Time to move on?

Hello Steve,

First of all, please accept our profound apologies for the difficulties you have experienced and for the delays with the response. We'll do our best to prevent such issues.

The most probable reasons of the issues you had is a malfunction of Acronis Scheduler module that is responsible for all scheduled and unscheduled tasks.

So to fix it, you need to delete all currents tasks, update Acronis Scheduler and create all tasks from scratch. Please follow the below instructions:

• Download Acronis Scheduler, which is a special utility to update the scheduler service;
• Extract the downloaded file and run install.bat. The utility will automatically update the service;
• Reboot the machine;
• Recreate the scheduled tasks.

Additionally, when scheduling a task to save the backup archive to a NAS drive, please use a full UNC path or IP address ((e.g. \\server\share\) or \\10.10.0.1) instead of a mapped drive. Also please specify credentials for a NAS drive:

On the Create backup plan screen, tick off Advanced view. Click Change next to Access credentials under Where to back up:

Provide username and password for the NAS:

If you have your NAS joined to a domain or workgroup, avoid using the top level domain extension .local; e.g. If your NAS is set to be joined tomydomain.local, then connect to your NAS and change it to Mydomain.

After changing the NAS setting, please refresh your DNS cache. to do so:

• Start-Run -> type in "cmd and press Enter;
• In the command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns

Please let me know if you have any additional questions, I'll be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

A long post coming.

Here is an image of my dashboard for the past two months. As you can see there are a lot of red dates and supposedly 7 local backup plans.

Here is the list of backups. As you will not despite the number 7 in the dashboard there are none.

As instructed above I downloaded unpacked and ran acronis scheduler as instructed. It was necessary to run the instal.bat file as an administrator and to run it from the command line. Left clicking on the install.bat file (or right click 'run as administrator' did not work).

I rebooted and created a backup plan. The backup plan failed to create. The log is below.

Type: Warning
Date and time: 18/01/2010 18:56:14
Backup plan: [None]
Task: [None]
Code: 10,616,865(0xA20021)
Module: 162
Owner: Steve
Message:
Failed to create the backup plan.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 33
Module: 162
LineInfo: a9eb70aa1c10e9c5
Fields: $module : F:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\mms.exe
Message: Failed to create the backup plan.
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 156
LineInfo: 7e90832cff02929b
Fields:
Message: Cannot find the object's meta info.

and

Type: Error
Date and time: 18/01/2010 18:56:14
Backup plan: [None]
Task: [None]
Code: 10,616,865(0xA20021)
Module: 162
Owner: Steve
Message:
Failed to create the backup plan.
Additional info:
--------------------
Error code: 33Module: 162
LineInfo: a9eb70aa1c10e9c5
Fields: $module : F:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\mms.exe
Message: Failed to create the backup plan.
--------------------
Error code: 3
Module: 156
LineInfo: 7e90832cff02929b
Fields:
Message: Cannot find the object's meta info.

The content of the meta file may also be useful

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

2

1263840899

0

B16462DE-97FD-49F3-B15E-3934C6D21150

0

0

DA4568CD-BB0D-450C-9836-1996C56D30C6

Steve-PC

SteveArchive

S-1-5-21-1240916858-2119854303-3983031378-1001

Steve@Steve-PC

0

To cut a long story short I then uninstalled Backup and recovery (which itself did not go well) and then followed the instructions for manual uninstall of Backup and Recovery 10 for Vista 64 but (I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit).

I reinstalled Backup and Recovery. I also mcreated an Acronis Secure Zone (I stopped the first attempt at creation asI wanted a lerger partition).

I was able to create a backup plan. The backup and cleanup task ran sucessfully. The validation task sis not run sucessfully. At first I got the eroor message that BAckup and Recovery could not find the start of the data. WHen I finally clicked ignore, the backyup started and progressed to 25%, at which point it stopped and after about a minutes pause I had a BSOD with a message about NTFS.SYS.

I have attached the log

A recommendation for alternative software would be most welcome.

I dont know why you techs at Acronis always recommend "deleting the policy" and start over. Do you think it is EASY to accomplish such a feat on a regular basis? Why don't you create an "export/import policy" tool so we wouldn't have to do this from scratch every time we run into a problem and the first action you recommend is to "reinstall Acronis" or "delete and recreate the policy". Neither of which permanently fixes the issue anyway. We shouldn't have to rely on deleting the entire policy just to fix something that doesn't work in the first place.

Last nights backup did not work and the backup plan appears to have disappeared again. Hoever in the Dashboard, it claims that there is one local task, but there is nothing there when you click on the link.

Log attached.

Bump

Hello Steve,

Thank you for provided information, I will be happy to help.

According to the log files, the program fails to get the access to the third hard drive. File system errors or bad blocks can cause the issue. Could you please collect the below information and attach to your next post?

1) Please download Acronis Report utility available here and run it, create a report and attach the file to your next post. Please compress the Acronis Report output file into an archive (e.g. with WinZip) and attach to your message by browsing for the archive.

This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

2) Download AcronisInfo file ;

Run the downloaded file. The gathered information will be put in adv_report.zip in the same folder, where the AcronisInfo was saved. Running AcronisInfo may take up to 5 minutes.

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Please do not hesitate to ask additional questions if the provided information is not clear or you need a further assistance. 

Thank you.

I have removed the offending disk as Windows 7 started to report that the drive was failing. Having removed the drive I still had problems with failure to create backup plans. This disk was not involved with any backup proceure (I'm assuming that B&R was referring to the third physical disk drive and not the third partition on a drive.

e.g. I have

Drive 1: C (Windows 7), D: Windows XP, Extended partition with ubuntu and swap partition, F: data and programs

The extended partition is the third partition on Disk 1

Drive 2: Copy of D:, H: partition for backups

Drive 3: I: Spare Data partition.

I have once again uninstalled and reinstalled backup and Recovery. This is a very tedious task as your uninstall routine leaves many relics which need to be removed manually.

When I left for work this morning the first full backup of a GFS scheme had just started writing to the 'Dual destination'. Hopefully there will be a successful validation when I return this evening. If not I will follow the procedures above.

The initial backup completed, cleanup completed OK and validation completed OK. The next morning however showed that the subsequent daily backup had failed whilt updating the dual destination. The dialy backup file for the dual destination was there, but the 289 GB original backup file was showed as 0kb.

Acronis backup and recovery would not start as I had an error message relating to 'Acronis managed machine service is unavailable'. I tried restarting the servie, and running the install.bat from scheduler 385 but the error message persisted even after several reboots.

I have now run the Acronis report utility and have attached the log as a zip file as requested.

I have run the second utility several times as administrator but there is never any output. the supposed adv_report.zip never materialises.

I now think I have been very patient with this software but have now concluded that it is not fit for purpose. Consequently, please treat this message as a formal request for a refund of the upgrade fee from Echo Workstation. The upgrade was purchased from your web site.

I didn't read the whole thing but i reackon steve file system is corrupted. I don't think the problem is with acronis!

All partitions that are being backed up are regularly checked, including a check for bad sectors. I'm not seeing any error messages. The Freenas server is a ZFS raid 6 array which was clean on the last occasion it was scrubbed.

I've now bitten the bullet, and done a clean reinstall of Windows 7 Home Premium (i.e. I haven't imported setting from a previous XP or Windows 7 installation or reinstalled over an existing Windows 7 installation)

I'll report back on progress.

A clean windows 7 installation followed by a clean Backup and Recovery installation seemed to work fine.

Until the 5th day.

On the 5th day I found that my PC had restarted during the validation process (I had the message that windows had restarted due to an unrecoverable error.)

I can accept that my PC suffered a glitch. What is not acceptable is that once again I am in a position where the Backup task has dissappeared. i.e. The dashboard claims there is one local task but no task is found on the Backup plans and Tasks page.

It is just not acceptable that Backup and Recovery loses backup tasks in this manner.

I have spent an very significant amount of effort trying to pursuade Backup and Recovery to work in a relaible manner, yet the slightest glitch and Backup and Recovery stops bahaving in a sensible and robust manner.

My conclusion is that Backup and Recovery is not fit for purpose. Please refund the money I paid to upgrade from Echo Workstation to Backup and Recovery.

Hi Steve,

I'm evaluating Acronis Backup Advanced Server and thinking of purchasing the software after the 15 day trial. I'm on day 3. The software that you are using, is that the Backup server software? or the Echo software?

I am using Backup and Recovery Workstation. I was previously using Echo Workstation.

When I checked this morning the PC and server were running fine with no reported problems. The nightly backup had been completed on the local PC and the Freenas server. the GFS cleanup task had run, but validation had failed.

On checking Backup and Recovery there are no tasks listed on the backup page, there is one backup plan declared as local on the dashboard but clicking on the link takes me to the Backup plans and tasks page which , as stated above, shows no backup plans.

I'll post the log when I get home tonight.

Log for the past three days attached.

P L wrote:

Hi Steve,

I'm evaluating Acronis Backup Advanced Server and thinking of purchasing the software after the 15 day trial. I'm on day 3. The software that you are using, is that the Backup server software? or the Echo software?

You might want to read up on the forums about all the problems that Backup and Recovery is riddled with. Also if having reliable and available support accessible to you is important with your maintenance contract, you might want to reconsider Acronis. Our experience has been nothing short of horrible.

Thanks for your reply Jason.

Which alternative product do you recommend server backup?

Win2003 Std. server 32bit
I'm currently using CA Brighstor 11.5 sp2

I was comparing Acronis vs Genie-soft backup Server 8.0, but that doesn't have deduplication and can't exclude folders with wildcards.

Were currently evaluating StorageCraft ShadowProtect.

I don't think they currently have deduplication. Which is actually a feature of Acronis I have not tried. I can say Acronis P2V for Hyper-V did not work, even when the task was setup by Acronis Tier 1 support. The Exchange Recovery for SBS threw random unexplained errors when attempting email level restores, and randomly not restoring all email we requested. We also had multiple data restores from incremental images fail due to apparent archive corruption despite the fact that the archives validated and would mount.

After trying to resolve these issues with Tier 1 one support people that had less knowledge of the software than myself, and having half a dozen requests for elevation to Tier 2 seemingly ignored. That was enough for me to know Acronis is no longer the company it used to be, and that it was time for my consulting company to realign with a new partner for Backup and Recovery software.

No response to my logs so I'm assuming that a refund is being processed.

Could you please give me an update.

Hello all,

Steve, I'm really sorry for the delay with the response.

As I can see, you have an open support case #00454594 that has been escalated to Tier 2 support. I've contacted T2 manager, and our engineers will take care of it as soon as possible.

As for the backup tasks not shown on the Backup Tasks&Plans page: this is a minor GUI issue and you can safely ignore it. You can fix it the following way:

Windows XP, Windows 2000/2003 32 bit

• Run the \Program Files\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\schedmgr.exe tool and issue the following command in its interface:

  task zap

• Delete the contents of the following folders:

  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Policies\
  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\TasksStorage\
  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\PolicyStatistics

• Recreate the backup plans and tasks.

Windows XP, Windows 2000/2003 64 bit

• Run the \Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\schedmgr.exe tool and issue the following command in its interface:

  task zap

• Delete the contents of the following folders:

  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Policies\
  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\TasksStorage\
  • \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\PolicyStatistics

• Recreate the backup plans and tasks.

Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 32 bit

• Run the \Program Files\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\schedmgr.exe tool and issue the following command in its interface:

  task zap

• Delete the contents of the following folders:

  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Policies\
  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\TasksStorage\
  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\PolicyStatistics

• Recreate the backup plans and tasks.

Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 64-bit

• Run the \Program Files (x86)\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\schedmgr.exe tool and issue the following command in its interface:

  task zap

• Delete the contents of the following folders:

  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\Policies\
  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\TasksStorage\
  • \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\MMS\PolicyStatistics

• Recreate the backup plans and tasks.

Thank you.

To the best of my knowledge this is NOT a minor GUI issue because if I follow your instruction above it will start a new backup sequence. It will not continue the backup sequence that has dissappeared from the Backup plans and tasks.

It is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE that Backup and Recovery Workstation loses task descriptions in this manner. As long as this bug remains Backup and Recovery Workstation is not fit for purpose.

I have struggled with Backup and Recovery Workstation now for three months. In that time it has never successfully completed a GFS backup scheme over the full month.

Evidence of this forum indicated that referral to Tier 2 is a way of 'disposing' of difficult support cases.

I have had enough.

Please progress a refund for the upgrade I purchased from Workstation Echo to Backup and Recovery.

Hello Steve Laycock,

Thank you very much for your post.

I completely share your concern and understand, how upsetting the situation is. My main aim is to provide you with all necessary assistance, and I wish to help you with obtaining the refund, but unfortunately, currently due to Acronis Licensing Policy we cannot proceed with the refund. Let me explain the situation:

We are able to proceed with the refund in 2 cases: 1. Whether you are within 30 days after purchase 2. Whether you are experiencing a technical issue we cannot resolve. Currently your case is with our Expert team and we are doing the best to provide you with a solution.

I entirely understand that this situation is not acceptable, and be sure, I will definitely relay your refund request to the Management team and Sales Experts' team, so that they could take an action on it and assist you.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

I feel that I am experiencing a technical issue that you cannot resolve.

Please process the refund ASAP.

Hello Steve Laycock,

I apologize for the inconvenience and I will definitely forward your request to our Management team.

Thank you very much for your patience.

OK

Nearly two weeks have elapsed ssince the posts from Anton above. No sign of any kind of action at all.

Please provide me with an update on when my refund will be made.

Hello Steve Laycock,

Thank you very much for your post. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the delay.

I have forwarded your request to the responsible parties and they will update you as soon as possible.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Thank you.

Yes there is.

Give me the refund I am requesting.

I can so relate to this. As our faith in Acronis is so dinted, I've been doing some testing of B&R to see how stable it is. The sad answer is that it's not... here are a selection of the issues I've had just trying to generally use B&R to backup and restore, both to the same PC and a different PC:

1. Love the addition of the disk management screen but changes made there don't refresh. For example, booting off recovery media to restore to brand new uninitialised hard disks. Needed to convert them to dynamic so used disk management. Then started recover and failed because it didn't list any disks. Had to reboot

2. Screen doesn't size correctly when booting of the recovery CD. The graphics card is a pretty run of the mill NVIDIA card

3. The topology of the original disk system is two 1TB dynamic disks with P0=W7 system reserved, P1=W7, P2=Big data disk. When restoring, it puts this in the order P3, P1, P2 and there is no easy way to change this. The restore order should, by default, match the original order. Workaround - restore the partitions one by one

4. Trying to restore this backup to a test PC and it gets most of the way throught restoring P1 and then just says "Stopped"

5. Whilst the archives are visible inside B&R on the original W7 machine, when using the recovery CD they don't list. Switching to TLB view displays them but when you select the archive, it says there is nothing inside it. Made a guess and deleted the .meta directory and the archives are now visible.

6. Some of the archives are named Archive(1)_WITH_DATE and some are just Archive(3) with no logic to which is used nor a way to rename so you have some consistency

7. Create a recovery CD off a PC with a fixed IP and the recovery CD uses that fixed IP. Boot off that CD and wonder why the original PC starts getting network errors. Not sure that this should be the default - used to be DHCP always I think. Took absolutely ages to twig this one with my PC randomly loosing network connection

8. Creating backup & recovery plans is painfully slow. Find an archive to recover and then sit there for nearly a minute before it lets to decide which volumes to backup

9. Gave up using real hardware to try and get an image restored (yes, not got that far yet) so switched to VMware workstation. Fails to restore with cryptic "Failed to write data". Okay, so this is a bit off the wall but VMs are pretty common these days so would expect this to work or say "Virtual environments not supported".

I'm not expecting answers to any of the above, it's just the length of the list that should be most worrying.

Cheers, Rob.

10. Acronis Recovery is in the MBR but unable to start. Possibly because the disks have been converted to dynamic afterwards. However, there is no way to restore the MBR from B&R itself. Had to resort to booting off the W7 DVD and running BOOTSECT from the recovery tools. Not nice!

11. The infamous "You are restoring to a dynamic disk, your system *may* become unbootable". Come on guys, think of the non-IT people who may use your software. Either say whether it will become unbootable or not or give at least a link to an article explaining why you say what you say.

Cheers, Rob.

>9. Gave up using real hardware to try and get an image restored (yes, not got that far yet) so switched to VMware workstation. Fails to restore with cryptic "Failed to write data". Okay, so this is a bit off the wall but VMs are pretty common these days so would expect this to work or say "Virtual environments not supported".

Actually, I'm sure I've used Acronis products in VMware workstation before. Can't get this working with any kind of disk (IDE or SCSI) with 64 bit W7 system.

Cheers, Rob.

It is now over a week since I was told that my claim for a refund had been forwarded to 'responsible parties'.

I have had no further updates.

Could you please give me an update on progress with my refund.

Bump

Steve Laycock wrote:

Bump

*thud* - I'm at witts end with B&R...

Hello all,

Please accept our apologies for the delays.

Steve, your refund request is already in progress. I've contacted the responsible sales expert to expedite the process.

Rob, I may recommend you to use a different bootable CD to fix the issues. This type of media is based on ISOLINUX. ISOLINUX Bootable Media is usually more up to date than the Acronis Loader one. This is due to the fact a new version of Acronis Bootable Media is uploaded to the website more frequently than regular product updates are released. ISOLINUX Bootable Media has several boot parameters that may help overcome possible issues with booting. You can also set a specific VGA resolution in the ISOLINUX media if there an issue with the Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Please do the following to download ISOLINUX media:

1. Log in to your account (if you do not have one, you will need to create it);
2. Once logged in, click My Products & Downloads:

   

3. Scroll down to the registered product and click Bootable Media:

   

4. Click Download:

   

5. Acronis Bootable Media will be downloaded as an ISO file. See Burning an ISO Image.

Please reply to this thread if you have any additional questions.

Thank you.

This point is I'm afraid that due to awful quality control with your products, I've lost faith in them as a backup system. I'm so bored with it just not working well.

Cheers, Rob.