Very dissapointed that there is no way to actually verify the backup!

SparkyOne, you are correct in terms of the Validation process for an individual .tib file, that this is essentially a calculation of the embedded checksum for the file to ensure that the file has not changed since it was created.  A secondary function of Validation is to ensure that the backup version chain that the file belongs to is also complete, i.e. that if the file is an incremental or differential backup that there is a matching full backup and for incremental backups, all previous incremental files are present.

In terms of Acronis being able to verify that the contents in the file are correct - the indicator for this is simply the message advising either success or failure when the file is created by the Acronis backup process, but even this is only an indicator that the source data that you (or other users) have selected is captured in the backup file.  A success indication for a backup does not guarantee that you could recover your whole system from that backup because the source data may not have included vital components required by that recovery action.  The user is the end arbiter of the content being included - if you do not include a required hidden system partition for example....  or only do a backup of files & folders, not of the whole disk & partitions... then the backup will still report as being successful but recovery will be restricted to only that which was included.

The only real test for the validity of any backup file (created by any backup software, Acronis included) is in testing this in the recovery environment where it would be needed, i.e. restore a disk & partitions backup to a spare disk drive then test that that drive can be used to replace the original drive and will boot correctly into the Windows OS.

I agree with Steve, and would add that you may also be able to test the recovery in a virtual environment. I've successfully restored my system backups within the freely available Oracle VirtualBox. 

One relatively easy extra step it you want to verify the integrity of the files and filesystem in a disk image backup is to mount the image as a drive letter and then run Windows chkdsk on the mounted drive image. That way you can at least be sure that the file system in the backup is intact and that you can navigate and extract files if needed. 

Actually verifying the image against the contents of the disk would be problematic because those contents change so much (especially with a full disk image). If you have a specific set of files that you really want to compare against, you could mount the image and use any one of several available file comparison tools to make sure that both the source files and their imaged versions are identical. 

No, that is a convoluted way to do this, you shouldn't have to restore to find out if the image is actually good or not.

For example, when done with the backup, it would auto-mount the TI volume, and run a compare.
Again, this would be a option, for those of that need to be 100% sure everything went OK.

As for a active volume, that is a different story, and I would expect differences on some files, but not all files.
Again, for people that need to know if everything went OK, TI could just output a log file stating was was the same, and what wasn't.

Sorry, SparkyOne, but that is the way this and most other backup products that I have used all work.

For an non-active volume then potentially you could mount the .TIB image yourself as a drive letter then run a file/folder comparison or synchronisation utility to confirm that both are identical, but this would never work for an active volume where there are large volumes of changing files continuously.

Just a restatement, we are all users here - if you feel strongly about this subject then use the Feedback tool provided in the app GUI Help section, or open a support case directly with Acronis about this.  We can only talk about this here - Acronis own the design and code involved.

Ditto to all the responders. Never seen this requested feature in any backup product, home or enterprise. Some do allow you to virtually mount the backups, but still a manual process to actually test it out and price points generally determine the specific features available.  Any backup plan should include validation with random restore types from time to time. 

I found this thread after two failed Acronis restores on a fresh Windows 10 install with no hardware issues.

The statement "you shouldn't have to restore to find out if the image is actually good or not." has proved to be a purchase killer in our case, as every restore of the primary partition has failed and made the drive unrecoverable by windows troubleshooting and necessitating a boot from the Windows DVD and reformatting the drive and starting over.  It takes 4-5 hours to reinstall all the work software we use and has made us leave Acronis in the past. We build computers here so are certain there are not hardware issues.  Support has tried to be helpful and that's commendable. However, it does not address this issue.

James, welcome to these User Forums.

every restore of the primary partition has failed and made the drive unrecoverable by windows troubleshooting and necessitating a boot from the Windows DVD and reformatting the drive and starting over. 

Sorry to read of your failed restores but insufficient information to be able to advise you on why these restore failures may have happened.  If you would like to take this restore issue further, then please use the 'Create New Topic' button in this forum if you are using ATI 2017, or else in the relevant forum for the version of ATI you are using.  There are separate forums for ATI 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019.

Sorry to bump an old thread. I'm just going to add my two cents for archival purposes.  It goes without saying, Like-minded people tend to support each other, especially in forums.

Older versions of Acronis eg. 2010, 2011 had the ability to "Validate" a backup. That feature has been removed in more recent versions. I agree validating a backup is a must and crucial without having to go through additional effort such as a virtual environment.

Acronis seems to be complicating the use of their image application. Like Google, they can't leave well-enough alone and keep messing with things. For example, I'm on an Acronis 2019 trial. It's Linux legacy USB recovery software is flaky on all my Windows 7 systems. One some more advanced builds, the Recovery USB software hangs after line pops up showing Acronis is loading. Other times it freezes in the middle of the application when you're trying to select an image to browse.

I'm sticking with my older versions of Acronis and I'll be looking for other backup software to use instead.  

Older versions of Acronis eg. 2010, 2011 had the ability to "Validate" a backup. That feature has been removed in more recent versions.

Sorry, but not true for recent versions!  Validation is still very much available in all versions, including when using the bootable rescue media.  It is also available via Windows / File Explorer in the right-click context menu for any .tib backup file.

Validation is important for ensuring the integrity of data in the files both at the time of creation and later, and this is actioned by the storing of checksum values throughout the image file, then checking and recalculating those values when a validation is performed.  The second part of validation is to ensure that all files belonging to a backup version chain are available, which is very important for when Incremental backup files are involved.