Skip to main content

Updated from True Image 2014 to 2019. Backup fails.

Thread needs solution

So, this is a bit of a long story I'll try to make short.

I've used True Image 2014 for a long time now. I have an HP laptop that is relatively new. 2014 did full hard drive backups OK but with a few disk read errors. The disk read errors prompted me to contact HP, do some tests and discover that my hard drive is probably failing (it failed a short Disk Self Test). So, I'm preparing to return the laptop to HP for repair. When it comes back, it will not have my data on it so I want to make sure I have a good image backup that I can restore when I get it back.

So I decided maybe I ought to have the latest version. I uninstalled 2014, downloaded a 2019 trial and installed it. Ran a full backup and it failed. I remembered I had to tick the "Ignore bad sectors" box in Advanced Settings, did that, ran it again and it failed.

2019 logs are very hard to read. So I'm having a hard time determining why it failed.

I need to know if I can get this to work, if I need to just go back to 2014 to get a good enough backup before I send this laptop off, or if I need to find a different way to do a full backup so I keep data.

I think I've attached the recent log from 2019 and an old log from 2014 that contains the sector errors but still finished.

 

P.S. I'm trying to put this into the True Image 2019 forum but I have no clue how to do that.

Attachment Size
log_0.txt 7.15 KB
log2.txt 0 bytes
0 Users found this helpful

2014 used the default Snapapi method for backups. 2015 and newer use Microsoft VSS as the default backup method (in windows, winpe and WinRE).

If it is failing due to bad sectors, you have a couple options.

1. I'd recommend an offline backup with rescue media over a Windows backup if your planning on restoring to a new disk. The more you use the existing disk, the more likely it will continue to degrade.

Remember, once the disk starts failing, corruption of data is more likely or possible. Even if you can backup now, doesn't mean that restoring that backup won't bring that corruption back with it.

2. If you use the default Linux rescue media, it will be a Snapapi backup. This is fine for offline windows. It's usually fine for online windows too, but may not backup databases correctly, hence why it is better to use offline.

If you use WinRE or Winpe, it will use VSS as well, but since it will be an offline backup, wont offer much variation over snapapi. However it does offer better driver support and compatibility for newer systems.

3. If the drive is failing, the backup nay require a sector by sector backup to complete. These are slower and take more space since it backs up the entire drive, including the currently unused space.

Try with the rescue media without sector by sector first and hope it completes. If not, then try sector by sector.

Personally, I would take 2 offline backups if possible in this case. One with winpe/WinRE rescue media as a regular backup and one with Linux media as a sector by sector backup. Just gives you different options, just in case. Either should be fine as long as they complete, assuming the data in the backup is not corrupted and going to be an issue down the road.

 

OK, so the SnapAPI vs VSS makes sense. Thanks.

I'm not really worried about losing data. I have a good True Image 2014 full backup that ran last night that I'm pretty sure I can draw from if I need to. I also have Carbonite Online backup.

I really would just like to get an image of the partitions I need to restore so that I can just dump them back onto the new drive when it comes back to me, instead of setting up Windows, doing endless updates, installing all the software I use again, recovering all the data again, etc, etc, etc.

Will the Linux based boot image let me use at least a wired network? The only large data storage I have is on my network. Wireless would be nice but that is a lot to expect.