Nonstop backup is stopped
Hi,
I think I go crazy about the nonstop backup. After a month of proper working the taskbar icon changes to blue and the tooltip says “Nonstop backup is stopped”. If I start the nonstop backup manually then it stops after 2-3 minutes. I am using the dedicated “G” Backup drive (1TB 65% free) for backups. If I change the destination drive to External USB drive and start the nonstop backup manually then it does the same: after 2-3 minutes it stops. Most interesting thing is thing is the backup changed the Schedule (in options) to Daily backup even it worked as a Nonstop Backup for a month. Note that Nonstop Backup does not have Options button!!! Even I could not delete the backup.
And the most interesting thing: it repeats itself after roughly every 30 days. I created this non-stop backup on April 20, 2016. It stopped working on May 18, 2016. Does anybody any suggestion. (I am using the latest (Acronis True Image 2016, build 6569).
Thanks,
Louis
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your reply and for the suggested log viewer. In the NBS*.log files I found interesting things. I have „Unknown Win32 error” in all the log files I checked form the first one up to the last one. The other errors I found are:
- “The item essence is incorrect. Probably metadata in the file archive is corrupted”
- „Failed to back up the deleted item”
- “Invalid internal API usage. Probably the stream is corrupted or archive options are incorrect.”
Do you have any idea?
(Just a note: I have a scheduled full backup run on every Sunday. This always works).
Thanks for your help!
Best regards,
Louis
Hello Louis,
Without seeing the full NSB log for these messages in context it is difficult to say whether they are relevant to the problem or not. Some messages in the log files can be just intended for the developers as debug aids rather than showing an actual problem. See the comments from Slava in another forum post recently.
Okay, my fault, I forgot to attach it. Sorry.
Thanks for your help!
Louis
Louis, thank you for the log files. I don't see anything there that suggests a real problem here. The messages that you picked up on seem to be more for the developers benefit and don't appear to stop NSB from completing.
I personally don't use NSB and have seen comments from others in the forum that suggest it should be considered more of a Beta product due to various problems being encountered.
An alternative to NSB is the option to create your own backup task with a daily schedule to run every hour and then set your own backup scheme options, i.e. depending on the size of the data you want to protect, to create an initial full version followed by 23 incremental images (assuming the system runs 24 x7), then a new full version etc.
The advantage here is in the complete control that you have over your backups with automatic cleanup rules.
Louis, in this case, I would send feedback about the NSB failure through the Acronis application and submit a system report with it. Then, I would contact technical support, reference this thread and provide the date/time you submitted the feedback so the support engineers can take a look.
Additional info you may want to check into as well:
32417: Acronis True Image: Troubleshooting Nonstop Backup
14705: Acronis Nonstop Backup: FAQ
14708: Acronis Nonstop Backup Pauses
Like Steve, I also don't use NSB because I've seen too many forum posts about it. Perhaps it is workign better now though, but I haven't bothered to try as I don't have a need for 5 minute backups - seems like overkill and the constant checking and updating seems more liekly to run into issues. Instead, I use daily incremental backups which are fine for me and kick off a manual one whenever I need to. You can set them up to occur as often as every hour (if you do that, I would recommend the same as Steve above and have it create a full after 23 incrementals if you need backups this frequently). Additionally, I would then ensure that Windows backup protection is turned on as Microsoft already has VSS protection for file changes on the drive where protection is ensabled and you can restore previous versions from within it. Your Acronis backups will capture those restore points too (as long as you remove that exclusion from your default exclusions list).
Just curious, but may I ask why you're using NSB? Do you really need constant 5 minute backups for your entire system? If not, you'll probably be happier with performance using incrementals (again, I just use a single daily backup... 1 full + 6 incremental for a week, but that's for my situation). I have a second job where the full starts 3 days later and does a differential every other day at different times of the time. This gives me 2 different backups, in two different locations at different intervals. I then do a third backup to the cloud for offsite recovery in following the 3-2-1 backup method.
Hi Steve, Bobbo_3C0X1,
Thanks for your replies.
Acronis Support: This was my first step (last time when NSB failed) but they said that my support time is expired. I upgraded Ture Image 2016 in November, 2015. It is a weird factory policy…
Why NSB? I am and R&D engineer and I need the earlier source files of the APP I am developing very often. It is good to have an assistant “who” saves the changed files automatically so frequently. I always forget to make backup manually. I am using the Acronis since 2011 and the NBS was a promising solution for my problem. If you look at my files I have only 48 files since April 18, 2016 when I deleted the non-working NSB last time a recreated a new one. During one month the NSB created only 48 files. The 5-minute backup time is a joke only. I should have 2880 log files during 30 day, 8 hours per day and 5 minutes NSB. Interesting, is not it?
I think it is the time to switch to any other SW vendor’s backup program or enable Win10 instant backup (last version of the files). This Non-stop Backup thing simply does not work right, not talking about Acronis True Image prevents fast start of Windows 10. This is reported to be fixed in the last version but without Acronis my system starts within 15 seconds. With Acronis it takes more than a minute.
Thank you for your help and time!
Best regards,
Louis
I personally don't use NSB and have seen comments from others in the forum that suggest it should be considered more of a Beta product due to various problems being encountered.
This is certainly my experience. Non-stop backup runs for a short while and then falls over.
At the moment, I have a non-stop backup profile that unilaterally turned off the non-stop bit. Now I cannot even delete it from my roster of backups.
(I came here in search for advice on that one and found this discussion, which certainly fits in with my experience.)
Actually, most of Acronis True Image feels like beta software. It is rare for it to pootle on without breaking down after a few weeks.
I've been having good luck with Acronis 2016 and reliability, but I also pretty much only use it for the basics of backups and don't get involved much with Try & Decide, ASRM and the NSB. They all sound great, but are beyond what i need a backup software to do and think that the many variants of motherboards with dual capability for UEFI and Legacy as well as how each manufacturer implements the bios configurations, has made it really hard to implement these "extra" features on so many variables now. Of course, there are plenty that these items do work for... unfortunately, here in the forums, it's usually just those having issues that take time to post (as is the case with most technical forums).
Once recommendation and something that has worked well for me and many I've helped, is to start "fresh" whenever there is a major version release. Run the clean tool, download the latest version from your account and install with "run as admin" rights and for the most part, you end up with a very functional application.
Overtime, upgrades with the applciation and/or with the OS leave bits and pieces behind in the registry... plus everyone has different software and combinations of them and configurations, and different ways of maintaining them (Antivirus, registry tweakers/cleaners, undetected malware, failed updates/patches in Microsoft).
I don't just use this for Acronis, but do so with the entire OS from time to time, depending on how the OS is behaving and what the Windows logs are showing.
I realize this is not ideal for everyone and that they want an application to "just work". I get it too. Unfortunately, this is not a simple appliation that is self-sufficient and it requires a lot of low level system access that depends on the health of the overall system to function in Windows as well. For the true bread and butter though, I can honestly say that I've had 100% backup and recovery success using the offline media and because my data is important to me, I make the time to take the offline backups as often as I feel necessary to do so. The online backups are reliable too, but going back to what was mentioned already, anythign that happens in Windows is susecptible to every other Windows issue too. I've used about every back software imagineable and not one of them is perfect. The more you use them, and the longer you have them installed, upgraded adn modified with the OS over time, the more likely you will see new and/or more problems with them too. That's why it doesn't hurt to start "fresh" with an OS and/or at least the applicatoin every now and then... we do this for all kinds of things in life - maintenance is just as important for software as it is for your car, house, etc.