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Backups Routinely Fail Validation

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I have an open support case #02765922 where my partition backups fail at validation, maybe 50% of the time.  I've run chkdisk on the drives, performed endless memory checks to rule out hardware issues.  Acronis Chat agents have cleaned my system, reinstalled from scratch, recreated the script files, updated the SnapAPI drivers, deleted the database folder, etc..  Eventually I did get a good backup, but it doesn't fix the problem because next time, or the time after that, the backup surely fails.  My thinking is that it should work every time.

Anyway, every time it fails I look at the log file and notice that it always has the same cryptic error message (3 actually).  I was hoping that someone here might know what it means.  I have attached the log file for review, and used a spreadsheet to verify that the error messages are the same from three different events that failed.:

 

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Hi Thomas, when you ran chkdsk, did you run it with the /F /R switches as well?  That might help - probably not, but worth a shot as it will try to force repair a bad sector or mark it for non-use after that.  

What about a second opinion - the free version of hard disk sentinel may help identify the % of life on the disk and/or bad sectors that chkdsk is missing.

Also, I can't find the thread, but Enchantec had mentioned that you not run validation with the backup job as this may be a bug.  If you turn off validation in the backup job and let it run (says that part is successful), what happens if you validate as a seperate task - might actually work then.

You could also try validating the backup with the offline recovery media and see if it gives the same error.  

If you really want to give it a test, restore the image to a different hard drive and see what the end result is.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I have run chkdsk c: /R, which I thought includes/implies /F.  The support agent reran with /F.

Hard Disk Sentinal reports both source and destination drives at 100% excellent, however it doesn't seem to let me run any tests.  This may be because it is the trial version, or some incompatability with the disk drives.

After the backup + validation indicates a failure to validate, I have attempted to re-run just the validation test and it reports the same error.  I have not attempted to schedule just a backup by itself, followed by a manual validation check.  If it is a software bug then it has been there a long time.  I had similar problems with ATIH2010 which is why I finally upgraded to 2016.  This sort-of suggests that it is something unique to my setup, but other than ATIH failing, the system is rock solid and on 24/7. 

I will try again to validate using the offline recovery media.

Update:  I tried using recovery boot media and they all fail for some reason.  I tried recreating creating and booting from all three available methods: USB disk, R-W DVD, and F11 Boot Manager.  I took a photo of the error message (attached).

 

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Thomas, when booting from the recovery boot media this must be done in the same mode as used by Windows OS, i.e. using UEFI bootloader or BIOS / Legacy mode.  See webpage: Check if your PC uses UEFI or BIOS for help determining your boot mode.

Next, are you overclocking any of the hardware components in your Dell XPS system - if so, try resetting this to the normal settings.

It may also be worth running the Dell memory diagnostics from the boot menu if these have only been run from within Windows, as the recovery media is loading fully into memory in order to work.

It looks like my PC uses BIOS as the boot mode.  I'm not aware of any way to boot in a different mode.

I have not done any overclocking.  Base on your advice I did figure out how to boot in Dell Diagnostic mode and it performed all the tests, memory included, without reporting any problems.

Acronis sent me a new ISO of the Boot Media disk but it didn't work either.  Before it displays the "panic" message, it shows "Unable to load initial ramdisk.  Press <Enter> to proceed..."

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Starting to looke like a possibly memory issue.  Run the Dell diagnostics and see what turns up.

What's the Dell model?  On a few of our older laptops, there was a bios limiation that limted pre-boot RAM to 500Mb if the bios SATA mode was set to RAID.  What is yours set as - RAID or AHCI?  If it is RAID, you could temporarily change it to AHCI and try to boot the media (Windows won't boot like this, but it may be a work-a-round to get teh Acronis media to load and won't impact the backup if it does load).  You would just change back to RAID when the backup is complete. 

Are you overclocking your RAM or CPU?  If you are you should trying backing off the overclock a bit to see if things improve.

I ran the Dell diagnostics with memory test and all looked good.

The model is XPS-630i.  I've always been confused about what type of hard drive controller is installed.  I ordered it with dual TB drives with a RAID controller.  I have since turned off RAID and use them as two seperate hard drives.  After my 1 RAID failure I don't trust it anymore, and am hesitant about changing any of the Hard Disk BIOS settings, but I will read up on it.

Interesting development.  I found my old TIH2010 boot media and it booted just fine on this machine, and I was able to verify an older image that I preserved from long ago.  So the issue seems to be with the 2016 ISO image and this particular machine.  To confuse things even more, I found that the new 2016 media boots just fine on my other Dell computer (Laptop). 

The fact that I can boot from the 2010 recovery disk, and not from the 2016 recover disk, suggest it is a new ACRONIS bug, possibly unique to my system/model/bios setup.  The fact that the 2016 recovery works fine on a different computer seems to support this as well.

 

 

 

Thomas, the only other suggestion from me at this point, apart from continuing your open support case with Acronis support, would be to create the alternative Windows PE Rescue Media and try that instead of using the standard, Linux based, media (which is what the F11 / ASRM also uses).

The difference betwee your 2010 and 2016 standard media is the version of the Linux kernel that is used for the OS environment. 

See KB document: 1537: Acronis Bootable Media which shows that ATIH 2016 media is based on Linux kernel version 3.15 whereas ATIH 2010 media is based on Linux kernel version 2.6 - that is probably a significant different between these two kernel versions.

2010 media is mbr/legacy boot only.  2016 media is UEFI and mbr/legacy boot capable.  I suspect your system is capable of booting either method and the media is attempting to boot UEFI mode, but may have secure boot, or some other limiting factor that is preventing it from completing.  If you use your one time boot override after a reboot (reboot, not shutdown in case you have fastboot enabled), then look to try legacy boot and see what happens, then look to to try UEFI boot and see what happens.  

I don't have any XPS systems, but they seem to be the problem ones based on bios settings.  There is yet to be a latitude or Precision I can't boot the Acronis media with.  However, making sure the bios is properly configured and using the F12 boot override menu is often key.  Please take a look at this thread post with screenshots as a reference.  

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/121829#comment-378318

Also, not sure if you upgraded from 2010 or another version at some point, and/or if you upgraded the OS along teh way as well, but the media builder could be corrupt - this has happened to a small handful of people.  They were able to install Acronis on another sytem and build the media and it worked fine.  They then went back and ran the cleanup tool and reinstalled from scratch and their UsB media worked fine too.  I believe that many of the newer Dells (ultrabooks, precision and possibly XPS) can be very finicky with CD/DVD boot so I would look to try USB when recreating the media if you get to that point.