More problems with backup
I had problems with backup after switching external drives from E to F. So I deleted old Schemes and added two new ones. 1 - Entire PC goes to F/Acronis/EntirePC folder and 2 - Files backup goes to F/Acronis/Filesbackup folder. After setting up the two schemes and deleting the old ones. I had it back up the Entire PC. It was there yesterday. Then this morning the Files Backup was scheduled and it ran. Now the Entire PC folder is gone, totally not there. What happened to this?
The Entire PC says last backup "Yesterday at 1:13PM" and the FilesBU says at 10:23 AM. But there is no Entire PC.
While I was typing this, I checked again and the Entire PC folder is back, but nothing in it. The green check mark came on,, and is on for both schemes.
Files BU says b2_S1_v1 even though its a new scheme.
I have spent a lot of time on this. Not sure why this is so difficult. Thank you.
I have ended 8 Acronis processes in the task manager, but it wont let me change the file name, saying its still in use. Any other processes that are acronis but have another name? Thanks.
You also need to end all the Acronis Services as well as the processes.
Click on Start then type services.msc to open the Services console, then select and end each Acronis service listed in the document I referenced in my earlier post.
mmsminisrv was not stopped.
I renamed and reopened and the new Database file opened. I see the two backup schemes are there. I hope I do not have to do anything to them.
There were two backup schemes to the E drive still listed in the backup tab of Acronis. They are gone now. Perhaps that was the problem?
Thank you.
I am very frustrated with this program. I have had it for at least 4 years and it always is giving me problems.
I got to work late, at 2PM, so it started up the Files Backup. Which hogs the computer. It appears to be not keeping the previous tib files. The current one is b2_s1_v1. I am not sure why its not making a chain. But this takes up resourses when I am trying to use the computer.
It has deleted the Entire PC folder. It may come back, but its not there currently. I do that back up once weekly.
I have a stand alone computer. Why is this so complicated? Is there a way to just make it work. I get what should be happening, I have the schemes set up properly, it just refuses to do what I have.
So now, getting an error message AGAIN, that the file is missing. It was there, but it was somehow deleted. This seems like some circular issue that I just cannot get ahead of. This was for the Entire PC backup.
There must be a ghost. Now when I am in the backup tab, I see 6 schemes listed. Just 5 minutes ago there were only two. But 4 schemes for my old external drive are now showing. I know I deleted all the schemes, when I added the latest ones.
If you have reconnected a backup drive, this can result in old image files being detected and added in to the GUI panel.
I do not understand what you mean. But I connect a new external drive about a month ago. I changed the target of the schemes from E to F. That did not work. I deleted the schemes and did it again. Still haveing problems.
After getting a few error messages, the Entire PC seems to be backing up. What it does not see to do , is keep that tib file and add to it the next time, like it should be.
I appreciate your help, but I think there should be a simple way to get these backups done. I should not get constant error messages becuase I changed target drives.
Please post a screen shot of what you are seeing for the 6 schemes you say are now listed.
Here is the screenshot.
Thank you for the screen shot - attached below:
What do you see if you open the E:\Acronis\EntirePC\ folder which is shown as the path for these Other backups?
This suggests that you have multiple different backups in this folder that have been detected and added to the list.
You should be able to right-click on these backups and take the option to Delete if you want to remove them.
There are backups from Dec, 2015 thru June 2016 on the E drive. June is when I switched to the F drive.
As I mentioned for the past week, there were only two Schemes showing. They were the two for the F drive. I deleted 2 E drive and 2 F drive schemes last week. Then these 4 E drive schemes reappear.
I think tho that the problem is, I do not seem to get traction on the F drive backups. I get errror messages and it does not keep or they disapper and reappear the tib files. I saw b2_v1_s1 and b3_v1_s1, but no v2s.
I just went to the F drive and there is no Acronis folder. It disappeared in the last hour somehow. Do you think that I have Retrospect on this computer is causing the problem? I think that might be part of it.
[Quote = HnLA]
I think there should be a simple way to get these backups done. I should not get constant error messages becuase I changed target drives.
[/Quote]
On this particular point, changing target drives for a backup task does cause significant problems with ATIH 2015, 2016 and possibly later versions, this is because in these versions Acronis switched from using an XML based database system to using an SQLite database schema. This stores the Unique disk drive identifier (UUID) for the target drive associated with the backup task, so if you change drive, the new UUID no longer matches the information in the database and gives rise to problems.
I understand why you and other users may want to change target drives but this is not a feature of the current Acronis Home applications - I would recommend sending Feedback to Acronis Support & Development to request that this be added to the next or future versions of the product. There is no guarantee that this will be read in these user forums by Acronis Support or Development and I am just another user like yourself - I do not work for or get paid by Acronis - I am just a user volunteer in the forums.
Wow, to me people have many reasons to back up to different drives. 1 - they get full. 2 - they want to store in different places. 3 - they want to space things out, to protect data.
I sent this thread to Acronis. Thank you very much for your staying with this.
I can tell you why it is this way though...
What if I originally setup a backup to say the D:\drive on my system because that's where I want it to go. I then unplug it and plug in my other external drive with all of my home movies or work files. It now gets D: as the volume letter because that's the one Windows assigns automatically as the next available letter. I don't want Acronis putting backup files on this drive, or any other drive that I don't specifically intend for it to happen.
I get why this would be useful in your situation, but you can see how this would be bad for others - especially the less techy. I really don't see the difficulty in creating a separte backup task for each unique hard drive - perhaps slightly inconvenient when you have to set it up the first time, but after that, it's set and forget. It's the same principal as having a backup go to one external drive and another backup go to a NAS location too - still need two different tasks because the destinations are not the same.
I do 3 local backups - 1 to an internal drive, 1 to a USB drive and 1 to a NAS location. Each one has its own backup task. Each one starts with a full on a different day (1 on Mon, 1 on Wed and one on Saturday). I then configure them for different variations of backup types and frequency, so that no matter what, I can always grab a current backup from one of the locations. As an example, my local backup drive is daily incrementals with a full every week. The USB drive is diffs every other day with a full every other day. The NAS drive is weekly differentials with a full every month. This is just my setup, but each user has the fexibility to configure and use different backup tasks to meet their unique needs - you just need to use a different task for each different/physical location.
I am not sure I understand your plan. I did delete the old schemes and set up new ones for the F drive. But I was told on another thread that Acronis seems to keep the original drive info. So if I keep this computer for 6 years,I need to keep backing up only to the E drive I had on day one. This makes no sense to me.
I suppose I need to take a whole day to fix this problem, which should be automatic when switching drives.
If someone changes the external and forgets to change the Acronis scheme, then they are at fault. But if you tell Acronis to back up to F instead of E, then it should do that simply.
I'm a little lost on your configuration myself :) Perhaps some screenshots of your E and F drive backup tasks and what backup files exist in file explorer on both your e and F drives may shed some more light?
It sounds like you've removed some backup schemes and then some randomly showed up again, but some of these are not usable for backups either? Acronis automatically scans for backup files and may be adding old backup files to the console again (i hate this behavior and have requested numerous times that users have the option to only scan specific folders, or turn off teh autofinder completely).
If these random tasks are showing up now, it was because Acronis found them and added them, but in order to run updates to those, you would still have to go back in and specifically set the source and destinations again. If you only intend to keep these backup files for recovery and don't want them to show up now (I don't like seeing them), I would delete "only the task" and hopefully they won't show up automatically again after that.
Is there a way to just start over. The files and folders keep appearing and disappearing. The schemes seem to be set up properly, but obviously keep popping back up. I just got one back this morning. (delete option is whole back up or settings. I did Settings, maybe that is not correct)
Anyway, can I just uninstal maybe. I am ready to just go bare and now bother with this program. It is taking too much time and making me crazy. Thank you.
Is it possible that having both Acronis and Retrospect on this computer is causing problems?
For the past few hours, I have noticed that there is no Acronis folder in the backup drive. It just disappeared. It was there yesterday. I think what might have caused it to disappear is that Retrospect ran a files and entire computer backup. It does weird things to the folders in the F drive. I disconnected the E drive, as I thought that might be what was causing the problem. But that does not seem to be the case.
Just when I think I have Acronis on track, and that the tib files are there so that subsequent backups will go smoothly, that is not the case.
I am not sure what to do. I think I need to call support. Something in the computer is messing up all the backups.
It says that the last backup for Entire PC was two days ago and the Files backup also two days ago, I was not here yesterday morning. But there is no Acronis Folder in the F drive. This is very frustrating.
It's possible. Both backup products use Microsft VSS (Volume Shadow Service) and may be competing for resources - especially if you are using a proactive backup in Retrospect. If you're not opposed to it, I would remove both products in their entirety and leave it to the one you like best (my vote for Acronis - I use Retrsopect at work and am not a fan).
Retrospect leaves folders behind that should be manually deleted after removing from control panel
C:\Program Files (x86)\Retrospect C:\ProgramData\RetroISA C:\ProgramData\Retrospect C:\ProgramData\Retrospect Client
Acronis should be removed using the cleanup utility - please be sure to right click and "run as adminisrtaor" even if already logged in as admin.
Reboot the system after uninstalls to update the registry and services.
Download your Acronis installer from your account again just to make sure you have a good version of it and the latest. Run the installer with the right click and "run as administrator" feature again. I'd also recommend temporarily disabling your AV before installing - just to make sure it doesn't interfere.
Start a fresh backup with a new, unique name and put hte backup in it's own folder to keep things neat and clean (I keep one main backup folder and use a different folder for each backup job within it).
Let it run a few days and see how it goes. If all is well and no issues, stick to one product. If you're not satisifed, remove it and use the one that works the best for you.
Thanks Bobbo. Things were working fine until I had to switch from E to F drives, as E was full. Then it all has been a huge mess. So I cannot tell exactly what the problem is. It might not be that having both is the problem.
I liked a very old version of Retrospect, as it backed up raw files, which is really what I use regularly and was helpful the one time my hard drive crashed (I did not have the Entire PC backup then). It is invaluble when switching to a new computer. The tib files take a very long time to open. Now Retro just really does the Entire PC, and their Files backup is hard to set up. But it does give raw files for easy accessiblity.
I am not a computer expert, but do not understand why in Version 2016, this is so complicated. Thank you
HnLA - you may have just solved the mystery yourself - switching backup drives.
Acronis annotates the backup drive by hardware ID in the backup task. So, you can't just replace drive 1 with drive 2 and give it the same drive letter. It doesn't work that way with this product.
You could just modify the existing task by updating the destination drive and running the backup after that and that will most likley resolve things. If not, then I'd just start with a new backup task to save any more headaches.
Retrospect has a couple of nice features, but is still pretty buggy. I get random crashing in the app for no apparent reason. Recently, crashing was happeing after the backup jobs completed an teh session was closing. I was pulling my hair out - turned out to be a corrupt log file and we just let it start with a fresh one and now it's working again. There's no 1 perfect backup software out there - that's for sure. I still like Acronis as my go-to though.
I am beyond frustrated. I have purchased a few versions and never used tech support. But since its over 30 days I cannot even find a phone number to call. I have two threads about how the program is worthless since I switched destination drives.
Can anyone get me to talk to someone in support? Thank you.
Hi HnLA - I've never seen a published phone #, only chat and/or email and chat is usually available right away.
How long ago did you purchase 2016? Perhaps, reach out to General Manager Gaidar - I'm sure he'll try to make things right (I just saw that 2017 was released today and offers 1 year technical support via email and chat...)
What's the issue you're having, currently. Haven't seen you respond here or with Steve in about a month. Did you ever try to clean uninstall and start "fresh" without any carry over from previous Acronis installs? Was Acronis installed if you upgraded to Windows 10? I started clean with 2016 and it has been pretty reliable as a fresh install. I upgraded all of my 2016 installs to 2017 beta 1 then to beta 2 and plan to upgrade them to the final release now as upgrades have been working well so far. However, if things do get wonky with the applicaiton, running the clean tool and starting fresh might sort things out faster than trying to troubleshoot the actual issue.
I am beyond frustrated. I have purchased a few versions and never used tech support. But since its over 30 days I cannot even find a phone number to call. I have two threads about how the program is worthless since I switched destination drives.
Can anyone get me to talk to someone in support? Thank you.
HnLA, please see post https://forum.acronis.com/forum/124410#comment-384307 from another user who is also switching external drives and has found a workaround that stops Acronis from complaining about different UUIDs by using a symbolic link. Obviously this won't stop Acronis complaining if drive letters change (i.e. from E: to F:).
See also post https://forum.acronis.com/forum/97491#comment-385474 where I detailed the steps for getting immediate support using the CHAT NOW tool on the Acronis Support site.
Thanks, frankly, I am not sure I can do those steps and more unsure whether they will actually help.
I have been my own IT guy for 25 years. This and other Window 10 problems are just too much for me.
I contacted Chat now and they said they cannot help me without a pay per help arrangement. Every time I update I do not use the 30 day free. But I always need it after 6 months when its too late. I suppose if I upgrade to 2017 I might get live support for 30 days, but I am not too keen on putting in any more money to this program.
HnLA, I would recommend the following process to try to resolve this issue caused by changing physical external backup drives (from E: to F:). This has caused an issue with the Acronis Database which holds information about the external drive that was used when the backup task was created.
- Select each backup task and take the option to Clone the task settings. This will create a new duplicate task with the prefix (1) before the task name. Do not run this task yet.
- Select the original backup task and take the option to Delete only the task settings - do not delete the backup files.
- Check the configuration for the new cloned (1) task and confirm that this is pointing to the correct source & target files, that any schedule is correct etc. You can also rename the task to remove the (1) at this point.
- Either run a validation for the new cloned task or do a backup now for it.
The above actions should help to clean up the Acronis Database and associate the existing backup files with the new cloned tasks.
Hi Steve, I was going to wait a few days to thank you, to see if it worked. It appeared to work, but this morning, instead of doing the file backup as incremental version, it did a new one. So on 8/23 I have (1)Files Backup_full_b1_s1_vs, 8/24 the computer was off at 10AM, then today, 8/25 I have (1)Files Backup_full_b2_s1_v1.tib
About 6 weeks ago, I made 2 new schemes and then deleted the old one and that did not work. So I cloned them, and it seemed to work. At least the destination folders were not getting deleted. It may be too soon to tell but I am not sure why I got a full one
Backup Scheme is Custom. Method, incremental. Create a full version after 25. Store no more than 2 and Do not delete first is checked. Thank you.
HnLA, did you make a change to the task in anyay after that full ran? If so, the version chain reset. If you want this to work as you have it set, one you hit save and start a backup, don't modify the task in anyway again.
For testing, run some manual "run backup now" while you're watching and see if it creates an incremental as expected. Do this a 2 or 3 times. If it is making them, just leave it alone and don't open the task anymore. If you do and save, then you reset the version chain count again and it will never get through.
Personally, I think 25 incrementals is too much/too long. Most IT offices would recommend you take a full every week. If something goes wrong with one of those incrementals, anything after that is useless. By limiting to a week, if you can afford to lose that much time, at least you can always go back to the weekly full.
Or, if you want to keep this task as is, perhaps supplement it with another one that only does a weekly (or bi-weekly full) on a different day than your original task would normally run. These are just my opinions, so it's up to you if you want to continue with 25 incrementals or not - persoanlly though, based on experience with various backup programs, I don't trust any of them to keep incrementals for nearly a month. It might work, but if it doesn't tha's a long ways back to revert to when trouble arises. Having a smaller scheme or a supplemental second backup will give you options if you do find yourself in a situation wher e your first backup doesnt' work as planned.