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Host of problems

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I'm not exactly happy with this version. I had my issues with previous versions but this one is giving me even more problems.

I've got it running on two machines and both are giving me problems. Both are giving me a message such as: "Failed to back up file or folder ??\\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumesShadowCopy45\BookProjects\.... *.jpg" "Ignore" and "Ignore All" is not working. The same message keeps appearing. For the jpg case I figured it was because Photoshop was running. I closed Photoshop and the problem persisted. On the other machine the file was associated with Wordperfect, which was running. Do I need to shut down all applications before running backups?

On one machine where I run two backups every night to the same physical drive one fails with a "write error". I click the link for more information and the web site says it has no additional information.

I can't get the email notification to work. It worked in the previous version. I entered the exact same information my email client (Thunderbird) uses then I try the test and it fails but does not say why. I click the link in the message that offers help and nothing happens. Normally the cause of a failure like this can be be determined immedately. Invalid account/password, server not found, etc. Why doesn't Acronis just tell me why it failed.

Other complaints:

The application is really slow loading.

In your attempt to make the program easy to use you've made it difficult to use. Nothing is intuitive, the meaning of the fancy icons are vague, the glyphs odd.

The font is difficult to read. Parts of letters are cut off. For example, the right-most portion of "B".

I tried to access "More Tools" while a backup was running. I'd click the button/icon and nothing would happen. I was hoping I could find the backup logs.

When I set up a new backup and after going through the options the program warned me that exiting the options form would cause me to lose my changes. Only preforming the backup then and there got me past that message.

A convention in Windows is pressing CTRL-C when a dialog box is showing will copy the contents of this box to the clipboard. I tired to do this so I could paste the original error message into this post. CTRL-C does not work with this program. (Screen shot attached).

This program is obviously written to be cross-platform, which is fine, except it's a lame, dumbed down implementation for the Windows environment.

I've had problems like these with previous versions. The product does not seem to be getting better. It reminds me of years ago when Roxie took over Adaptec's Easy CD Creator program, stuffed it full of trendy new features, and shipped without adequately testing them. So many problems, for example, errattic behavior on systems that had more than one CD-ROM writer. There's just to many things like that that are wrong with this program, problems that are not getting solved. I've decided I need to start looking at alternatives.

Unfortunately sincerely,
Mike Meier

 

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Mike, sorry to read of the tale of woe contained in your post above - this is just a user forum and over 99% of those reading the posts here are users the same as yourself, the MVP's included.

The error message you have reported for ??\\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumesShadowCopy45\BookProjects\.... *.jpg"  suggests that you are encountering a Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) error when performing a backup, and this in turn may indicate that you have a problem on the drive where Windows is storing the snapshot data used by VSS.

I would suggest running a CHKDSK /R on your Windows OS drive to check for any file system and/or sector errors on the drive.

If you are seeing write errors on the same or a different drive, then please do the same for that drive too.

For email notifications, these do work but without more information from you, it is difficult to give you precise guidance.  For example, using Gmail you need to select TLS then port 578 for this to work correctly - this because the version of SSL used in ATIH is deemed to be unsafe due to age and now blocked by Gmail servers.

Logs are a known bone of contention among users, having been removed back in ATIH 2015 - please download the Log File Viewer app from the link in my signature below which provides an alternative method of reading the logs.

Any task configuration is only Saved when you take one of the Backup options, i.e. Backup now, or later etc.  If you quit the task setup before that point then the changes will be lost.

For Ctrl C to work to copy something, you have to be able to select the object of the copy, i.e. to select the text within a message box, otherwise this doesn't work regardless of the application presenting the message.

Hi Mike, 

A lot of thought and input there.  As a user, like you , I can't address all of the thoughts and concerns, and encourage you to send feedback directly to Acronis through your account and/or through the application as well.  Some of the items you have mentioned have come up before - I've asked for some "return to basic features" as well and am trying to help emphasize that message too.  There's a lot of debate about the current UI - some like it, some don't.  Those that are used to the pre 2015 versions seem to have a stronger emphasis on this as there were features in the previous versions we miss, or least the implementation of them.  Overall, 2017 has been really good for me and a lot more stable than 2015 or 2016. 

As for the actual issues that I might be able to help with.

1) The error looks like it could be related to Microsoft VSS not being able to create a snapshot of the open file.  In 2015 and later, the default Acronis snapapi backup method is moved back for VSS.  Unfortunately, VSS can have its own share of issues... As a test, you can turn VSS off for any backup task and switch it to the previous snapapi backup method.  Both are just fine as backup methods.  VSS has the advantage that is should be able to backup live SQL or Oracle databases, but I wouldn't trust that either - just not a good idea to only rely on live database backups where data is being accessed and modified by multiple people at the same time.  This does not disable VSS on the machine, only in each specific backup task you make the edit on...  https://forum.acronis.com/forum/45832#comment-346558

2) Log file viewer is still missing.  Acronis MVP FTRPilot created one for us to use in the mean-time - it's actually pretty nice.  Check out the link below.  

3) When you create the backup, you don't have to run it right then.  It's not super stand-out to find, but instead of pressing "backup now", there's a drop-down next to it and you can say to run later.  This will set the configuration without requiring the backup to run right then.

4) I'm not sure about the slow loading time for you.  It's not instant, but takes only about 5 seconds on my 3 systems.  Did you upgrade over the top of an older version, and if so, which one?  If you came from 2014 or earlier, you should remove those first and start fresh.  I think that a lot of your issues might actually be resolved with a cleanup using the clean tool and then a fresh install.  I have a thread I refer others too and it seems to almost always resolve issues from upgrades - especially if there were ever older versions.  The cleanup tool is key for making sure the leftovers from old versions get yanked out. 

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/126092#comment-391779

Completely up to you if you decide to give these a try and see how they help (or not), but wanted to provide the information for you in hopes that it will.

 

 

Thanks for the replies and the links. I'll try that log viewer and cleanup tool.

I think it odd that the same error occurs on two machines. I ran ChkDsk on one and the same shadow image problem prevents the backup from running.

Mike, take a look at webpage: VSS Error Troubleshooting Guide Part 1 of 3 which may offer some more help on looking into the shadow copy problem you are seeing.

Thanks. I tried a few of those things and am running backups now. I'm backup up my "projects" drive now. The "System" drive was having the problems. I'll try that one next.

Meanwhile, more peeves, the progress bar at the bottom says "Backing up..." and gives a number. The number appears to be the size of the backup completed, not the size being queued for backup. Pedantic? Maybe. Irksome? Yes. Also the time remaining on the right keeps going up and down, a lot.

On my other system backup just failed with the message "Failed to back up file or folder '\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\..." The file is Parent.Lock, a Firefox file. Firefox is currently running. No reason is given for why the backup failed.

I clicked "Ignore" and a few seconds later I get a similar message for a Skype file or folder.

Mike, can you post the full logs for the tasks where you are seeing these problems so that we can see these messages in context?

Some files such as Parent.lock do have exclusive locks on them when the owning application is active - I see the same type of message in Dropbox where I store some Mozilla application profile files for Thunderbird  and parent.lock is one file which Dropbox cannot replicate!

On slow loading time; on my systems it is not instantaneous, but takes less than 10 seconds; probably closer to 5 seconds. The speed on you system drive may have some impact - all my systems have SSD or WD 10000 rpm Western Digital HDD as boot drives.

Ian

I got it to work. Very strange problem - the file system on the backup drive disappeared. I know it was there. I had set up the folders for the backup files and everything.

Odd that the error messages never mentioned this.

I revised the backup procedure and it recreated the old folders, even though I specified a new folder. Whatever.

Here's the log from my first successful back up. Not much interesting other than the item noting the old folders were not found, and I still can't get email notification to work.

log uuid=5A57FC9C-1008-4BA3-94F6-801067BACD6A;  product=Acronis True Image;  version=20.0;  build=5554;  task=1CD76094-5FA0-4804-B097-EEB48EA2D334;  task_name=Daily System Backup
Start= 1/13/2017 12:23:39 PM
id=1;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:39 PM;  message=Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false
id=2;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:39 PM;  message=Operation Daily System Backup started manually.
id=3;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=Backup reserve copy attributes: format tib; need_reserve_backup_copy false
id=4;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=Operation: Backup
id=5;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=Priority changed to Low.
id=6;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=The specified file does not exist: Z:\System Drive Backup\Daily System Backup_full_b1_s1_v1.tib.;  line_tag=0x4D3F22948E29F1C8
Error_Code=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
id=7;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=The initial full backup version is not accessible at the moment.;  line_tag=0x65E40AA0B487172;  hide=1
id=8;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=The specified file does not exist.;  line_tag=0xF35F747B3B21FC2D;  hide=1
id=9;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:45 PM;  message=The system cannot find the file specified;  line_tag=0xBD28FDBD64EDB8F1;  hide=1
id=10;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:46 PM;  message=The specified file does not exist.;  line_tag=0xF35F747B3B21F8E2
Error_Code=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
id=11;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:46 PM;  message=The system cannot find the file specified;  line_tag=0xBD28FDBD64EDB8F1;  hide=1
id=12;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:46 PM;  message=Create Backup Archive From: Disk 3 To file: Z:\System Backup\Daily System Backup.tib Compression: Normal 
id=13;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:23:46 PM;  message=Pending operation 172 started: 'Creating partition image'.
id=14;  date/time=1/13/2017 12:29:15 PM;  message=Writing full version to file: Daily System Backup_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
id=15;  date/time=1/13/2017 1:05:38 PM;  message=Pending operation 172 started: 'Creating partition image'.
id=16;  date/time=1/13/2017 1:05:38 PM;  message=The following backups have been successfully created: Z:\System Backup\Daily System Backup_full_b1_s1_v1.tib
id=17;  date/time=1/13/2017 1:05:40 PM;  message=Operation has succeeded.
id=18;  date/time=1/13/2017 1:06:40 PM;  message=Failed to send e-mail notification.
id=19;  date/time=1/13/2017 1:06:40 PM;  message=Batch operation has completed successfully.
Start= 1/13/2017 12:23:39 PM
Finish= 1/13/2017 1:06:40 PM
Total Time= 00:43:01

The log viewer program won't work on my XP machine. I'm still having problems with it. I start a backup and 6 GB in it says it could not back up a file or folder. The destination drive and folder exist and there are no files in them. This only happens for my backup of the system and other logical drives. A second backup procedure for one logical drive works. It's destination is the same drive, different folder.

BTW, that log viewer is really nice. Thanls. The only feature missing is an About dialog form that mentions who wrote it. Hat tip to that person.

Mike

 

You can ignore those error codes, we were told by the support engineers that some of those are strictly for the developers - those extremely long ones. There is usually a real error message if there is an actual problem - something like destination not found or the like. 

I'm not sure what you mean about the file system - the hidden system volume information folder or another parition?  

Mike wrote:
the file system on the backup drive disappeared 

Mike, I would recommend running a full CHKDSK /R against the backup drive given the statement above - if the Master File Table or any of the NTFS file system information from the drive is 'flakey' (for want of a better word) then this could lead to some strange / unpredictable problems.

If you have a different disk drive you could use to backup to that would also be a good check to make.