Attempting to Mount Backup Volume (from Windows Explorer): Failed to Open Backup
I've just created a new backup (after copying settings from a pre-existing backup and selecting a new destination). This ran to completion fine (~30hrs and 1TB data from three partitions). I also ran a separate validation that was also successful (~24hrs).
I've just seen the first incremental complete and I went ahead to try mounting one of the volumes (s1_v1 below):
31/08/2016 12:31 PM 196,813,687,808 Entire PC (NEWT)_full_b1_s1_v3.tib
31/08/2016 07:12 AM 718,155,544,064 Entire PC (NEWT)_full_b1_s1_v2.tib
30/08/2016 11:47 AM 80,487,183,808 Entire PC (NEWT)_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
02/09/2016 01:43 AM 6,657,758,208 Entire PC (NEWT)_inc_b1_s2_v1.tib
However, this fails immediatly with the included error message (failed to open backup).
What's going on?
Where do you see this as a "network error"? The error was indeed a direct result of navigating to the backup share in Windows Explorer and right clicking (the original file) to "mount". I did go ahead and retry this with the *incremental* and get a new error (attached).
The original error message says to check your network connections - are you storing the backup on a network share, mapped drive, or a NAS device - that original screenshot is all there is to go on really.
As for the the second message... reboot (it's faster and easier than killing explorer and Acronis services). The files you need to delete will be "in use" if you've previously tried to double click the .tib so a reboot just makes it easier.
Before opening ACronis, navigate to the hidden folder:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database
and delete any files in there. Then try to double click your .tib file again and see if that helped. Here's the reference from Acronis support engineer, Dimitry:
I get the same error after doing this. Remember that this is with a right-click in Windows Explorer to select the Acronis "Mount" item.
Not realizing I could do this prior I went ahead and double-clicked on the incremental .tib file and this does indeed seem to do something (mostly) useful. Not sure if this would have worked before also. However, what I see is a continual file dialog that appears everytime I attempt to navigate into a folder in the backup (asking for version 1 and then version 2 of the backup each time). This is tedious to say the least. Is there no way to fix the original error and/or no way to mount by double clicking without having to continually be prompted for the two versions in the backup when navigating through each folder?
There is a tib mounter patch which may help with the mounting issue: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/116874#comment-351334
As for the double click missing version 1 and 2 - normally, the fix mentioned above will work if the versions are actually there. Do you have any backup files that have -1, -2, -3, etc at the very end of the name? Those may suggest an issue with that backup as the dashes and number following them are showing it tried to use the same name for the backup and appended the number at the end because the file already exists(existed) in the directory with the same name.
That thread indicates that users are having all sorts of issues with mounting incrementals in ATI2016. This is really crazy! Does Acronis really not want to acknowledge that many users are having fundamental issues with their backups? I think it's crazy that I can't: 1) copy settings from an existing backup, 2) start a new backup (new destination with the copied settings), 3) validate the backup successfully (after the full backup completes), *but* 4) not be able to mount the resulting files (???). Why is this?
In terms of the -1, -2, -3 question. You can see from my original file (*.tib) list that I don't have these. There are only 4 (ATI) files in the destination location. Is there really no way for me to get Windows Explorer mounting working? Is there no way to get a backup that will mount properly? I'm reticent to try anything fundamental again since my workflow above is pretty basic (and backups and validation take several days to complete).
Ideas?
ColdForest, yes some other users have experienced some issues with mounting incremental backups in ATIH 2016 which is why Acronis provided an updated Tib Mounter patch as referenced by Rob above - this updates the code involved in mounting TIB files to the latest version.
In your original post, and again above, you state: I've just created a new backup (after copying settings from a pre-existing backup and selecting a new destination). When you did this, did you first remove the original backup settings after cloning these to a new task? Did you give your cloned task the same name as the original task you copied the settings from?
It sounds to me as if you now have some corruption in the Acronis Database files which holds information about the files created by your tasks and this is why you are seeing some of the errors you have produced screen images for.
I would recommend following the steps below to create a clean new copy of the Acronis Database:
Create a clean copy of the Acronis Database files:
- Stop all Acronis Services and Processes - you can do this via the Windows Task Manager (right-click on the bottom status bar and select Task Manager), then select / end or stop the Acronis items shown. Next, type Services.msc at the Start > Run prompt and use the Services console to end all Acronis services.
- Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ - this may be hidden on some systems, if so, change the Explorer View options to show hidden files & folders.
- Rename the Database folder at the above location to Database.OLD
- Restart the main Acronis True Image application which will restart all other required services & processes, and in turn will create a new Database folder and files.
Note: that you will lose your backup task history that was stored in the old copy of the database files but this will be repopulated as your backup tasks are run again.
So, did you try the tibmounter patch posted above or not? You didn't say, but that patch is designed to fix the behavior you're seeing.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/116874#comment-351334
That thread also has 10 people posting - 6 are MVP's and 4 are users. So in the grand scheme of things, perhaps 10 people out of the thousands of Acronis users impacted by the behavior - far below 1%; the forum is but a very small representation of Acronis users and odd behavior can be caused by OS issues, Acronis upgrade issues, OS settings, third party application compabitility, ... who knows. For those that it does impact though, Acronis tries to find a fix, work-a-round, or update and I can only point you to the resources avaialble.
If the patch doesn't work for you, I can only guess to the actual cause for your unique setup. Perhaps it is due to Windows OS upgrades overtime, perhaps it is due to ACronis updates overtime, perhaps it is a mix of both, or something entirely different.
At least try the patch and see if that helps. If not, I would try Steve's cleanup recommendation. I'm pretty sure that if you start fresh, the issue will no longer be there and you're likely to spend a lot less time cleaning and resinstalling than trying to figure out what is the unique issue in this case.
And you can copy settings from one backup to another:
1) From within Acronis, if you just want to copy a backup task settings so you don't have to hand step everything, you can "clone settings" from an existing backup task, then go into it and re-pick the source and destination.
or
2) If you want to bring them back in after a clean install: >>> stop Acronis services in computer management / serviccs (so that the files you want to copy won't be in use, or you'll get access denied. Then copy these 2 directories somewhere else:
C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts
C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database
After a clean install, you can then replace the newly created folders with the content of these, but personally, if doing a clean install, I wouldn't bring anything back in as you might just be bringing back the issue.
ColdForest, yes some other users have experienced some issues with mounting incremental backups in ATIH 2016 which is why Acronis provided an updated Tib Mounter patch as referenced by Rob above - this updates the code involved in mounting TIB files to the latest version.
I've tried FTPing to the referenced link (with various FTP clients: browser and command-line), but all fail with a login authentication error. Is this u/p working for others?
In your original post, and again above, you state: I've just created a new backup (after copying settings from a pre-existing backup and selecting a new destination). When you did this, did you first remove the original backup settings after cloning these to a new task? Did you give your cloned task the same name as the original task you copied the settings from?
Yes, I removed the original original backup settings (not the underlying backup files themselves). The new task does have the same name.
It sounds to me as if you now have some corruption in the Acronis Database files which holds information about the files created by your tasks and this is why you are seeing some of the errors you have produced screen images for.
I would recommend following the steps below to create a clean new copy of the Acronis Database:
Create a clean copy of the Acronis Database files:
- Stop all Acronis Services and Processes - you can do this via the Windows Task Manager (right-click on the bottom status bar and select Task Manager), then select / end or stop the Acronis items shown. Next, type Services.msc at the Start > Run prompt and use the Services console to end all Acronis services.
- Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ - this may be hidden on some systems, if so, change the Explorer View options to show hidden files & folders.
- Rename the Database folder at the above location to Database.OLD
- Restart the main Acronis True Image application which will restart all other required services & processes, and in turn will create a new Database folder and files.
Note: that you will lose your backup task history that was stored in the old copy of the database files but this will be repopulated as your backup tasks are run again.
Thank you! After removing the 'database' directory as described above I'm now able to mount any of the four TIB files originally listed. I wish I new how to prevent this going forward...
And you can copy settings from one backup to another:
1) From within Acronis, if you just want to copy a backup task settings so you don't have to hand step everything, you can "clone settings" from an existing backup task, then go into it and re-pick the source and destination.
I guess the other implied key here is to maintain a *unique name* for the new backup task, right? Seems like deleting the old task and then renaming the new one to the same name as the old one can cause problems.
Unique names are good - if you have old backups with the old name and try to navigate them or mount them, it may cause confustion to the acronis database. By using a unique name, we can avoid any mixup in the database where it may cross reference the new task with something old that was written in the database using that name from before.
I generally use the same names, but add someting simple to the end (like A, B, C, etc if I have to redo the task, but want to keep the same basic name of the backup). It also helps if you keep backup folders clean so that tasks are separated in Windows. For example, I have one main backup folder, but for each backup task I run, I put it in it's own folder. It keeps things clean and helps avoid confustion if similar names are recycled/re-used again.
Right, thx.
I just noticed that my scheduled backup is now work creating a complete backup (the existing incremental backup scheme is not picking up from the pre-existing files). This new, full backup file is being created with a "-2". Is this to be expected (given that I wiped out the previous "Database" directory)? If so, what should I do with the previous backup files? Can I just delete these (and re-validate)?
ColdForest, see the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Backup file naming where it shows:
If you are creating a new backup, and there is already a file with the same name, the program does not delete the old file, but adds to the new file the "-number" suffix, for example, my_documents_inc_b2_s2_v1-2.tib.