up and restoring a dual boot drive image reliably consisiiting of win10 (ntfs) and ubuntu 16.04 (ext4 primary & linux-swap) partitions?
If so, are there any specific settings I need to select to have a restorable disk backup?
I have attached the failed log file to this post. Any comments would be appreciated.
Anhang | Größe |
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failed.log | 4.16 KB |


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Thanks for your reply and link to this thread https://forum.acronis.com/forum/115378#comment-406784 where I added post #24. My backup may indeed be good, but I don't have the time to rebuild this laptop in case it is not. In any case I am very unhappy that it has not been corrected in ATI 2017 when it appears to have been a known issue for over a year.
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Brad,
Here's the issue.... probably won't make you feel better, but at least some reasoning. If you're set on having a backup product work in your dual boot enviroment and need it to run in Windows, I'd try another trial of a different one to see if it fairs any better - personally, I dont' think it will because they all use VSS as well to take "snapshots" of the drive while it's in use. Perhaps it will, but I wouldnt't bet my data on it.
You're wanting to backup an entire disk from a a Windows application. You're also wanting to do this from a live Windows system at the same time. Windows does not support Ext4 natively. Windows is using VSS snapshots to image the disk when the OS is active, VSS doesn't know EXT4. If it is not familiar with a partition style of another OS (EXT 4), VSS probably can't handle it correctly and hence is going to be a problem - maybe there are some success stories, but these would be the exception, not the norm.
In this scenario, falling back to the Acronis SNAPAPI method may have better results - I have no idea how that works in the background, but it's not using Windows VSS so that might improve things for this setup. Have you tried that instead?
Alternatively, the offline recovery media is Linux. This should allow you to backup the entire disk, to include the EXT 4 parition. It may not be what you were hoping for, but that's my guess as to how it's supported. On top of that, in most cases that I've read here on the forums, these dual boot scenarios tend to require a sector-by-sector backup because of the variations in partion schemes which are a mix of FAT32, NTFS and EXT. The documentation does state that sector-by-sector will be utilized if a file system is not supported or reports as corrupted. Linux is still not mentioned as a supported OS either - although with a sector-by-sector backup (and one not using VSS), that should technically be achievable if it's backing up at the block level.
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http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/updates/changes.html?p=38886
Operating systems:
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.1 (all editions)
- Windows 8 (all editions)
- Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
- Windows Home Server
- Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) - nope, not Linux
It is possible for the software to work on other Windows operating systems, but it is not guaranteed.
File systems:
- FAT16/32
- NTFS
- Ext2/Ext3/Ext4
- ReiserFS
- Linux SWAP
If it did state Linux was supported anywhere, regardless of the parition type, I'd be inclined to agree, but I've never seen one shred of documentation stating support or compatibility for anything other than Windows or OS X and there are no Linux/Unix installers on any product or support pages to download.
"If a file system is not supported or is corrupted, Acronis True Image can copy data using a sector-by-sector approach."
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Brad, cross polination of posts and responses. After looking at your other one, I added another thought over there...
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/115378#comment-406790
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Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:Alternatively, the offline recovery media is Linux. This should allow you to backup the entire disk, to include the EXT 4 parition. It may not be what you were hoping for, but that's my guess as to how it's supported. On top of that, in most cases that I've read here on the forums, these dual boot scenarios tend to require a sector-by-sector backup because of the variations in partion schemes which are a mix of FAT32, NTFS and EXT. The documentation does state that sector-by-sector will be utilized if a file system is not supported or reports as corrupted. Linux is still not mentioned as a supported OS either - although with a sector-by-sector backup (and one not using VSS), that should technically be achievable if it's backing up at the block level.
Bobbo_3C0X1, thank you for taking the time to reply. As I indicated initially, "I used the ATI 2017.8029 recovery disk to boot my HP 2570p laptop running legacy bios to perform a full disk backup." The backup was not created in Windows.
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Brad, the bug here is in the handling of EXT4 filesystems and this is present with the ATIH 2017 Linux Rescue Media and I would suspect also with the alternative Windows PE Rescue Media because the bug is in the Acronis application, not in the OS environment being used as a launchpad for the application.
The reality here is that ATIH 2017 is marketed as a Windows home user product and although the documentation states clearly that it supports Linux filesystems, this bug obviously has a low priority with Acronis in this product range.
See webpage http://www.acronis.com/en-gb/business/enterprise-solutions/linux/ for where Acronis is focussed in regard to the Linux platform, which essentially is on the Server market with their business and enterprise products.
The alternative for your Linux Desktop is to use one of the various free Linux based backup solutions.
See webpage: 34 Best Free Linux Backup Software
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Brad,
Look forward to hearing how the restore to the secondary drive turns out - keep us posted.
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I am surprised to report that the backup referenced in my first post did indeed restore successfully with all partitions intact. In fact, the backup was generated from a 1TB drive and restored sucessfully to a 320GB drive in spite of the errors reported during the image backup. Both Windows and Ubuntu booted successfully and the Grub2 bootloader was resored as well. FWIW, sector by sector restore was not selected but drive signature was selected.
I would also report that there was 1 situation that I can't explain. After the backup was restored, I created another full disk backup using the Linux Rescue CD for the drive I had just successfully restored with the original backup. I then rebooted the laptop and restored the 2nd backup to the 320GB drive. The computer booted successfully once again to both Windows and Ubuntu. In Windows I ran chkdsk on the C drive and errors were reported on the drive. Windows then asked for a repair disk or recovery disk to repair Windows.
Instead of repairing Windows, I restored my original TI backup, once again successfully, and Windows no longer reported errors from chkdsk on drive C. Aside from this curious sequence of events which I can't explain, I am pleased that I can actually backup and restore my dual boot computer at all. Please remember that this entire post is specific to a computer with a legacy mbr configurations. I have not tested with a GPT/UEFI configuration.
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Brad,
I can't explain the chkdsk variation either, but at least it was a successful restore and could be repeated!
Ultimately, the best test is an actual restore and you've proved that beyond a doubt. Having an extra disk to test these on is the best bet, so that you don't have to muck around with the orignal live data too.
I'm glad all turned out well, despite what the ambiguous error in the log. Thanks for taking the time to test the recovery and again for posting back the results.
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Brad, thanks for the feedback, strange about the CHKDSK issue. I suspect that the fact that restores are good are one of the reasons why this EXT4 Block Bitmap Corrupted error indication in the log is of such low priority with Acronis as it looks to be more of a spurious message than a real error condition.
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