Recovery from Acronis Secure Zone
Just upgraded from Acronis True Image Home 2011 to Acronis True Image 2016 - apparently successfully. When I uninstalled ATIH 2011 I chose to retain the Acronis Secure Zone as it contained valuable backups. In ATI 2016 I cannot add ASZ as a source for recovery. I can see it in Wondows Explorer and the backups are all there. If I use the right click context menu and choose 'recover' I just get kicked back into ATI 2016 - where I cannot choose ASZ as a source. This is a bit of a disaster! Any ideas?
Boot using your recovery media. from there you should be able to see and use previous SZ backups.
Already tried that - like almost everything else about Acronis True Image 2016 it failed to work. Have now deleted the old ASZ and recreated a new one but although I see the new ASZ I cannot do a full image backup to it. Just creates a small file that is obviously not an image of my C: drive. So many other problems that I need my money back (after many years with Acronis) and use a competitor - as I am now (although it is inferior to Acronis when it works). I have reported to Acronis Tech Support but can't even send a Sys Report (as it is well over 5MB). Waiting for FTP instructions from Acronis in a last ditch attempt at being able to use the upgraded product (2011 to 2016) in anticipation of an upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10. It's a shame as ATIH 2011 works fine in Win 7 once you get used to the clunky user interface. Perhaps if enough people have the disastrous experience with ATIH 2016 as I have, there will be an update to a working version and I can then revert to Acronis?
Mike,
I am sorry that you are experiencing such problems with the 2016 version. I see the ticket in our system and be assured, that our specialists will do all possible to help you solve the problem and answer all your questions.
Probably there was an issue with the installation, so please, launch the installation file and select the Repair option.
That's a thought!
I have seemingly now managed to create a backup image of my C: drive in my newest clean ASZ. I can see it and mount it in Windows Explorer. If I right-click to recover from it, ATIH opens with an unrelated C: image selected as source. Is there any way at all to see ASZ within the ATIH programme and select a tib file in it as a source from which to recover the image? I find it utterly user-unfriendly to have to leave the programme and go to Windows Explorer to view what is in the ASZ. I just want to do what I have always done with older versions, i.e. Select a created tib file from the ASZ and use it to restore my C: drive to its original imaged state. Do I now have to reboot first and choose the option from the Acronis OS environment - can I no longer do this from within Windows (which would then of course reboot with the Acronis loader - but I could see what I was doing).
Mike
Further to the previous, I have now had another session of trying to master the horrible user interface on the assumption that Acronis is quietly preparing to drop the ASZ feature and make it as difficult as possible to use.
I eventually managed to get the programme to make a tib image file in a newly created ASZ.
By rebooting via f11 and the Acronis Loader I got to the usual Acronis (Windows PE? maybe?) OS interface and by refreshing it, I eventually discovered the new ASZ tib as well as a bunch of old tib's. With a little jockying around well-hidden options, I eventually even managed to get the rediscovered tib files to report the correct disk letter. Further in-depth fiddling around I managed to get the programme to 'discover' the tib files on my networked NAD - although this did need the underlying network user-name and password (Western Digital - not the overall router name and password).
Nowhere in the help screens could I find any indication that the ASZ is no longer accessible from Windows - Windows Explorer right-click options (e.g. verification, restore) appear not to work at all - although the ASZ is mountable and browsable.
I had forgotten to ask for auto verification immediately after creating the system image but, taking my life in my hands (and in the knowledge that I had a recent user-friendly cloning/imaging programme backup to fall back on) I decided to test the image by doing a restore to C:. Amazingly, this appears at last to have worked.
I think I may now have a usable system by doing lots of completely undocumented things. A more verbose user interface would make the programme infinitely more usable.
I regard myself as having at least a medium knowledge of computers, Windows, etc. and have struggled a lot. I could not possibly recommend the latest version of Acronis to anyone I know (apart perhaps from one complete nerd who is always looking for new challenges).
I will now continue testing in various configurations in the hope, perhaps, eventually to be able to revert to Acronis as it is at least more configurable than other software - if you have the patience to intuit everthing that Acronis don't seem to want to tell the user!
I would be interested in any further (constructive) suggestions to make what used to be a good programme a sensible and usable option again.
Mike
Hi Mike
Just to pass on a few tips which you may find helpful.
The best way I hve found to avoid having to use the TI GUI is to schedule backups to run automatically. To check that they have run to time they can be seen and worked on in Windows Explorer.
When it comes to finding your complete population of SZ backups booting from your recovery media lists them all in date and time order. I always do disc or partition restores using the recovery media.
Working this way ensures that the whole of the backup and restore processes can be proved to work from end to end so that if a main drive fails it can be replaced and the whole computer be recovered knowing that it all works.
If possible install a Trayless HD fitting so that your main HD can be swapped out for testing or ultimate replacement. This operation only takes seconds.
BTW I never bother with verifying backups because restoring to a replcement Drive is 100% safe.
Xpilot
My two penny worth. I have stopped using the ASZ because you have no control over the naming of the TIB files contained therein, and given that I am imaging different partitions on a multi-boot system (with different operating systems), I found out the hard way that this is a real pain when wanting to recover one specific partition from an image in the ASZ, as it is almost impossible to work out which image relates to which partition, especially when doing regular scheduled backups of all the partitions with image consolidation etc.
I now create a separate partition of my own and this allows me to create backup images with identifiable names etc, plus backup to a network drive for safety (belt & braces).
Replying to previous two comments - for which my thanks.
1. In response to Xpilot:
Thanks for useful tips. I am now solving the missing log issue by forcing full e-mail notification on each image creation (including the full log) - this is easier to read than seeking out the log in C:\Program Data ... and trying to figure out which type of log it is (verification logs for example in a different folder to backup logs and both opaquely named). However, e-mail notification is not available, for example, for a free-standing verification operation.
I have adopted your tip re scheduling. WIll see how it works - hopefully not to intrusive as I prefer to image when I want!
Agree that the most reliable listing of images is via recovery media.
Will look into the Trayless option - a new idea to me.
Not sure that I trust Acronis enough to drop verification!
2. In response to Steve Smith:
Thanks for useful tips. Your system is more complex than mine but your comments are very relevant as my mistake in upgrading from Acro 2011 to Acro 2016 was to get Win 10 compatibility before upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10 via a fresh dual boot installation.
I think I'll follow your advice to drop using ASZ before Acronis drop it themselves! Only hesitation is that it was originally plugged as safer than 'just another partition' as it was outwith Windows - but doubt that it really offers much over my own programme of backing up alternately to a partition on my 2nd HD physically present in the desktop box and also to an external USB-connected HD and also to a NAD. Probably cautious enough. Certainly, I have had to use recovery media from time to time but have never had to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch (which would take an age as I have a lot going on).
3. Further experience:
Did an Acronis 2016 backup yesterday and created an image for which the context menu had no verification option and neither did the relevant context menu within Windows Explorer. Tried using Acronis Support via a chat line. The immediate recourse was to a 'repair install' which I let them do remotely but which failed to change anything. They then fell back on a full uninstall-reinstall routine. This solved the 'missing verification option' problem. So after drinking coffee for an hour, I signed off and rebooted. Reconfigure all shown images to get the right source for each. Now impossible to add any further old images to the list (some had gone AWOL during the remote operations). Did a complete uninstall - reboot - CClean - reinstall operation and now have got back the ability to add further old images and still have the verification option.
Bottom line - Acronis Support very nice people but don't really have any solutions that I can't implement myself. Drop verification and ASZ. Maintain a separate backup stream with Macrium - although this causes a problem on restoration as it has no file exclusion option on image creation and this means a complicated uninstall-reinstall- licence transfer operation with Backblaze (that I use for continous cloud storage of data - but not OS - files). There's no good answer.