external HDD doesn't work after I install acronis 2012
After I install Acronis 2012 my two (2) (A-DATA SH93 USB Device [Hard drive] (640.13 GB) -- drive 5) stop working. All my other 5 Western Digital external HDD's & usb sticks work good but as soon as I install Acronis the 2 A-Data stop working & Win 7 asks me to do a Format. When I try to do a Format it tells me that I can't. Disk management shows them as Raw. I've removed & reinstalled Acronis 3 times & that didn't work.
I tried to email Acronis but they say my 8-12-12 purchase date that me support has expired.
Any Ideas?
They work on my other 3 computers that "Do Not" have Acronis installed on them & they work on this computer when I uninstall Acronis, then they "Do Not" work when I reinstall Acronis & I have uninstalled & Installed Acronis 3 times. When working correctly they give me the option to open files when I plug them in (Also they are like a USB Stick with no AC power. Acronis is definitely causing the problem but I can't figure out why. Does anybody know Acronis's email address?
Mike,
What build is your 2012? Current build number is 7133.
This looks like an issue with the Acronis filter drivers.
Also you should qualify for the 2013 upgrade if you purchased your 2012 full version from Acronis or an authorized Acronis dealer.
I have build 6131 & I get an error when I try an update, "An error has occurred while checking for updates"
CNET wants $49.99 for 2013
Mike,
Go to your Acronis.com account, register your serial number there, go to the product download area, and download the latest 2012 build.
On your computer, uninstall the current 2012 build, use the clean up utility found here. Follow all instructions carefully. Do not let the utility reboot your computer. Complete the last 2 checks, then reboot.
Then install the latest build.
If you have the Acronis Plus Pack installed, uninstall it before the main program. INstall the new build of it after having installed the main program.
The problem is when I let Acronis into my start-up (Run MFCONFIG start-up) my 2 A-Data ex HD's won't work but if I keep Acronis out they work ok, strange. Maybe Acronis wants to grab them as it's private back-up drives, I'm not sure. I can still use Acronis as a back-up just not an auto back-up.
In the past, disabling the Non-Stop Backup service could resolve some disk detection issues, but these issues were supposed to have been solved with the latest build.
I guess A-Data might be sort of an off brand? I like them, there waterproof & like a usb stick that will fit into you pocket & you have 600 gb to play with.
You never answered my question:
Do these drives contain a virtual CD that runs automatically when the drive is mounted, containing utilities or drive information?
e.g. like Nomad utilities
I don't think so. In Disk Management it shows (K:) 596.17 GB exFat Healthy (Primary Partition), it's a Fat format so it will work in my DVD USB Player. I'm going to upgrade to 2013 & see if that works, Thanks, Mike
Mike,
Your issues with the AData drives could be due to the exFAT format. As far as I know, Acronis does not support exFAT drives. It could be a problem when the Acronis filter drivers load when Acronis is installed and they may conflict with the exFAT formatted drives. Normally only flash drives use exFAT formatting. I know that some media players support exFAT, apparently your DVD player does. Are any of your other drives formatted using exFAT?
You could try formatting one of your AData drives to FAT32 or NTFS and check your results with Acronis installed. I can see your reasoning for exFAT (file size limitations of FAT32 / no support for NTFS) but can see this as a problem for Acronis. I'm not sure how 2013 will work (or not) with the exFAT drives connected. 2013 does use a newer filter driver so your results could be different than in 2012.
I formated my drive to NTFS, installed 2013, let it in my MSCONFIG startup & the same problem, (wants me to format) I removed all of the Acronis MSCONFIG startup's & it still wanted me to format. I uninstalled 2013 & my HD works. I installed Acronis 2013 again withour letting it into my MSCONFIG startup with my Start up Monitor program & my HD still didn't work. At least with 2012 Acronis does work as long as I keep it out of my MSCONFIG startup. It seems to be an Acronis problem because without Acronis in my computer both of my A-Data HD's work. I'm glade that I have two otherwise I would have suspected that my HD was bad.
This may be a compatibility problem with Acronis and the internal controllers in the AData USB drives. Acronis loads filter drivers that work in conjuction with Microsoft's own disk drivers. Apparently, the AData drives do not get along with the filter drivers. You should report this problem to Acronis since you have the same problem with 2013 installed.
Yes, I'll do that, thanks for all the help.
I have also reported this to Acronis via the forums.
I just backed up my C Drive then had to uninstall Acronis 2013 for my A-Data drives to work & that's too much trouble. I tried to report the trouble to Acronis but they want $9.95 before I can email them. Does anyone know of another good backup device other than Acronis? I like the way I can access my Acronis backup & see each separate file. I deleted the wrong file one time & it was easy to get back with that feature.
You may be interested in knowing you are not alone Mike.
I have Windows 64 Bit Ultimate and Acronis 2012 and 2 A-Data usb hard drives. I had been happily using this setup until a couple of months ago when I upgraded TI to build 7133. I thought both hard drives had packed up and the supplier replaced them under warranty. I now have 2 brand new A-Data Superior SH93 drives. I have wiped the harddrive in the desktop and reinstalled windows and all updates. No other software. The A-Data drives are working fine. I then install TI 2012 build 7133 and when I go to use the USB drives windows tells me I will have to format the drives before I can use them.
It took me ages before I could point the finger at TI 2012 build 7133. With unistalling, reinstalling etc. To me it is clearly TI that is causing my problem.
Given you are still seing the trouble with 2013 I think I will see if I can downgrade to an older version of TI 2012 rather than upgrade.
Mark,
Try updating the SnapAPI drivers first. Here is the link: https://kb.acronis.com/sites/default/files/content/2005/12/1515/snapapi…
Save and then run the .msi installer. This will update the SnapAPI drivers which may or may not correct the problem.
This is version specific to 2012, and came from this KB article: http://kb.acronis.com/content/1515#no_disk_detected
Thank you for the help James but unfortunately it has not made any difference.
I'm going to try build 7119. If that still has a problem then I will try 6154.
I will post the results here on whether the problem exists in the older versions.
That was interesting.
Starting with a totally fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit fully updated with all updates through Windows Update. No other soft installed, even anti virus not installed.
I installed build 7119 and the same problem was occuring ie the AData USB drive could not be accessed in windows and wanted to be formated.
Restored the windows 7 environment back to its virgin state as per above. Installed build 6154. Windows can now quite happily access the AData USB drive.
So something in TI 2012 builds 7119 and 7133 is not compatible with my AData Superior SH93 USB drives.
Build 6154 was fairly stable so I'm happy to stick with that. Clearly though I will not be wanting to upgrade to TI 2013 though unless I'm sure its fixed.
The problem first occured for me with two other AData drives (A-Data Nobility NH92 External Hard Drive, 320GB) that the supplier kindly replaced with the two I am now using (A-Data Superior SH93, 500GB). So the problem is not specific to the current AData drives I am using and is perhaps more generic to the brand.
Mark,
I would assume that the SnapAPI drivers in 6154 are older versions than in the newer builds of 2012 (and 2013 as well).
Since you can test with the Virgin build of Windows, if you are inclined, I would like to know if you still have the issue with the 2013 trial installed.
Since you have already tested the older builds of 2012 and have found the SnapAPI drivers from build 6154 work with the AData drives, it would be nice to have a test done on your system so that Acronis can investigate the issue further.
You have been very kind to post your issues and results, along with specifics on which AData drives you have been using.
James
The SnapAPI driver I tried was the one you pointed me to. Not sure whether that was 6154 or later but I used it in my test environment against build 7133 without success.
I haven't actually tried the 2013 version. Given a comment earlier in the forum I thought I would skip trying that. But since I now have a good test environment and can easily restore it to its virgin state I will give it a go and let you know what happens (using the trial version for TI 2013). I have a backup running right now so it will be a few hours but hopefully today.
I refreshed my virgin Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit environment. Plugged my AData Superior SH93 USB drive in and it works normally.
Installed True Image 2013 trial version build 5551 and rebooted. Waited for drive activity to cease after logging in. Plugged in AData USB drive and I get the message that it wants to reformat it and I cannot access anything on the drive with windows explorer.
So 2013 has inherited the problem introduced in TI 2012 Build 7119.
Not sure if it is relevant but just in case - My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6. I have 3 harddrives in the desktop with 2 of the 3 in a raid 0 array (the system drive). The 3rd is not raided (used for data only).
Fairly obscure problem to get to the bottom of. Hope I have been of some help for others.
Mark,
Thank you for doing this extra step, and reporting your results. I have forwarded this to Acronis for investigation.
James
I have the same problem with A-Data SH93 drive, but under windows XP it is a little bit different. Reading this post i tried with different builds (actually i am back to 7133), but non will work with the A-Data SH93. I can see the drive and use it under Windows XP pro SP3, but whenever i start Acronis and select the SH93 as a backup-drive, i get an E/A error and the drive is no longer usable. Sometimes it even disappears in the Explorer drive list. The really bad thing: I can't remove the drive correctly even if Acronis wasn't launched, Windows always tells me the system drive can't be removed/unmounted (the SH93 is recognized as active system partition and not as external drive on the PC with Acronis!), because there are still programs using it. I tried different formats (default is Fat32) like NTFS and exFAT (formatted the drive under Win7_64HP) and even reformatted the drive under Linux (gparted live CD). But the same problem: As soon as i try to use the A-Data drive as a backup-media i get an E/A-Error and the drive fails. Several times now the drive didn´t even work properly after that crash on other PCs.
I didn't think it could be a problem with Acronis 2012 in the first place, but now the Drive is definitely broken and is on its way back to the vendor. I would strongly recommend A-Data SH93 owners not to use Acronis 2012/2013 with this external drive. From the postings here i think it is a general problem with A-Data drives. since i have been using Acronis quite a while now, i still have true image 9 and 11 licenses so maybe i just go back to true image 11. One thing that may be interesting for Acronis 2012 users: I had made a full backup of my Systemdrive just after installing Acronis 2012 using the sanity check option for the backup file (Full partition backup to secondary partition e.g. C: to D:). I didn't own the A-Data drive at that time and tried to role back to this backup and Acronis tells me this backup is corrupted. So it might not only be a problem with the A-Data drives, but some general problems with specific hardware (Sata /USB controller?) and Acronis 2012. The Backup-Image could be corrupted by something else e.g. defrag failure, Antivirus software and so on, but if you have this problems with external drives, better double check your backup files.
I don´t know if the other SH93 owners did try this, but the drive fails even when trying to backup/restore from the Rescue CD, so Acronis drivers are not working with the A-Data drives or at least with the SH93.
Spencer, please,, if you could break up your writing into smaller logical paragraphs, it would make reading comprehension easier.
For anyone interested in the above details.
I have just repeated the tests I did last year to see whether the problem has been fixed.
I have just created a virgin Windows 7 Ultimate environment and updated with all of the latest recommended updates. Same as last year but more windows updates.
The AData SH93 drive worked fine. No issues.
Installed TI 2013 build 6514 and rebooted.
With the AData drive plugged in the system is very unstable. At first I could browse the AData drive (after waiting about 5 minutes for it to be recognised) but now I cannot start TI (which started fine until I plugged in the AData drive).
Now I cannot access the AData drive at all having gone back to it again.
Bottom line - as I see it I have two choices, upgrade TI and ditch AData or ditch TI and stick with AData.
After having used and relied on TI for so many years maybe its time for a change.
I Installed TI 2013 build 6514 and rebooted & Both my AData SH93 still don't work.
Mark and Mike,
Thank you for again testing (and posting your results) with Acronis True Image and your AData drives. I wish I could offer a solution that involves Acronis software.
This problem still seems to point to Acronis's disk filter drivers as the problem (but I am only guessing, as I am not a software engineer).
This post may at least save someone some time trying to troubleshoot a problem that has yet to be corrected in the newest builds of 2013.
With your hardware, you may want to look at imaging software that does not rely on additionally installed (third party) disk filter drivers, but instead can use Microsoft's VSS to be able to back up live installations.
James
For now I uninstall Acronis when I want to use my 2 A-Data drives for backups. I'll do that till acronis fixes the problem or till my A-Data drives brake.
I also have the same problems with my Adata NH92 and CH94 drives, together with the use of True Image 2013.
On other PC's/laptops no issue's at all (no true image installed). I can manually disconnect my drive on and on (without using the icon for removing USB devicec safely), but as soon as i try and use my disk on the PC with true image, it is a matter of time before i must format them again.
Any updates on this ??? For now i also can't use my drives and i do not want to remove true image from my PC.