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Disk Restore FAILURE - "Index Corrupted"

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DISK RESTORE FAILED - "Index Corrupted":

For years I've had great luck using Acronis TI to create and restore Disk images.  But a recent restore failure of a disk image made last night has shaken my confidence in using Acronis to secure my data, etc.

The disk restore failure was accompanied by the message "Index Corrupted".

THE FAILURE:   I got a windows Blue Screen of Death (win 8.1), so I decided to restore the previous night's disk image backup using Acronis Bootable Media (from ATI 2017, 8058).   It should have been easy - I was just trying to restore the previous nights backup.  I've done it many times.   But the restore failed, saying "index corrupted".   And every attempted restore of the past three weeks of nightly disk backups all failed, and all for the same reason - "index corrupted".  (3 version chains, 1 wk each - so 21 nights of backups).

I was able to succesfully restore a backup made months ago (using Bootable Media), so at least I can get the machine running - but that backup is too old to be of practical use.  I need to be able to restore one of the nightly backups from the past 3 weeks.

MY NORMAL BACKUP ROUTINE:  I backup nightly. Acronis 2017, v8058.  I backup my main disk (ie all partitions), and save the backups onto a separate disk.  (Backup Scheme:  Custom Incremental, keeing 3 weekly chains equaling 21 days of backups.)   All backups verify, both immediately after they were created and now.)

MY CONCERN:   First, I want to be able to restore my most recent disk image.  But more importantly, I'm now worried that my Acronis backups are not reliable.  If a verified backup made the night before can't be restored, wow, that raises serious questions about the reliability of all existing backups.

"INDEX CORRUPTED" MESSAGE:   From what I've been able to gather, the "Index Corrupted" message may be related to a corruption that existed on the ssd when the backup was made.  Is that correct?  If so, I'm wondering how Acronis went at least 21 nights worth of backups without warning me that there was going to be a problem restoring "index corrupted" backups?

WHAT NEXT?    Is there is anything I can do to restore the Disk backup.  (I am able to restore individual files, but that doesn't help me).   Again, I'm using Acronis 2017.

For example, is it possible, using another machine, to mount the corrupted backup, then use chkdsk to fix it, then restore? (I've seen talk of this working on ATI 2014, but not more recent versions.)

Again, this whole incident has me very shaken.  I had grown to trust Acronis's backups.  But discovering that 21 days worth of "verified" backups can't be restored is a huge confidence buster.

(BTW:  can someone at least tell me if Acronis latest version, 2019, would have prevented this fiasco, perhaps with an advance warning about "index corrupted" problems... BEFORE it's too late, ie before a restore is attempted.)

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,  RAA

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raa2116,

I can't say I've seen this much in the forums.  Just did a search and found a thread on this (also in 2017).  

There does look like there could be a fix as recommended by Slava:

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2017-forum/laptop-disk-image-restore-fails-due-index-corruption#comment-410995

What it sounds like, is that the backup completed successfully, hence no errors, but there could be corruption of the original file system, which carried that corruption into the backup content.  I'd give SLAVA's recommendation a try to see if you can mount the backup as a volume and then attempt to run chkdsk on it.  If you can, and if it does detect corruption, hopefully it can repair it. 

Do you ever run validation of your backup jobs?  

Validating backups (2017)

The validation procedure checks whether you will be able to recover data from a backup.

For example, backup validation is important before you recover your system. If you start recovery from a corrupted backup, the process will fail and your computer may become unbootable. We recommend that you validate system partition backups under bootable media. Other backups may be validated in Windows. See also Preparing for recovery and Basic concepts.

Validating backups in Windows

To validate an entire backup:

  1. Start Acronis True Image 2017, and then click Backup on the sidebar.
  2. In the backup list, click the down arrow icon next to the backup to validate, and then click Validate.

Validating backups in a stand-alone version of Acronis True Image (bootable media)

To validate a specific backup version or an entire backup:

  1. On the Recovery tab, find the backup that contains the version that you want to validate. If the backup is not listed, click Browse for backup, and then specify the path to the backup. Acronis True Image adds this backup to the list.
  2. Right-click the backup or a specific version, and then click Validate Archive. This opens the Validate Wizard.
  3. Click Proceed.

Bobbo_C30X1,

In response to your questions/suggestions…

Yes I validate my backups, and they all show ok - both now and when they were originally made.

And I looked at the link you provided that discusses using CHKDSK on a mounted backup to look for errors.   I ran chkdsk on the mounted C drive and it does report an error - but chkdsk says it can't attempt a fix because the drive is "write protected".    (BTW: the link you provided mentions that Read&Write mount support was removed after ATI 2015.  I'm using 2017.)

I then had the idea to try the Trial Version of 2019, just to see what would happen.  That gave me a more detailed error message having to do with chkdsk... but I couldn't decifer it.  

If you're interested, here's what I tried in greater detail.  At the bottom I include the more detailed error msg that ATI 2019 Trial gave me.   Perhaps you can decifer it.

--------

First, I ran plain CHKDSK on mounted drive C, known as "drive Z" while mounted.  Chkdsk reported an error.

     Z:\>chkdsk

     The type of the file system is NTFS.

     The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk

     might report errors when no corruption is present.

     Volume label is samEVOssd250-i7-win8.1.

     WARNING!  F parameter not specified.

     Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

  

     Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

     219136 file records processed.

     File verification completed.

    3823 large file records processed.

    0 bad file records processed.

 

     Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

     Error detected in index $I30 for file 5350.

 

       295768 index entries processed.

     Index verification completed.

     Errors found.  CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

 

Then I ran CHKDSK again, asking it to FIX errors, but I got a msg saying drive is "write protected.

 

     Z:\>chkdsk /f

     The type of the file system is NTFS.

     Cannot lock current drive.

     Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

     Z:\>

-------

After the above, I tried using the newer ATI 2019 TRIAL (I use 2017), just to see what would happen.

It also failed to restore my disk image, BUT... it did manage to give me a more detailed msg which mentioned using chkdsk.   But I can't figure out what it means.  The syntax of the message is confusing - maybe you can decifer it.  The ATI 2019 error message appeared as follows…

-----

More information about this error and solutions may be available online in the Acronis Knowledge Base.  To access the online resource manually, enter the event code at: https://kb.acronis.com/errorcode/     Failed to prepare operations. Error code: 10 'File system error is found. Consider checking the disk using Check Disk Utility.' with extended code: 458,789 'Index corrupted' (0xA0001) $module = "trueimg_home_media_glx_17750"_Prepare : c:/bs_hudson/workspace/790/processor/diskadm/da_native_batch.cpp(133) Index corrupted (0x70025) $module = "trueimg_home_media_glx_17750" CheckIndex : c:/bs_hudson/workspace/790/core/resizer/ntfs/fs_ntfs_check.cpp(903)

-----

I made a few attempts at running chkdsk again, tacking on what appears after "… with extended code:" above, but I just got chkdsk error messages.

Any ideas?

RAA

RAA, as you are now trying ATI 2019 in Trial mode, please open a Support Case direct with Acronis and let them investigate this file error issue further with you.

The only other suggestion here would be to look at the Recovery Options available when getting to the final step of the recovery process using the Acronis Rescue Media, and see if you are offered the option to try doing a 'Sector-by-Sector' mode recovery?

Steve,

I tried your idea of a  "sector-by-sector" restore.  No luck - I got the same failed restore.

I also followed your suggestion and submitted my case directly to Acronis.  I'll report back if/when they respond.  Thanks.

-RAA

RAA, thanks for the update - sorry the suggestion wasn't able to help here.  Please do let us know the outcome of your support case.

I just had the same problem running Acronis 2019! All attempts to restore my SSD failed with "Index corrupted" message. I tried to restore many backups going back months and got the same message. I have restored many backups successfully in the past but now lost all trust in Acronis - I am devastated.

Has this ever been resolved?

Please help.

Bernie

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Dear quarkburner,
Thank you for posting. If you state that restore failed, you would kindly ask to contact our support as soon as possible: Customer Service and Support (acronis.com)

Quarkburner:

YES, I was eventually able to recover my Disk Image... one year later.  I did so using a later version of ATI.

It's been over three years since I posted to this thread, but here's my best effort at remembering the problem and the solution:

The problem arose back in April of 2019.

I was still using ATI 2017 at the time and was unable to recover a disk image I'd recently made.  (Actually a series of disk images)

I'm an amateur user but I later determined that the underlying problem was related to file system errors that existed on the drive at the time the Acronis backup was made - errors that neither Windows nor Acronis had detected and/or informed me about - the type of disk errors that can be fixed using the windows utility CHKDSK.

So my Acronis Disk Images contained those underlying file system errors.  And although Acronis was telling me all along that my disk images were being successfully created and validated, when push came to shove Acronis failed in its attempt to recover those images.

In trying to recover the Disk Image I used both ATI 2017 and ATI 2019 - neither worked.  This includes both the Installed and Recovery Media versions of each year (ie DVD or Thumb-based Acronis recovery media.)

After weeks of back and forth with Acronis Support, I was informed by Support that the disk image, though seemingly "succesfully" created and Validated, was unrecoverable.  So I gave up and moved on.

BUT THEN SUCCESS - one year later!

Skip forward one full year:  by May of 2020 I had moved on to using ATI 2020.  And on a lark I pulled out the old disk image, which I'd saved, and tried recovering it using the newer version of Acronis.   And to my great surprise, it worked.   

More specifically, I used the Linux-based Recovery Media version of ATI 2020.   It was able to do what the Installed and Recovery Media versions of 2017 & 2019 could not - it recovered the disk image.

Once I had successfully recovered the disk image, I ran the windows utility CHKDSK and discovered that the recovered drive still had the original file system problems that had caused the original mess.

So I again ran CHKDSK on my recovered drive, this time including the "fix" command in order to fix the existing file system problems on my newly recovered drive.

The result was a recovered disk, with the original file system problems now corrected by using the windows CHKDSK utility.

I posted about this in a separate thread in May of 2020.   In retrospect, I wish I would have revisited this thread and posted a link to that discussion.  If you want to visit that thread, it has a fuller discussion of the issue.  Here's the link:

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2020-forum/can-ati-2020-and-macrium-reflect-co-exist

The exchanges between myself and the user "Enchantech" will be of most interest to you, but the rest of the thread is worth a read.

But to recap, YES I was able to recover my Disk Image by using a later version of ATI -   specifically the Linux-based Recovery Media of ATI 2020. 

Once the Disk Image was restored, I corrected the underlying file system problems that had caused the whole mess.  I did so by using the windows utility CHKDSK with the "fix" command.

As I said, my problem arose because neither Windows nor Acronis had alerted me to long-existing file system errors on my drive.  Meaning I had gone a full year with Acronis making and validating backups with these underlying problems - backups which it later turned out Acronis could not recover.  Grrrr.

So in order to avoid any future problems, I now periodically run the Windows CHKDSK utility on my drives.  If CHKDSK reports problems, I rerun CHKDSK with the "fix" command.  (To simplify the process I created a batch file to simultaneously run CHKDSK on all three of my drives at once.)

As I said, it's been a long time since I was dealing with this.  And as an amateur user I don't visit these forums - so I only learned of your posting this morning via an auto-generated email from Acronis.  So I dug out what info I could find, re-read my only two threads on this forum, and put together this reply. I hope my info is of use to you (or others landing on this thread in the future).   

Best of luck with your recovery attempt.

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Dear RAA,
Thank you for posting such elaborate and detailed solution advice.