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Orico 6299 drives fail with Acronis 2019 and 2015

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Looks like Vantec NexStar and Sabrent dual drive USB 3.0 "Toaster Ovens" for external hard drives are OK with Acronis TrueImage 2019. (Windows 10 -- Dec. 2018 update, fully patched -- which is maybe the issue.)

I have two  Orico(6299) drives -- both fail on a fast AMD 8350 processor system with ASUS motherboard.

There goes another $60 CDN to change to Vantec or Sabrent.n. (One Orico does work on the laptop (but not the Desktop) it seems.)

The drives previously worked but the latest upgrades (Dec 2018) plus various driver upgrades did them in. 

The HD in use is a WD40EZRZ.

I checked all the USB hubs and made sure that all the "Power Saving" was turned off. I also made sure that the USB Selective Suspend was disabled in Advanced Power Settings.

The Drive was checked to make sure that it was set to "Quick Remove".

I read several other threads on similar problems -- before anyone offers advice.

 

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David, thanks for sharing your findings here.

Just curious, but what confirmation is it that these drives failed due to Acronis 2015/2019?  If you plug them into other machines do they still work?  If you remove Acronis on these particular machines, do they then begin to work again?  What type of connector to these caddy's use and if using USB, is one port enough to provide power (spinning drives pull alot more than SSD's and 2 drives pull more than 1).  

I've used all kinds of hard drive caddy's and adapters and like everything else, not all hardware is created equal.  Cables and connectors (on the hardware side and/or the pc side) can be flaky too. Had a Sabrent tool-less usb 3.0 adapter that worked like a champ for years, and then even though the light was on and the drive would spin, it just didn't work anymore.  Popped it into a new adapter and the drive was immediately recognized.  I have another 1TB Seagate portable drive with mini-usb 3.0 adapter and if you brief on it, the usb 3.0 cable that connects to the drives case disconnects even though it appears to be a solid connection.  I don't know what the issue is here exactly, but seems like without more troubleshooting or something to concretely show that Acronis somehow rendered the adapter unusable, is hard to swallow.  But if it is, then bring something to substantiate it and I'll give credit where credit is do and back you 100%.

I tried to find that # on the Orico website and couldn't find them there - maybe pulled for some reason or has a different sku #? I don't think this is the caddy you're referring too either, but it was the only hit on 6299

http://my.orico.cc/goods.php?id=6299

 

 

OK a bit at a time.

The drives work fine.

I have two Orico Caddies (2 Drive) a Sabrent and a Vantec (2 drive units). Both have done full backups on a fast AMD 8350 Processor machine.

All units have power supplies -- take power out of the equation.

Both Orico Caddies fail on the same machine. The Vantec works.

The Sabrent is working on another machine with the same motherboard and Windows 10 fully patched.

Copying files to the drive work etc. Reading files is fine etc.

Only the Acronis fails -- or so it seems. I gather it is due to how hard it works the drive.

I have three (3) WD40EZRZ 4TB drives and one Green WD 3TB drive in use.

As I pointed out the Orico works on a HP Pavillion (AMD A10 Processor) laptop (so far) -- but I did not yet do a full backup - just the incremental backups.

The testing occurred over a period of about a week where incremental and various hardware configurations were tested -- including ensuring that the machines were not shutting off USB power etc.

Not mentioned above is that I also plugged the USB 3 Cable into a USB 2.0 port. I also changed cables.

I did not say that Acronis is entirely at fault. The problems occur since the Dec 2018 Windows upgrade -- note that I said so above. Note that I also point out various driver upgrades.

My trade and training is as a computer designer (hardware and software). I have a few decades of experience in design and troubleshooting so I'm pretty confident in my abilities to not get bamboozled.

Perhaps that can answer a few questions.

David,

Can you tell us just how the drives fail?  Are you saying that True Image will not backup to them yet you can use Windows copy function to write to the drives?

David,

Thank you for sharing this information. I have been considering buying an Orico USB drive enclosure that handles 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives. Now I know not to trust Orico. I know you have an older unit and that doesn't necessarily mean newer units don't work, but why take the chance.

David, thanks for the additional info.  

Regarding the current situation, I'm also curious how the drives are failing too?  Do they just not get detected in Windows, or do they show up in disk management but not getting a drive letter automatically?  Or, if you put them in another caddy, is the drive corrupted or is the data accessible then?

When I upgraded to 1809 a few weeks ago, some of my external drives would not show up in File explorer, but were showing up in Disk Management.  They just weren't getting a drive letter automatically anymore.  It was random too  as some drives would and others would not.  I had to use an admin command prompt using right-click and "run as administrator" and reset the automount command in diskpart and then they all started mounting with a drive letter again.  No idea why, but it was an easy fix in that case.  If the drives just don't show up in disk management, well, that's likely more of a hardware issue (maybe driver), but wanted to pass along in case your situation could be similar.

diskpart

automount (will show you if it is enabled or disabled)

automount enable (disable and then enable, even if it is set to enable currently if the drives are not getting a volume letter automatically

exit

The other thing I'm wondering is if the caddy somehow changes the drive information that the OS sees because it is being swapped on different USB ports, or maybe just something the internal controller of the device does?  If Windows sees the drives, but Acronis can't, it may just be a matter of re-selecting your target for backup and the destination for the backup files to be written to in the backup script since those are hard coded in the script an may have changed after the major update was applied.  The major update can move partitions around if it needs to create a larger recovery environment and this can change the disk and/or partition signatures which would require you to re-select the target and/or destination in your backup scripts again.

And well, if it's none of those, then I appreciate the info on the brand.  I've mostly stuck to Sabrent for my dual caddy clone dock and external usb cases and have been mostly happy with them.

All good questions few answers.

The drives work -- the backup fails.

The drives give Read/Write errors or the Caddy turns off the power shuts down and turns off the blue light.

Sometimes the backup just hangs with the power on. Usually, the drive is then inaccessible -- sometimes not.

Turning the drive back on will sometimes restart the backup for a while -- but mostly not.

I'm banking on an issue with the USB 3.0 interface/controller chip/USB to SATA bridge -- somewhere.

I have the skills and equipment to troubleshoot the unit -- but I have a project to deliver. Maybe next decade...

 

Note that I quoted a SPECIFIC MODEL of Orico (6299) that's failing -- I have no ideas of what's happening with other models.

If other people are having similar problems hopefully Acronis will be made aware.

 

Roger that. There are some free backup tools out there too.  Wonder if the dock would behave similarly under similar stress from another product or not where it is receiving large, single file writes of compressed data and possibly failing from stress or heat?  If you do test, would be interesting to hear the results, but life and time are precious so understand if it's not possible.

David,

Is the Orico drive Caddy connected on a continuous basis to the computer?  If you open Device Manager and expand Disk Drives do you see the Caddy?  If you select the Caddy you will notice a red X appear in the Disk Management menu bar.  That X will allow you to uninstall the device.  If you uninstall the Caddy, then disconnect the USB cable, then shutdown the computer,  power the computer back on, then after Windows loads plugin the USB cable and let Windows discover the drive and install it, does that correct your issue?

Some further information:

1. You need to make sure that the drive and the USB interfaces do not have power management turned on.

2. The PC must be in High-Performance mode. (NOT Balanced mode)

3. In the Power Options, advanced settings, make sure that no drives can turn off.

 

Then, and only then, will the Orico 6299 stay awake and do a complete backup.

Presumably doing an occasional wakeup call to the backup drive during the long sessions of no backup drive activity might resolve this issue.

 

Already thought of updating disk drivers etc. That was no help.

The Disk Caddy (Toaster Oven) does not appear as a device -- there is no driver. You only see the USB drive(s).

 

I have been through two full drive backups and several incremental backups with those settings.

hth

 

Sounds like you found a fix.  Power Management settings can be troublesome with some devices and it appears yours is one of them.

I purchased the Orico 6299 in May 2017 and had it running 24/7 on my laptop for 1 1/2 years with no problems. Six months ago I started having problems cloning drives, both installed in the Orico docking station, and using TI 2019 rescue usb media . After cloning with Acronis 2019, neither would boot when installed in laptop. I eventually realized that I could restore just the EFI partition in the drives and they would boot.  It took 4-5 more failures before I figured out it was the Orico, and not windows or True Image or cables causing this. I purchased an WEme USB 3 Dual drive dock and all has been well for the last 6 months. 

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William, thank you for sharing your experience, which will be of value for users in a similar situation! 

BTW -- I believe it is the drives "going to sleep" which may NOT be a power management issue, Rather an OS or Program issue.