Backups fail with access denied, but permissions all seem to check out ok
My Acronis True image backups are stopping while still saying "calculating time remaining". The error is logged as:
32 Locking partition C:...
33 Writing full version to file: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
34 The backup has failed. Please close the application that may currently use the file: F:\Acronis Backups\WWPC10-C$\Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
35 Access to the file or folder is denied.
NB the file named above does not get created.
In case it made any difference I have checked that that folder had full control for me as user (admin), that I am a member of Backup Operators and that Backup Operators have full control. Drive F is a hard drive on the same computer, not a network mapping. It's backing up to a folder where it has successfully backed up in the past on many occasions.
Any ideas why this is happening would be appreciated.
Hi
Many thanks for the helpful ideas - I'll check them out. I have tried running it as an admin, and also making my own user id a member of backup operators.
Will try disabling the AV software, but I think it was running when Actonic backups used to run fine.
I understand the idea about running it under the bootable rescue media system, but that sort of kills the idea of automated timed backups, which is what I purchased Acronis for!
Alex
Tried again with AV disabled and Run as Admin, but the same result:
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB Task is waiting for user interaction.
Description: Stage Description
Information: The backup has failed. Please close the application that may currently use the file: F:\Acronis Backups\WWPC10-C$\Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
Should there be a shield on the task icon while running as admin? I run it with a right-click from the start menu and choose "Run as Administrator". I get the UAC black screen asking for confirmation, but no shiled symbol on the running app icon.
Alex
Steve
It looks like permissions are implicated, depsite my best effort to make sure they are right.
As an experiment I tried changing the backup destination to be the root of the F: drive instad of my preferred folder and it ran okay. I'm wondering if there's something in the name of the destination folder (eg the space or the $ sign) that is upsetting the backup file creation?
Alex
Alex,
I believe that the file name might be the issue. Spaces are OK, but I believe $ is one of the characters that is prohibited.
I have experienced the same problem you are experiencing, but the backup folder was on my NAS, and it was definitely a permissions problem. So, if changing the folder name does not work, let me know and I will help trouble shoot.
FtrPilot
Got there in the end thanks. Turned out to be a combination of permissions and a quirk of Windows. For some reason although all the folders above had the full permissions required, the final folder had not inherited those permissions, and had no access for SYSTEM, even though it did for me as a user. I guess Acronis Backup is not using Backup Operator for its credentials, nor the user, even when started interactively, but is using SYSTEM or Administrator.
But along the way I came across this really quirky behaviour of Windows file system that I had never been aware of before: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/326549 - that's a really odd one that could catch out a programmer in all sorts of circumstances.
The $ sign was not a problem by the way.
Many thanks for your time.
Alex
Alex, thanks for feeding back on how this issue was resolved for you, that is helpful in case other users encounter a similar problem. Glad you have this resolved now!
Alex, Glad to hear all is working!
FYI... $ is normally reserved for the hidden admnistrator shares of a drive... using it in a file name could cause problems down the road, but if it's not now, perhaps it won't. As an administrator in a domain, I will often remotely connect to PC's using the admin share such as \\computername\c$ so that I can remotely copy and paste files on computer systems (not servers), where local shares are disabled by GPO. It's also used for remotely pushing software packages with tools like SCCM or PSEXEC.
http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/2007/10/the-admin-share-explained/
If you ever use robocopy (I like it a lot), you'll find the permission issue to be reverse of yours... typcially if you copy to the root of a drive instead of a specific folder. By default, it will create the copy data with hidden and system attributes and you'll wonder where your data really is since it will be hard to find unless you show hidden files and folders and system files and folders. Using attrib -h -s removes those attributes from such files and/or folders, making them reappear and accessible again, but doesn't actually change the permissions on them - you'd still have to do that with the security tab from properties. Sometimes, it's easiest to take ownership of the root drive (even if the current owner, do it again). Then make sure the inherit security settings is enabled and force it to propgeate to all child directories and that should make sure that everything on the drive has the same permissions at that point.
Sure, that's exactly why I use the C$ in the folder name - to indicate to me that it is a copy from the root of the drive. I've used the admin sharenames since the days of MSDOS and OS/2 Lan Manager, so it is second nature to me to think of the drive as C$ (and of course I couldn't call the folder C:\ !).
It's never given me any problem in the past quarter century to use dollar signs in folder names, and it doesn't seem to be doing now, it was just a passing thought that maybe it was a problem.
I did have it set to inherit permissions (or so I thought) but somewhere along the way the folder hadn't done.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Alex