Restore Doesn't
My complaint with backup systems is that when you're in a crunch and need it, it fails. I've been through this more than once. I just tried to restore and got the error message below. As I clicked Ignore, it would repeat the message with 3, then 2,then 1
Jim, more information is needed in order to fully understand what you are trying to do and how you are trying to do it?
Note: To attach a file or image, look under the text entry panel and locate the File attachments link - click on this then on the Choose File button and pick the file you want to attach to your forum post, finally, click on the Attach button to attach it.
The messages you are seeing about 'Cannot find version X' is a fairly common one reported in the forums and can be caused by having deleted files from your backup drive using Windows Explorer instead of doing this using the Automatic Cleanup option in your backup task.
You can simply keep on clicking on the 'Ignore' option for each reported missing file and do this until you get through the list of these - or you can do a Validation for your backup task where these files were created - doing the Validation will still present these 'cannot find...' messages and you will still need to take the Ignore option, but this will then try to reconcile the Acronis Database files with the status of actual files remaining.
If you are just trying to restore a few files or folders from your backup image, then double-click on the .TIB file to open this in Explorer and then use Copy & Paste to copy the files or folders to where you want them.
If you are trying to restore a partition or a disk, then you should not be doing this from within Windows but should be using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media on CD/DVD or USB stick to boot your computer into a standalone environment from which to run the Acronis application. This does not use the Acronis Database and will not give these cannot find messages.
Thanks for your reply.
Note: To attach a file or image, look under the text entry panel and locate the File attachments link - click on this then on the Choose File button and pick the file you want to attach to your forum post, finally, click on the Attach button to attach it.
I'm not sure what the text entry panel is. I clicked on the picture frame (the thing that says IMCE ??? when you hover over it.) It provided an Upload feature that let me select a file and it uploaded it. I then clicked attach but it didn't. Anyway . . .
The messages you are seeing about 'Cannot find version X' is a fairly common one reported in the forums and can be caused by having deleted files from your backup drive using Windows Explorer instead of doing this using the Automatic Cleanup option in your backup task.
Well yes, I deleted earlier files to make room for later files. Do you mean this "Total disk backup" software doesn't make stand-alone backups? If so, where is that made clear?
If you are just trying to restore a few files or folders from your backup image, then double-click on the .TIB file to open this in Explorer and then use Copy & Paste to copy the files or folders to where you want them.
At first I was trying to restore one file I backed up a couple of weeks ago by clicking the "Recover Files" button, but when it didn't work I clicked the Recover Disk button to see if I could restore my entire disk if need be, and got the same message. If these buttons don't work why are they on the main Acronis screen?
After finding this failure I have installed a new backup drive and done a backup. Acronis gave it this file name full_b17_s1_v1. If I try to restore with this image will it restore my entire Windows drive or is there some other gremlin?
Okay, I have now tryed your suggestion of double clicking on the full_b17_s1_v1 file and all it does is redisplay the folder directory with the message Please find the last volume of the backup. I have no idea what's happening. This is the only file made by Acronis on the drive.
Jim, the text entry box is where you are writing your comments and below this are the Post and Preview buttons, where you must be clicking on Post to send your updates. Above these two buttons is a link for File attachments and just below this the check box for 'Notify me when new comments are posted'. The only time when I've known these items to be missing if when using the Opera browser with it's built in Ad blocker which blocks these items for some strange reason.
Acronis can make a range of different types of backups, some of which are standalone, some are not, but all backups are recorded in the Acronis Database files in order to offer you a choice of what and when to restore data from. This is all documented in the ATIH 2016 User Guide along with details about using the option for 'Automatic cleanup' to manage your older / unwanted backup files. The messages you reported are caused by deleting these files manually and leaving this history information in the database as a side effect.
I would recommend browsing through the User Guide sections on both Backup and Restore / Recovery, plus also look at the section on Backup file naming conventions.
Another source of help can be found in post: 117004: Great Acronis "How-To" videos and other Acronis Resources where there are a number of helpful videos showing ATIH in action for different scenarios.
Thanks again but you didn't address why the restore buttons are on the main backup screen if you can't restore using them. Nor, why when I click on the backup file name I get nowhere. Finally, I assumed the word full at the beginning of all my backup files names means it's a stand-alone backup. Is that correct or not?
Jim, we don't appear to be getting very far here. This is a user forum and I am just another user like yourself regardless of my MVP status, I am not privy to the design rationale behind Acronis products nor to their development teams etc.
The Recovery disks / Recover files buttons are present because they can be used for these actions when applied to a selected backup task. If they are not working for you then there is a reason for this. You have already said that you have been deleting files manually which in turn has given rise to the 'Cannot find versionX' messages.
I have no detailed information for how you have configured your backup task that has created your 'full' backup files - but ATIH works with backup version chains, so strictly speaking 'full' in the name of a backup file does not mean that it is a stand-alone backup unless it is the very first backup in the chain, i.e. has the text _full_b1_s1_v1.tib ending to the file name. This is covered in the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Backup file naming where it shows what these elements of the name signify.
I would suggest opening a support ticket directly with Acronis Support for this issue - all ATIH 2016 & 2017 users have 2 years of support (from date of purchase). Click on the Contact Acronis Support link in my signature below for this.
ATIH works with backup version chains, so strictly speaking 'full' in the name of a backup file does not mean that it is a stand-alone backup unless it is the very first backup in the chain, i.e. has the text _full_b1_s1_v1.tib ending to the file name. This is covered in the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Backup file naming where it shows what these elements of the name signify.
So, my filename full_b17_s1_v1 doesn't mean it's a stand-alone backup even though it's the first and only backup on this drive and is called full?
Yes, I had read the file naming convention:
- · Backup method (full, inc, diff: full, incremental, differential).
- · Number of backup chain (in the form of b#).
- · Number of backup version (in the form of s#).
- · Number of volume (in the form of v#).
However, I wasn't able to find where these were defined.
- I assumed full meant a stand-alone backup
- I don't know what a backup chain is (and since there's no other backup on my current backup drive there can't be a chain of 16 other things of any kind I can imagine.
- I don't understand what a version is, but I assumed it means version of the software used to make the backup.
- And I don't know what a volume is. Volume of what? And how is it different from a version?
When I first started using Acronis, I saw the screen called Cleanup. But it required me to set a limit on the number of backups I want to keep. I can't do that because I keep them until the space on the drive is becoming filled. Then I begin deleting the oldest backup files to make room for more current ones. So, I didn't use it.
So, my filename full_b17_s1_v1 doesn't mean it's a stand-alone backup even though it's the first and only backup on this drive and is called full?
Jim, the _b17_ part of the file name is the clue here - this is the 17th backup version chain that has been created for your backup task, and because you have deleted the previous 16 backup chains manually, the Acronis Database still holds information about those earlier chains, and will present error messages for each file in each of these 16 deleted chains to show that these files cannot be located.
You have two options for dealing with this situation:
- Use the option to clone task settings for the backup task, this will create a duplicate task with the same name but prefixed by (1) - remove the original task settings before attempting to run this new task, and do not remove any of the files for the original task. Doing this will cleanup the Database records for the old task, plus will allow you to start the cloned task with a new _full_b1_s1_v1 backup file.
- Run a validation for the original backup task and work your way through all the error messages for missing files until the validation process completes - this should then reconcile your Acronis Database records with the actual status of the files still present on your backup drive.
Somewhere you said you needed to see my backup settings. I assume this is what you meant.
I don't care what the file name is so long as it's a stand-alone backup. I read the part circled in red in the screen capture above to mean it is.
Jim, we are going around in circles a little here. A Full backup as selected in your backup scheme method simply means that each backup you create with this scheme will always be a Full backup file. This is in contrast to selecting to create Incremental or Differential backup files.
If all you want to do is to create a single Full standalone backup file, with no associated backup version chain, then choose the Single version scheme option in the top of the Backup page tab. This will only ever keep the latest full backup file, deleting the previous one as soon as the new one has been successfully created.
All of the other Backup Scheme options work on the principle of backup version chains, where each backup is assigned a backup sequence number as shown by the _b#_ in the file name - this allows for a choice of different Restore points to be offered when doing a Recovery, each restore point taken from the Date & Time of the backup files in the chain and in the backup sequence. This is akin to Windows System Restore offering a choice of where to recover back to.