Getting Support
Just hoping someone knows how to contact someone at Acronis that will take responsibility & who cares enough to help get problems fixed . I had a hard drive failure October 20, 2016. The restore failed on Oct 21. Chatted with an Acronis rep Oct 21. Pleasant & tried to help but turned the problem back over to me. I Tried to follow his instructions over the next few days but was not successful in getting my disk restored. Contacted Acronis again & chatted with another tech rep who gave up on Nov 28th & turned the problem over to the "Expert Team" The expert team also failed & turned the problem over to the developers Dec 8th. I haven't heard from the developers yet - Nor do I have my data restored. All the people I had contact with were pleasant , respectful , & professional. That's nice but It hasn't restored my disk. Neither has me buying 2 new disks to try the restore to - nor me putting several full workdays into the restore attempts. Oct 20th to Dec 9th without my data. Heading in to the 8th week. The situation is not close to being ammusing . I am worried , anxious , frustrated & angry.
What I want is somebody at Acronis who Cares enough & has athority enough to take rewsponsibility & to fix the problem. Simple enough -they have 1.1 TB of my data. Just restore it to me as promised & keep me informed. Now please.
Acronis should be embarrassed by this failure & ashamed of their response. To leave a client with an Acronis problem unresolved for close to two months is a gross betrayal of trust & a dreadful negligence of duty.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks
Gordon acronis@gordonanderson.ca
Where is your backup - local or cloud?
What is the issue with the recovery? Is it just not booting after recovery, or you can't recover at all.
We need more details to go on. This is the user forum so all the help here is volunteer based, so the more info and details you can provide, the better.
The backup is to the cloud. It is not my boot disk but a 2GB USB3 WD portable disk. The Cloud Backup is about 1.1TB . On my first attempt to recover the disk to a new 2GB disk the process stopped at around 400GB . An Acronis tech told me to just recover the missing files one at a time. I tried - that took a couple of days sitting in front of the computer but the recovered disk is only about 880 GB . It looks OK but Files are missing - picture & video files. I bought another new 2GB disk & tried again for a disk recover. This one stopped even sooner. A third attempt with an Acronis Tech during a remote session refused to finish - It said 18 hours + left & it said that for 15 hours - but the GUI was at 100% and the task bar icon said100% . The tech said to reboot - The recovered disk was about 880 GB & missing files.
I attempted today to recover one of the large Photo files that was obviously missing files. The file is about 280 GB. The recovery took about 15 hours . File recovery is to a Zip file. This recovery produced 2 files - one a Zip file was empty - Zero Mb - the other about 280Gb said partial download & would not open.
May I suggest giving in App feedback on this issue. (Start up ATI 2017, click on the ? bottom left hand side, and select send feedback) I have had the same issue and reported it. Please include a link to this discussion.
It would be great if there was an option to download an *.tib rather than a zip file containig the files. There also needs to be a way of resuming download if the connection is lost. This happens far too often. There needs to be an inbuild download manager so that an interrupted download can be resumed.
Ian
Unfortunately, when it comes to cloud, there's not much we can do in the forums. I take it the cloud backup is your only backup? Nothing local? Doesn't help now if it is the only copy, but you should always have a local copy and use cloud for offiste disaster recovery. AS you've found.. cloud can be slow. A good backup plan should follow 3-2-1. 3 copies of your data (1 original + 2 backups)... 2 backup backup locations (local and cloud).... 1 offsite location (cloud in many cases, but anywhere that's not right by your other data is better than storing it together... think if you had a fire or flood though - farther is better).
1) Go to speedtest.net and run a speedtest to the closest cloud center location (http://www.acronis.com/en-us/cloud/data-centers/) in your area. What kind of upload and download are you getting from your ISP with speedtest?
2) When you log into our online cloud account, does it show the "missing" files that are not recovering? If they aren't in the original backup (for whatever reason), they won't be recovedrable. At least make sure you can navigate to them in teh folder structure from your online account
3) How are you recovering from the cloud - through windows I assume? have you tried to recover using the offline bootable recovery media? I don't know about file/folder recovery, but when you recover full disk from cloud, it only recovers the differences from your machine and the cloud. As such, even if the cloud backup or recovery disconnects, it may scan the entire contents, but will only recover the differences of what's on the disk vs what's in the cloud so technically, should pick up again if you start over since it will only look for the differences. As such, I would recover to a new/different disk than the original. If it fails, keep doing it until it says success. It may take a awhile and a few attempts if the network is dropping out for whatever reason (ISP bandwidth cap? slow speeds, Acronis server issues, I don't know).
Hopefully though, you might have better luck this route. I've only done full OS recovery from cloud with the offline media - perhaps try with a few small individual files and let us know if those recover as .zip, or as the original files when using the offline recovery media as well.
I have done recovery from Cloud using recovery media. Took several hours. Much more reliable than using the download files.
Ian
Good Idea - I forgot about this function - used it before - no response - I repeated a little of this discussion & included a link.
This is my note :
Beginning my 8th week without my data after a hard drive ( portable disk - not a boot disk ) failure. I Have dealt with 3 Acronis tech reps - all pleasant & professional - but my problem persists. It has now been referred to the developers - translated "good luck if you hear from them soon & we will try to have this problem fixed for the next build ATI 2018". The developers haven't contacted me yet.
See a better cronology @ your forum -<< https://forum.acronis.com/forum/127726#comment-400223 >> -
The situation is not close to being amusing . I am worried , anxious , frustrated & angry.
What I want is somebody at Acronis who Cares enough & has authority enough to take responsibility & to fix the problem. Simple enough -You have 1.1 TB of my data in Acronis cloud storage. Just restore it to me as promised & keep me informed. Now please.
Acronis should be embarrassed by this failure & ashamed of their response. To leave a client with an Acronis problem unresolved for close to two months is a gross betrayal of trust & a dreadful negligence of duty.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks for listening
Gordon
Tried disk recovery 3 times - all 3 failed to restore all the files.
Unfortunately, it has taken this experience to learn the backup lesson. I do not have a local backup. Thought about it - more for speed than security but co$t of a Raid or NAS , being unsure of how to implement, & the Acronis promise of data security all contributed to my decision to delay .
System info I7-4470 3.40 Ghz 32GB RAM 64 Bit Windows 10
Fiber OP connection Pay for 150 Mbps down & 50 Mbps up --- Today Locally 194 Mbps down 36 Mbps up about average
Today To Dallas texas - Closest location for Acronis servers - 195.15 Mbps down 14.45 Mbps up
The files missing on my computer - At least the ones I am aware of - are present in the cloud storage - many of them in the 280GB file of 2015 photographs.
Two of the disk recovery fails were to new just out of the box WD 2 GB portable USB 3 disks. The 3rd attempt was to one of these 2. The original was jarred ( fell) while it was running & not suitable for any use now.
In Windows , I have opened the Acronis program on my computer go to the backup dashboard & the backup file & choose disk recovery ---- if just files - choose file recovery.
I am not familiar with the offline bootable recovery media - so have not tried that route - none of the 3 Acronis tech support people tried or suggested this.
Tried to restart a restore to one of the disks that only partially restored -- it said that all of the contents would be erased. I cancelled - no sense watching the computer for 2 or 3 days hoping that the 4th time will not be wasted time.
If this is truly a Cloud issue with ATIH 2017 then I doubt that we will be able to add further value via these user forums, as Rob (Bobbo) has already said.
However, what we have seen on a number of occasions are problems that are related to USB 3.0 devices and the ports that they have been connected to.
Are the drive(s) you are trying to restore to connected directly to your computer system, or connected via a USB Hub device?
Are the drive(s) self-powered or powered only via the USB port they connect to?
Ideally, your target drive should be powered externally and connected directly to a computer USB 3.0 Port.
Have you also tried recovering just a folder from the cloud backup using the recovery media instead of a full disk recovery? That should not require a disc wipe, but not sure if it does incremental restores that way either.
The drives are not self-powered.
The drives are connected to a powered USB Hub.
I have tried to recover from the cloud. A few times successfully. A few times without success.
In my photo files, a folder is a year's worth of Photos -- more than 250 GB so even with a fast connection that is 10-15 hours - OK if it works - painful when it doesn't .
Within the Year folder photos are stored by day - sometimes more than one folder on a day - so there can be 350 folders give or take a few dozen. Unfortunately , I can only do one folder at a time this way. That would make for a tortuous exercise. I have tried a couple to check that it works but am hoping there is a better way.
Still, do not know what recovery media is -- I use the computer to process & store my pictures. What little tech I know has been learned from mistakes & disasters. e.g. I know I have to look into local backup solutions to supplement the cloud. Learned that from Acronis.
Thanks to Bobbo , Ian & Steve - Appreciate the help.
Gordon
correction--
Above -- >> I have tried to recover folders a few times from the cloud. A few times successfully. A few times without success.
Gordon, the recovery media is a standalone version of Acronis True Image that can be booted from CD/DVD or USB memory stick for situations when you are working with bare metal (i.e. new disk drive with no OS) or when you want to remove Windows completely from the equation. This is created using the Rescue Media Builder program found in the Tools section of the GUI or via the Programs > Acronis menus.
Further to your confirmation that you are using a powered USB Hub, I would recommend trying a recovery of one of your folders from the Cloud with the drive connected directly to your computer, if only to eliminate the hub as a potential part of the problem, i.e. taking out one extra component in the chain from the Cloud to the drive.
Thanks Steve I will have to try that.
I decided about 28 – 30 hours ago to again try a file restore of my 2015 photo file. I believed this file had most of the unrecovered data. It appears to have gone well this time.
It took about 22 hours to download.The Zip file was 509 GB ( Larger than I expected ) . During the download process the receiving drive showed an empty Zip file and a partial download file that grew in size. After it finished it only had the 509 GB zip file. It took 4-5 hours to unzip. The unzipped file is only 485 GB; I don’t understand that. I checked the 531 folders against the cloud folders and they appeared to be a perfect match.
I decided to copy this file to another drive before checking further. It is doing a 4.5 hour copy now. Haven't had time yet to see if this will fix the many problems caused by missing files & obvious in my photo processing software. Much of a look will probably have to wait till tomorrow. I am optimistic. I am speculating now that the size of this file was in some way a factor in the problems I have experienced. It was almost 1/2 of the disk & the other folders appear with a cursory look to be OK. It is difficult to near impossible to check individually every file on a 1.1 TB disk. That is one reason why a full disk restore is something I would have much preferred to this piecemeal approach.
Well, hoping for the best for you! Knowing what you do now, consider taking a local backup - it will go much faster - probably an hour or 2 if you have a spinning drive, compared to several hours or days. If these are primarily pictures, which are already compressed, a backup is good since it is a static file, but compression will have no effect so won't save you any space. As a result, you can possibly consider a synch/replication approach to a another local drive (there are free synch tools out there). Personally, i use Windows embedded robocopy which is free and included in Windows, but command line. However, as an example as how you would create an exact replica from drive A to drive B:
robocopy "D:\Mypics\Original" "E:\Mypics\Replica" /MIR /R:0 W:0
This makes an exact mirror or the D: drive folder to a new folder on E:
Keep in mind this is not a backup, only a replica!!!! If you were to accidentally delete a folder on the original drive and run a synch to the other drive, that would synch the same content so would not give you a way to recover from. That is the one area that a a backup is always superior to a synch.
The drive that failed was mostly pictures - but not compressed. Most are uncompressed RAW files or TIFF.
My boot drive (C) is a 1 TB SSD - & it is mirrored on a second internal 1 TB SSD.
When it comes in - 1 - 3 weeks , I will ask my son in law to help set this up -- he knows much more than I do. Hopefully no problems before , or after the new disks are set up.
If all goes well I should be in better shape for the next data disaster.
I am not sure all is 100% well right now but it is looking much better than it did just a few days ago. 7 weeks + is much too long to live with that uncertainty.
Thanks for the help.
Gordon
Hi Gordon,
That's a nice drive for large storage capacity and RAID 1 redundancy. Should serve you well for local USB 3.0 backups.
Just to be sure... you're not planning on trying to install your OS on it, correct? Please be aware that Windows does not let you boot your OS from an external hard drive (Windows limitation), unless you are using the Enterprise version of Windows and install your OS using Windows-2-go. Doesn't sound like this is the plan, but just want to verify.
IF I understnd correctly...
1) You have an internal 4Gb drive currently and plan to keep it as is with your primary photos = if so, great. You need a place for all of the source/original data and it sounds like your existing 4TB covers that :)
2) As a backup drive, this new duo will be used for backups or sync job, or both.
This should work, but really depends on how much total space is currently in use on your main drive and whether or not you plan to use the duo for backps, sync, or both.
A full backup should be roughly 70-80% the same of your original data (give or take). If you're using, let's say 2TB now, an estimate of your backup job size could be 1.75Gb - no problem for your 4TB duo. Now, let's say you take daily or weekly incrementals or differentials which will add to the used space on the 4tb duao. At some point, you NEED to take another full so that you don't have a long list of incremetnals or diffs. Incrementals save space, but they are the least reliable over time. If you're using daily incrementals, I would not go beyond 30 days, but for me, I would limit those to weekly before a full is run. If you're doing weekly's, then you "should" be OK doing a weekly incremental and I'd still recommend doing a monthlyfull. Diffs are more reliable, but take up more space. A full, followed by 4 weekly differenetials would be good. You could go a lot longer usng diffs, but overtime, your diffs will get bigger and bigger too, so a full will be needed at some point. Whatever your backup plan/scheme, you should plan enough space to make sure that you have some place to take another full backup before any cleanup ever occurs (you don't want to delete your only good backup before your next one runs - what if you have a power outage our hardware failre at that exact time - you want to keep your old backups until a new full is complete - just in case).
Good news is you have cloud to fall back on if you ever did hit such a situation, but better to not have to go that route, plus, you'll be much happier with the local backup speed and recovery.
3) Based off of #2, you probably won't have much space to do an additional sync job on top of your backup... yet alone, another 1TB drive backup on top of that. You can/could, but keep in mind the cleanup limitation and not deleting old backups until a new full has been completed first.
If funds are not an issue, I'd use that 4TB duo for strictly backups for the time being, and then consider yet another drive for a sync job if you want to do both. They have "archive drives" for exactly this purpose and you can put them cheap external bays or docking stations for eacy connectivity when you need them.
You're already in the right direction so hopefully the duo will serve you well for awhile. If space becomes an issue though, the archive drive or something similar may be something else to add to your local backup scheme (or another duo, or a NAS or something).
In my home setup, I have
1 x 250GB Samsung 950 Pro OS drive. I back this up to a 3TB WD black drive wit Acronis. I also sync the raw data a 4TB MyCloud NAS. I also back it up to the Acronis Cloud. I also back it up to an offline USB 3.0 external hard drive from time to time.
1 x 2TB WD black data drive with pics, movies, software, etc. I backup pictures with Acronis to the 3TB WD black. I sync pictures as raw data to my WD MyCloud. I back up my pictures to Acronis Cloud.
Anal? Mabye. However, If something goes south on any of my hardware, I have a few options for both my OS and my data to recover from with not just different storage, but different locations.
Hi Bobbo
Money is always a concern. I looked at 4 & 5 bay enclosures but was put off by the cost . The 2 bay WD with 2 x 4GB WD red drives was only a few $ more than the 2 drives would have been - At Amazon.ca .
I appreciate your suggestions & will read this again when the drives arrive.
Won't be able to do everything now, but I think I can cover most fairly well now, & perhaps add more sometime later. At 71 I have to ask myself occasionally who I am saving it for -- Hard to see my kids sifting through all my hard drives & saving stuff --- but for now I do expect to be around & playing with my toys for some time yet.
Thanks for your help
Gordon
Roger that Gordon and completely understand. Always have to weigh cost vs storage + need. I think you're in good shape with your gear - probably better than most :) Plus, if you plan well with your backup needs, retention and frequency, I'm sure you'll be able to find a sweet spot with your newly found space and cloud mix.
Hi everyone, I installed Acronis True Image 2017 but I have decided to DELETE it.
That was easy. Now, I would like to DELETE my Acronis user account as well but I cant seem to find the way to do it.
Any ideas?
John, welcome to these user forums.
Sorry but account deletion will require you to contact Acronis Support directly - see the link in the left column for How to get Support?